Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

provided by

This black-and-white clip shows the early stages (1954–59) of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme project, which diverted water from Tumut Pond in the Snowy Mountains to a power station at Happy Valley. It shows a bulldozer pulling a sled carrying construction workers, stores and materials. The bulldozer forges a track through rugged terrain to Happy Valley, and an engineer on horseback leads the convoy. The clip also shows a team of 'diamond drillers’ extracting rock core samples from the mountainside for testing. The final shot shows the site of the Happy Valley Power Station. The clip is accompanied by lively orchestral music.

Educational value points

• The Snowy Mountains Scheme, part of which is documented here, was built between 1949 and 1974. The integrated water and hydro-electric power project was a major post-Second World War construction and engineering feat, consisting of 16 large dams, seven power stations and a pumping station. To divert water from the Snowy Mountains for use in power generation and irrigation, 145 km of tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts were constructed. The Scheme cost $820 million.

• The part of the Scheme shown in the clip (Snowy–Tumut) diverts water through an underground tunnel from Lake Eucumbene to the Tumut Pond Reservoir and then into the Tooma and Tumut Rivers. The water then passes through a succession of power stations located in Tumut Gorge, including the Happy Valley Power Station, before being released back into the Tumut River and then into the Murrumbidgee River.

• The clip highlights the extent of the operation. A workforce of more than 100,000 people from 32 countries was employed on the Scheme over a 25-year period. Seventy per cent of these workers were either immigrants or temporary residents from countries such as the USA and Norway. The Scheme is credited with fostering multiculturalism in Australia, as people of different nationalities worked and lived alongside each other.

• Australia suffered from a major skills shortage in the period after the Second World War. As a result of the shortage of workers with scientific and engineering skills, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority (SMA) ran a campaign both in Australia and overseas to recruit workers who were skilled in geology, surveying, tunnelling, hydrology and transmission-line installation. Large firms from Norway, France and the USA contracted to work on the Scheme were expected to bring up to 90 per cent of their workforce from overseas.

• 'Diamond drillers’ are shown using a drill with a diamond-tipped 'bit’ to bore holes deep into the mountain to extract rock cores. Engineers analysed the cores to determine the suitability of the rock for tunnel construction. Most of the diamond drillers came from the USA.

• At the time it was constructed, the Scheme was the largest single engineering project ever undertaken in Australia and required a huge stock of modern heavy plant equipment and vehicles. The SMA established a fleet of heavy transport vehicles, including bulldozers, that moved massive amounts of rock and earth and cleared the way for roads. The fleet also included aircraft, utilities, snow ploughs and ‘snow cats’.

• The clip includes footage of an engineer on horseback leading a bulldozer. In the early stages of the Scheme, prior to the construction of roads, pack horses were used to access remote areas. Geologists, hydrologists and surveyors used horses to conduct reconnaissance surveys, but horses also carried materials, equipment and supplies over difficult terrain to those working in isolated areas.

• The Scheme spans an area of 5,124 sq km, most of which is in the Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, and the clip depicts aspects of the environment in the area. The Scheme has had serious environmental consequences for local ecosystems. After construction was completed, the SMA undertook erosion control and rehabilitated construction sites by planting non-native grasses, willows and poplars to prevent land slippage. Today, the SMA is reintroducing native plant species.