australia.gov.au : Snowy Mountains Scheme
Organization : Australian Government
Service Name : Snowy Mountains Scheme
Country: Australia
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Website : https://www.australia.gov.au/
Snowy Mountains Scheme :
A photograph of the Jounama Dam.Jounama Dam. Image courtesy of the Snowy Hydro.
Related: Department of Human Service Pension Bonus Scheme Australia : www.statusin.org/25916.html
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme is by far the largest engineering project ever undertaken in Australia. It is also one of the largest and most complex hydro-electric schemes in the world.
The system’s construction is seen by many as a defining point in Australia’s history, and an important symbol of Australia’s identity as an independent, multicultural and resourceful country.
The Snowy Scheme is also considered economically important for Australia. It supplies vital water to the farming industries of inland New South Wales and Victoria. The system’s power stations also produce up to ten per cent of all electricity needs for New South Wales.
What is the Snowy Mountains Scheme?:
The Snowy Mountains Scheme consists of:
** sixteen major dams
** seven power stations
** a pumping station
** 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts.
This makes it one of the most complex hydro-electric schemes in the world. Only two per cent of the entire construction is visible above the ground.
The entire scheme covers a mountainous area of approximately 5,124 square kilometres in southern New South Wales.
How does the scheme work?:
The purpose of the scheme is to collect water from melting snow and rain in the Snowy Mountains. Where once most of this water used to flow into the Snowy River, it is now diverted through tunnels in the mountains and stored in dams. The water is then used by the power stations to create electricity. Find an overview of how the scheme works on the Snowy Hydro website.
The water then flows mainly into the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. These rivers are important for irrigation of farms and for household water for communities in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. A small proportion of the water flows into the Snowy River.
How the scheme was built:
The project:
Work on the system started in 1949 and was finished in 1974, taking twenty-five years to complete.
The entire project was completed on time and to budget, costing approximately A$820 million.
At the launch of the project, the then Prime Minister Ben Chifley presented it as a national milestone – important for the drought relief it would bring to inland Australia, the power it would supply and for the ambitious size of the project.
A photograph of spring snow melting.
Spring snow melting. Image courtesy of the Snowy Hydro.
Innovations of the project:
Because the project was so much bigger and more complex than anything that had been done before, the engineers needed to develop methods that were new to Australia and the world.
Safer and cheaper construction techniques were created and the project set some new standards in occupational health and safety for the time.
The power stations adopted higher outputs of electricity transmission than ever before.
The project used Australia’s first transistorised computer, which was also one of the first in the world. Called ‘Snowcom’, the computer was used from 1960 to 1967, contributing greatly to the efficient and successful completion of the project.