The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was
one of the largest engineering ever undertaken in the world. It is the most complex, multi-purpose,
multi-reservoir hydro scheme in the world with 80 kilometres of aqueducts, 140
kilometres of tunnels, 16 large dams and seven power stations, two of which are
underground. The project commenced under
an Act of Federal Parliament in October 1949 with the goal of diverting the
Murrumbidgee, Snowy and Tumut Rivers in south western NSW to provide irrigation
water for the western side of the Great Dividing Range, and in the process
generate hydro-electric power.
 |
Romas Genys (left) Ron Cesna (right) with Italian
electrician (kneeling)
Brazaitis Kristina (2006) Lithuanian Papers No.20 2006 p41-46 |
In 1949 many migrants with engineering or
construction skills and experience in working alpine conditions were targeted
for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.
One hundred thousand people worked on the
Scheme and 121 lost their lives in industrial accidents. Those workers were
Australian-born, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, British, Polish and
Yugoslav. Most migrant workers on the
Scheme arrived under assisted migration schemes.
Of the 100 000 workers, there were
approximately 200 Lithuanians. The Lithuanians
were often employed as skilled tradesmen and in most cases as First Class
miners. Most worked for Snowy Mountains
Hydro Electric Authority (SMHEA) and
were involved in the excavations of the Eucumbene tunnel, T2 Power station, the
Headrace and Tailrace tunnels, the shaft and the access tunnel to the Power
Station. (Brazaitis, 2006). Many other Lithuanians were employed by the
Norwegian firm, Selmer Engineering.
The work was hard and the conditions were
tough. Because ninety-eight per cent of
the Scheme was underground, there was a lot of tunnelling, often through solid
granite rock. Work in the tunnels was dirty, wet, noisy, smelly and dangerous. Most worked as miners, dug tunnels, blasting
rocks, laying pipes, others drove bulldozers and cooked in the company’s
canteen.
Living conditions were also hard in the
camps and towns built in the mountains to house the workers and their families.
Often these dwellings were not suited to
the freezing conditions. They were cold and the water would freeze in the
pipes. When the workers’ wives came to join them in the townships, these women
had to work hard to overcome the hardships and establish communities in the
strange new wilderness environment. When
work in one area was completed, the dwellings were dismantled and moved to
another area, so very little remains of these towns today.
A working week was six days a week. 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.
The Lithuanian migrants who accepted work
on the Snowy Mountain Scheme were both married and single men who had completed
their two year compulsory work contract with the Australian government. The high wages for unskilled manual labour
attracted men.
In 1952 a small group of Lithuanian workers
met in the cafeteria of the Island Bend Camp.
The men had come from work camps located at Guthega, Addit, Surge Tank,
Munyng and Island Bend of found the Guthega-Snowy Mountains Lithuanian Elderate
(Seniūnija). They elected Albertas Alyta as their alderman. The community formed a basketball team and
several chess teams, collected money monthly to send to countrymen still living
in refugee camps in Western Europe. They
wrote articles and essays to fill one complete edition of the national paper Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven). In 1953 they donated £21 to the Greek
Earthquake appeal.
The workers stayed from a year
onwards. By 1955 the number of jobs was
decreasing, and at that time the Lithuanian Elderate was dissolved.
Former Lithuanian miner Ronaldas Česna wrote
a memoir about his time as a Snowy miner.
He also compiled a list of Lithuanians he knew had worked on the
scheme. His list contains over 200 hundred
names, while officially there were 185 Lithuanians.
Ronaldas
worked for the Norwegian company Selmer Engineering
Company, in the Surge tank Guthega tunnel camp in 1953. It was a dangerous job in the Surge tank
chamber shaft tunnels. The tunnels were
old and only the experienced miners could work them. Ronaldas likens the Snowy Mountain to the
‘Wild West’ especially on the weekends after pay day.
Several Lithuanians were among those who
created a world record tunnel excavation.
A medal was awarded for the record for hard-rock tunnel-drilling on 16 March 1963. The Australian company Thiess, drilled 165
metres in a six-day week in the Snowy-Geehi tunnel. Lithuanian Romualdas Genys was amongst those
awarded with a medal.
Throughout the project, construction
contracts were awarded to overseas and Australian companies. The American firm Kaiser-Walsh-Perini-Raymond
(Kaiser) revolutionised engineering practice in Australia. It consistently broke tunnelling records and
completed projects ahead of schedule.
In 1958 Thiess Brothers became the first
Australian company to win a major contract
on the Snowy. By the time construction was completed in 1974, Thiess had built
a quarter of the entire scheme.
Fourteen major contractors and consortiums
were engaged on the project. These included French and US companies as well as
Australian. Thiess Bros Pty Ltd, Australia, had the biggest contract.
