The Snowy Mountains Scheme: Bringing More Water to Australia from On High 

A strange side effect of the Snowy scheme was that Starbucks failed in Australia. So many Greek & Italian immigrants came to work on the Scheme and stayed that the country developed an excellent coffee culture.

As an Australian, this is a much appreciated surprise.

Simon: *Mispronounces towns, rivers, and reservoirs* Me: Strewth mate. Simon: *Counts reservoir capacity in equivalent Sydney harbours* Me: Fair dimkum, carry on then.

Non Australians pronouncing Australian town names is always hilarious to us. Just so you all know.

My father, John R. Bower, was one of the engineers who designed the turbines used in the hydro scheme. They were massive and quite new technology for their day. I still have a clipping from the Sydney Morning herald of my dad shaking hands with the Prime minister and the minister in charge of the project. My father was a brilliant man, but he never saw himself in that light, he was a very humble man.

I thought Nimbin is the highest town in Australia 🤔

I'm going to add this to my favourites, and come back to it when I'm feeling crap. Those mispronunciations are giggle-worthy.

Great video. My grandfather from Croatia worked on this.

Can we just get a video of Simon reading a list of Aussie place names.

Simon, You’re very brave to even have a crack at all the Aussie names. Maybe 15% correct. Good on ya!

The Snowy Mountains is significant in my family history. My dad was a chaplain on the Snowy Mountains Scheme in the early 1960s. I have visited several of the reservoirs, dams, power stations and ski resorts in the area. Our family used to have a holiday house a few minutes walk from Lake Eucumbene. I have many happy memories of the Snowy.

I had a great time listening to Simon butcher the names of our rivers 😂 Seriously though, thanks for this one mate!

For those playing at home : Tumut = CHEW - Mutt Eucumbene = YOU- Come- BEAN

I did a report on this in year 5. I had to write a letter n send it a Minister in Canberra. By post, a week later I got a big yellow envelope back with Info about it. Remember when writing letters was a thing. Good times.

My Czech father-in-law was one of the huge number of migrants who worked on this megaproject. 🇨🇿🇦🇺

2118: Australia creates the first "Dyson Sink", a basin designed to capture ALL of the water that falls on the continent.

I visited the Tumut power generation on holidays as a young kid, had awesome viewing platform above the turbines. Big as a football field and with a clock bigger than Big Ben hanging on the far wall. All the rock that was excavated was used to help build local roads amongst other uses

Always funny listening to poms mispronouncing our words like Murrumbidgee.🇦🇺🐨🇦🇺

Simon. Can you do a side projects video on the “Great Emu War”. I am sure us Aussie’s would appreciate this ridiculousness on your channels Also the relatively unknown story of the Parkes satellite dish in rural NSW is definitely worth a look considering it’s major importance to the 1969 moon landings

6:30 4.8 million liters. LOL - that's less than two Olympic-size swimming pools. The actual amount is 4.8 TRILLION liters. You are only off by a factor of a million...

My Uncle Jimmy was one of those recruited from the Welsh valleys mining villages to work on the dams. Unfortunately he, and many others, suffered from altitude sickness and had to leave the job. Instead he went to work in mines in Tasmania, met my aunt and settled, eventually, near Melbourne.

Hard not to do the proud Aussie thing. But that would be ignoring the fact that unless we as a nation decide to fully embrace and commit to alternative nuclear/hydro/wind/solar/pumped-storage/battery farms in a sensible multi-technology approach to our future energy needs, our "land of droughts and flooding rains" is pretty much f**ked.

Sadly we'll never see another public project the size of this one again (remembering Snowy 2.0 is tiny in comparison). We privatised 9/10ths of the NBN scheme and it became a wreck. Projects like these today are sold as "too much like socialism" and thus never get up.

“Cries in Australian” It’s MurrUMbidgEE! Edit* There’s a vintage scheme gathering more support that could equal or exceed the Snowy Mountain scheme to solve our water issues. Our north of the country is saturated yearly by a tropical monsoon season. Our south is in constant drought. Capturing this excess water and diverting it through an artificial river system to the south is known as the Bradfield scheme. It’s a mind boggling expensive way to do it, but we are more than a bit desperate at this point.

There is a little museum in Adaminaby (add 'em in a B) which was one of the towns moved to make way for Lake Eucumbene. They show a short film on the making of the scheme. In it there is a scene where a bunch of dignitaries are assembled underground for the last blast completing a tunnel. The blast is so big that it blows all their hats of. Hilarious every time I think of it.

Sitting here as an Aussie with a real feeling of pride watching this one today

"There's too many people" Simon knows

My Wife's parents came here from Europe for the Snowy Mountain scheme. A big win for Australia and a big win for me. Thanks for presenting this matey,

My families transport company was primary transport and earthmoving contractor for the project. This was expanded to include fabrication,mechanical and diesel engineering services and workshops. At the projects peak, a combined total of 200 employees were engaged, with 120 different vehicles onsite, many purpose designed and built for the Snowy Scheme. Unfortunately, little physical property remains, and what there is are now restored museum pieces, or the many thousands of photos in my families archives. Excellent overview.👍👍🇭🇲

Wooo, he finally acknowledged the aussies

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is a project designed as a form of energy storage. Electricity from wind and solar will be used to pump water from lower reservoirs to upper reservoirs to be used when the sun isn't shining, to produce electricity, similar to the way a home system works, with solar collectors and storage batteries in a house. Snowy Hydro does this now to a certain extent, producing electricty during peak usage times and then pumping water back to upper reservoirs using off peak power from coal fired power stations at a cheaper rate. Apart from the mispronunciation of some of the places, rivers and dams, this has been a very good presentation.

Fun fact - Snowy Hydro also works as a huge battery. During off-peak times when power is cheap, Snowy Hydro scheme pumps water from lower reservoirs into higher ones, analogous to charging a battery using cheap electricity. This water is then released back down through the turbines during peak times when power demand is up. Snowy Hydro sells power back to the grid at a significantly higher rate. While I don’t know the quantities, a significant proportion of water diverted by this scheme will do multiple passes through the same turbines.

The most disturbing accidents I remember from a documentary about this are the following. One man fell into some of the quick drying cement used to make the dams up to his waist and died after they tried to amputate his legs without anesthesia in an attempt to free him. Another man slipped while walking besides a small train carrying out debris from the construction of a tunnel and his arm was cut off as he instinctively threw it out to catch himself as he fell. Then apparently in shock he made the bad decision to try and recover his severed arm between the tracks of the moving train and lost the other arm also. The man survived but committed suicide latter.

As an Aussie, I learnt something new about the Snowy Scheme. It would be interesting to see you do a video on CY O'Connor as he engineered the Goldfilds pipeline, taking water from Perth to Kalgoorlie in early 1900s . This is a pipeline that is over 500km.

I suggested this awhile glad I wasn’t the only one

Spectacular Project - Spectacular Mispronunciations But thank you for the Video..

There was a Megaproject in Australia that many Aussie have never heard of, That is the bridge over the Nullarbor Plains, they had to pull it down due to too many Aussies fishing off it....

From an Aussie Thankyou!🙏

Oz recieves little water not because of ANY of the reasons Simon mentioned, but because it has only 1 mountain range, which is not very high and very close to the east coast. There is nothing inland to make the rain precipitate out and no (significant) permanent or semi-permanent snow capped mountains to produce year long melt water.

What I find most interesting about the 2.0 project is how it is funded… The majority of costs is covered by Snowy Hydro themselves who make an absolute killing from energetic storage with the existing infrastructure mentioned in the video. The 2.0 program is not designed to increase water capture, but to increase energy storage capability.

Thanks Simon. I requested this and you did a great job. One tweak though. We are a huge country actually with loads of water. But it’s not always where we need it or when we need it. And thanks for mentioning the cultural diversity as a result of which we have great coffee and spices and many cultural delights to offer visitors when travel resumes

Megaprojects idea: The floating airport of Kansai

Thanks for this video. My grandfather worked on one of the early tunnel constructions. The tunnel nearly killed him. A bolder fell through the chain link safety netting. It glanced off the back of his hard hat and hit him between the shoulders. They didn't expect him to live through the trip down mountain to the nearest hospital. But he was a tough old bird even before he was old. He lived. He spent months in a body cast but, he was able to walk out of the hospital. He has since passed away but my aunt still has that hard hat.

Nice coming across this - Snowy Hydro touched so many people. I live in a small street of 14 houses - two of the original Dutch residents were engineers who came over to work on Snowy Hydro (both named Bob). Last week I visited the Snowy Hydro display centre just outside their head office - and bought a bevy of their Snow, Water, Energy Repeat Tee shirts. My mum told me my uncle was the headmaster of the local school (I guess in the 40s or 50s) and we had a lot of family around Tumut. Just four years ago I led a team of 30 specialist to do Snowy Hydro Business and IT Strategy - and it was a real blast (no pun intended) and a privilege to work on this iconic client (just before Snowy 2.0 came along to make everything really interesting). I got to tour all through the power stations and trading floors and meet all the execs and their key team - and they were a group of really interesting and devoted professionals. Many thanks for sharing this video!

NGL this is the first time I found out that there's...*snow* in Australia. I don't know why I didn't realize before. I mean NZ is practically next door and they get snow.

When you started telling us how big the project is, the Tennessee River Valley Project was the first thing I thought of that would be on a comparable scale. Makes this a truly vast project and a true Megaproject indeed.

I was up at thredbo for snow season recently and stopped at the Snowy Hydro info centre. Ive been to Jindy heaps of times but never actually went! If you find yourself in this neck of the woods i 100% recommend visiting the info centre. You learn sooooo much cool shit. One of my biggest takeaways is the cultural impact the snowy had on our society. I wouldn't have many of my european mateyz if their parents/grandparents didn't have a means to earn some coin when they came down here :)

My mothers other half (now passed away), worked there. He fled Germany in 42, eventually ending up in Australia in 59. Due to his qualifications he ended up as a senior electrician within the power stations.

C.Y O’Connor would be a good bloke to do a biographic episode on and perhaps the Perth to Kalgoorlie Water Pipeline for Megaprojects

Glad to see you covered this one. I was just thinking of suggesting it again when I saw you’d put a vid out. I’m that case can I suggest The Great Ocean Road next time you want to do an Australian video. Might be more Side Projects or Geographics, but it might be mega enough. There’s bound to be a channel somewhere on WhistlerTube for it.

Thanks mate, appreciate this one. My family came here from Italy for this project, and my uncle was one of the miners that died in the elevator shaft accident.

The key feature of Snowey 2.0 in my opinion is that it acts as a pumped hydro electricity store or battery.

Could you do a segment on the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project in Washington state and associated structures, which includes the Grand Coulee Dam.

My grandfather was one of the main engineers on this project. He was a legend.

Very nice video! I'm an Aussie, learned about this in school (in the 70s). One little thing that could have been clearer in the "background" section is that the majority of the precipitation used to run down a couple of steep rivers going straight east. The Snowy Scheme sends the water westwards.

Great video mate, my dad worked in the snowy for about 20 years and we lived in Jindabyne and than moved to Cabramurra.

Simon the Murray flows into the Southern Ocean at Goolwa in South Australia.

Gotta love how Simon says Murrumbidgee haha

There's something about u that makes any subject u report upon thoroughly enjoyable. Your absence the previous channel that we all know u from is obvious but thank God u r still rolling along here & at your other new channels. Of course it goes without saying another accurate, concise & informative presentation. Really great job, thanks Simon

I was an external consultant for Snowy Hydro with their projects - their staff were always friendly and were a great bunch to work with.

Another project to look at with regards to water in Australia is the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfields_Water_Supply_Scheme

Moscow metro would be interesting

Not sure a lot of foreigners actually properly understand how scarce water can be here in Australia. I live in toowoomba, about 200km west of Brisbane. In 2010 the 3 dams in my region were literally almost out of water, like only a couple percent left in them. 10 years worth of drought. Then in early 2011 we had really bad flooding. We got them 10 years worth of rain in a month, all washed straight out to sea. Google them, some of the pictures are amazing to see, especially in toowoomba cus we are 800m above sea level on the side of a mountain range. But 10 years later the whole country was pretty much in drought and it was worse then before. Places like Stanthorpe were getting like 15 trucks a day carting water cus there dams were bone dry empty. That was part of the reason for the bushfires at the start of 2020. We couldn’t fight them fire properly either, we had to save what little water we had and prioritise it to where it was needed most. Drought is our most major natural disaster and it’s really hard to combat.

I love that you look through the comments and take suggestions for new megaprojects here... Even from us little Australians👍

Mega Project suggestions: Benban Solar Park, Aswan High Dam, Bar Lev Line and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

It was worth all the constant harassment, thanks Simon and team. Now, let me find a new Aussie project.... Maybe the Square Kilometer Array?

As a boy I used to spend holidays in Talbingo. I must have taken the tour of Tumut 3 Power Station dozens of times, and swam and fished in the Talbingo Dam. Those rocks were tough on the feet...lol

Thank you so much for finally getting around to this. I have requested this that many times I lost count. :)

The biggest reservoir is only 4800m3? I think that might be a slight error

I remember having to write a school geography essay on this over half a century ago! I got told off for copying big words from the only book the school library had on it. Blowed if I could put it any better than the book did: says I! :)

This was great, I remember suggesting this a while back and I'm glad you got around to it, this thing is a marvel! Australian pride.

Thanks for the effort you put into this presentation, much appreciated and excellent as always!

Can you do a video on the Lock & Dam system in the Mississippi river. How the land was bought from locals so it could be flooded (they couldn't use it for crops or animals anymore) and how it got people back to work after the Great Depression. Thank you.

1:20 - Chapter 1 - Australian water scarcity 2:45 - Chapter 2 - Background 4:20 - Chapter 3 - Construction begins 5:55 - Chapter 4 - Dams 7:30 - Chapter 5 - Power stations 8:50 - Chapter 6 - Impact 10:10 - Chapter 7 - Snowy hydro 2.0 11:00 - Chapter 8 - The schema that built australia

A simpler explanations would be to say that the tunnels take the water flowing from the East and West sides of the Great Dividing Range and send it under the Great Dividing Range into dams on the West and North sides of the range where it is then stored for electric power generation before being released into rivers and irrigation canals flowing into the interior.

As always a great watch, thanks to Simon and his team for great work............

Virginian Railway and Erie Railway Triplexes: The most unusual steam locomotives ever built.

congratulations on getting through to Jounama pondage without pronouncing a single place name correctly. A stunning achievement

Nicely done! Nice to see a video essay done about where I grew up!

I worked in Cabramurra in the late 1970's, it was a wonderful town and visiting all the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric facilities around the region was really interesting. So many tragedies while the Scheme construction phase was pushed through at breakneck pace. Wonderful town, lovely people and a beautiful place to live.

C O R R E C T I O N : At 6:17 the picture is of the Mount Bold reservoir dam on the Onkaparinga River in South Australia. No where near the Snowy Mountains and quite a small dam and reservoir!

A Megaproject idea. Confederation Bridge in eastern canada. It's massive and a "real" mega project? what do you all think?

The scheme has two principal parts: The Snowy-Tumut Development (diverts water to the Murrumbidgee River) and the Snowy-Murray Development (diverts water from the Snowy to the Murray River). I know a lot more than you think about the snowy hydroelectric scheme. I had a passionate about the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme and they took me onto where the general public wouldn't be allowed to go been on the generating floor and under I saw 1 of 6 turbine generator and pump units of Tumut 3.

Been asking for this one for awhile now. Thankyou Simon and the rest of the team.

Well done on pronunciation there Simon 😝🍻

Vulcan jet pleaseeeee I’ve watched all videos and most of your channels.

Thanks Simon - I’ve seen most of your videos but it’s a pleasant surprise to see one on my home region 🤘

My Pop was one of the Draughtsman on the project, lived in Cooma for 15 years whilst working there & raising dad, uncle & aunty

Can you do an episode on the wing suit?

People, please remember: Simon is a youtuber with a nice beard. That is all. He has no formal technical education or expertise whatsoever. All he does is talk. This leads to a lot of errors in things he presents as facts. I blame his researchers and whoever runs this business. They don't even bother to list the sources of their "facts".

Thank you so much for doing an Australian mega build. I love watching and listening to your videos and this brought back all the awe and pride from learning about it at school. And yeah, you mispronounced a few places but that comes with the territory of a lot of Australian places. 👍🏻

Thanks for making the video, I was one of the people asking for this back when the channel only had about 6 uploads, keep up the great content megaprojects team!

It happened!! I did ask a few times. Until you said not to because it annoys you. Edit and you didn't mess to many names up.

Simon you can't say tumut 😂 it's more like chew-met

Wow thank you Simon - great to see this Aussie megaproject

Used to stay at Cabramurra, one of the towns constructed for the workers, if I remember right its somewhere above Tumut 1 Power Station. Used to go skiing at the ski lodge there in winter. Had some private tours down into the power station as well, it was incredible going through the road tunnels and the stations under the mountains.

How cute. Simon thinks that Australians wanted to see the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Really they just wanted to roll around on the floor, sides splitting with laughter as Simon mispronounces Australian place names. While Simon is being ever so serious, Aussies are seeing this as comedy gold. It is a bit like Brits laughing at the way Americans mispronounce British place names, or make valiant (or lame) attempts at sounding out Welsh place names.

I don’t know if it would get views but the UN would be interesting from you guys .

Awesome video. thank you very much for bringing this to the masses. And i also had my father work on this scheme as one of many engineers which is where he met my mother. Keep up the great work and hope to see more.

Nice Vid. As an Aussie it was nice to see a Brit talk about one of our great infrastructure projects. We are proud of it. I learned more in these few minutes about the Snowy Scheme than I have over a life time. Thanks for all the work you put in.