When construction was completed, workers dispersed across Australia. The Scheme drove a wave of engineering innovation. It helped ensure the Scheme was completed on-time and within budget, by completing engineering and design calculations. Safety practices on the Scheme were well ahead of comparable projects around the world at that time. For example, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority made wearing of seatbelts compulsory in all vehicles in , a decade before the rest of the country.
Its purpose was to trade electricity generated by the Snowy Scheme in the National Electricity Market. Since then, Snowy Hydro has evolved from a hydro-electricity generator to an integrated energy business, with 16 power stations and the retail businesses Red Energy, Lumo Energy and Direct Connect.
The existing Scheme has been expanded and the company has grown to include the acquisition or development of gas and diesel assets, extending our footprint into Victoria and South Australia.
The Snowy was the catalyst for preparing a new generation of Australian engineers. In the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the Snowy as one of the civil engineering wonders of the world.
Ben Chifley, Australian Dictionary of Biography. The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture. Defining Moments Snowy Mountains Hydro. See our classroom resource. The Snowy remains an important source of power and irrigation water today. Prime Minister Ben Chifley, May Snowy Mountains Hydro live-sketch animation Postwar reconstruction The trauma of the Second World War forced Australia to seriously reconsider its place in the world.
To encourage this, Australia needed to develop a better and more consistent power supply. Federal and state governments were under pressure to find new electricity supplies.
Hydroelectricity was now a viable alternative to coal power. Snowy plan The final proposal, presented in November , consisted of two physically separate projects — one in the north and one in the south of the Snowys. Jennifer Rayner on the Snowy Mountains Scheme Lightbox showing the elevations of dams and generators. Curriculum subjects. Year levels. In our collection. Explore Defining Moments. Gold rushes in New South Wales and Victoria begin. First railway line. Postwar immigration drive.
Founding of BHP. First national park. You may also like. They were cold and the water would freeze in the pipes. When work in one area was completed, the dwellings were dismantled and moved to another area, so very little remains of these towns today.
At any time of the day or night the mess halls were filled with noisy workers sitting at long wooden trestle-tables eating or relaxing after a shift. Following initial problems between Polish and German workers at East Camp in Cooma, all nationalities were mixed in together and this erased nationalistic tensions.
At Wambrook, Walter Hartwig, the German engineer who recruited most of the tradesmen there, was called in to settle a conflict between Germans and Poles. He brought the two groups together and spelt it out in straight terms. We are all new Australians… This in an honourable title which is not to be abused. The nonsense of Europe has no place here. Most of the migrants found themselves in this strange and harsh environment within days of arrival at Sydney or Melbourne. Some men suffered post traumatic stress driven by the war.
Stress on married men with families in Europe had its toll with many men buying out their contract and returning home.
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