Snowy Mountains Scheme

The Snowy Mountains Scheme is a massive hydroelectricity and irrigation complex located in southeastern Australia. Built on the continental divide of the Snowy Mountains range between 1949 and 1972, the scheme is composed of sixteen dams, nine power stations, two pumping stations and approximately 225 kilometres of tunnels, aqueducts and pipelines. Construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme was overseen by Chief Engineer Sir William Hudson, who provided the necessary manpower for the project by bringing together a large workforce that included migrants from more than thirty nations around the globe. Upon its completion, the scheme was recognised as one of the world’s great engineering wonders. Functionally, the Snowy Mountains Scheme produced an average of 4,500 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy every year. Even more remarkably, this accounts for about 32 per cent of all renewable energy used in eastern Australia. The scheme remains one of Australia’s most important sources of electricity and irrigation water.

Background

The historical roots of the Snowy Mountains Scheme are closely tied to Australia’s reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of World War II (1939 – 1945). Reconstruction offered Australia the opportunity to improve its standing on the global stage through social, economic and political reform. To that end, the Australian government swiftly embarked on an effort to embrace progress and modernisation, which helped to increase Australia’s independence. The government also moved to promote Australia’s industrialisation by shifting its economic focus away from agriculture and toward manufacturing. This, in turn, increased the need for a more reliable power supply.

Australia’s pre-war power supply was far too limited to support the country’s ambitious industrial plans. The sudden and dramatic increase in demand for electricity in the early post-war years resulted in a series of damaging power outages. This left the Australian government desperate to find alternative ways to meet the country’s growing energy needs. Until then, most of Australia’s electricity was generated by coal-fired steam turbines. While this approach was sufficient before the war, the existing power supply system simply could not keep up with demand. One possible alternative to coal power was hydroelectric energy generation. The history of hydroelectricity in Australia began when the nation’s first hydroelectric plant was built in Tasmania in 1916. The subsequent construction of a 100-kilometre high-voltage transmission line stretching to Hobart proved that it was possible to transmit power over long distances—a discovery that eventually allowed hydroelectric power to be the perfect solution to Australia’s pressing energy problem.

As Australia turned its attention to hydroelectric power, the next challenge was finding the best locations for hydroelectric plants. Located in the Australian state of New South Wales, the Snowy River long held the interest of those seeking to make use of its waters for practical purposes. As early as the 1880s, experts agreed that the Snowy River’s strong current had great potential if the river was not allowed to empty into the sea as it did. Given a means of reversing its flow, it was possible for the river to irrigate a large amount of dry farmland and help satisfy Australia’s agricultural needs. Years later, it also had the potential to meet the country’s energy needs.

Overview

The movement to construct a largescale hydroelectric operation on the Snowy River officially began with the publication of a 1937 government report on the subject in which a British engineering firm recommended the river as the ideal site for such a project. A formal scheme to make use of the river for irrigation and power generation followed in 1944. The project was stalled for several years because of disagreements between New South Wales and Victoria, the two states through which the Snowy River flowed. These disagreements persisted until the government classified the project as a matter of national security. The project finally moved forward with the passage of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Power Act 1949 and the formation of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority (SMHEA).

The scheme’s final design was to be composed of separate northern and southern projects. The northern project would divert water from the Eucumbene, Murrumbidgee and Tooma rivers into the Tumut River for use in turning turbines located in the Tumut Valley. It would then flow into the Murrumbidgee, where it could be used for irrigation purposes. The southern project would divert water from the Snowy River into the Murray River, where it could be used for power generation. The southern project also called for the construction of a dam at the lower end of the Snowy River.

Work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme began on 17 October 1949. Construction was overseen by Chief Engineer William Hudson. Of all Hudson’s contributions to the project, perhaps the most important was his plan for providing the necessary labour to get the job done. At the time, Australia’s labour capacity was far too low to take on a project as large and ambitious as the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Recognising this, Hudson recruited a massive workforce made up of qualified people living in European refugee resettlement camps. From start to finish, more than one hundred thousand people from more than thirty countries worked to bring the scheme to completion. In addition to human labour, the scheme project was also aided by the use of Snowcom, the first transistorised computer in Australia. Equipped with a drum memory that offered only about 8,000 bytes of storage space, the University of Sydney-built Snowcom performed intricate engineering and design calculations. Then viewed as a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art piece of technology, Snowcom made it possible for engineers to finish work on the scheme ahead of schedule and well within budget.

Once completed in 1972, the Snowy Mountains Scheme was a complex system of dams, power stations and pumping stations connected through an equally complicated network of tunnels, aqueducts and pipelines. As remarkable as the scheme was as an engineering marvel, its functional output was even more impressive. Under normal operating circumstances, the scheme could generate about 4,500 gigawatt-hours of electricity and provide more than 2,300 gigalitres of water for irrigation every year. Thanks to a number of updates over the years, the Snowy Mountains Scheme remains an essential part of Australia’s energy infrastructure that still provides approximately 32 per cent of the country’s renewable energy. In recognition of its cultural significance, the scheme was placed on the Australian National Heritage List in 2016.

Bibliography

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“Is the Snowy Mountains Scheme the Achievement of Coalition or Labor?” ABC News, 3 Nov. 2019, www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-04/is-snowy-mountains-scheme-the-achievement-of-labor-or-coalition/11659222. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

Sheedy, Chris. “How the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme Helped Shape Australia.” Create, 20 Sept. 2019, www.createdigital.org.au/snowy-mountains-hydro-scheme-helped-shape-australia. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

“Snowy Mountains Hydro.” National Museum Australia, 2020, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/snowy-mountains-hydro. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

“Snowy Mountains Scheme.” Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2020, www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/snowy-mountains-scheme. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

“Snowy Mountains Scheme: Australia’s Largest Hydro-scheme.” Discover Murray, 2020, www.murrayriver.com.au/about-the-murray/snowy-mountains-scheme. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

Withers, Nicholas. “50 Years of Engineering – 1974: Snowy Mountains Scheme.” NES Fircroft, 3 Feb. 2020, www.fircroft.com/blogs/50-years-of-engineering-1974-snowy-mountains-scheme-03431722638. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

Wright, Tony. “The Snowy Hydro Scheme: 70 Years Old and Still Never Fails to Surprise.” Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Oct. 2019, www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-snowy-hydro-scheme-70-years-old-and-still-never-fails-to-surprise-20191016-p531d8.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.