Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme

Snowy Mountain Scheme
Map of Snowy Mountains Scheme
Country	Australia
Location	Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales
Coordinates	36°07′S 148°36′E / 36.12°S 148.6°E / -36.12; 148.6Coordinates: 36°07′S 148°36′E / 36.12°S 148.6°E / -36.12; 148.6
Purpose	Hydroelectricity and irrigation project
Status	Operational
Construction began	17 October 1949 (1949-10-17)
Opening date	21 October 1972 (1972-10-21)
Construction cost	A$820 million
Operator(s)	Snowy Hydro Limited

The Snowy Mountains scheme or Snowy scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. The Scheme consists of sixteen major dams; seven power stations; two pumping stations; and 225 kilometres (140 mi) of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts that were constructed between 1949 and 1974. The Scheme was completed under the supervision of Chief Engineer, Sir William Hudson and is the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia.

The water of the Snowy River and some of its tributaries, much of which formerly flowed southeast onto the river flats of East Gippsland, and into Bass Strait of the Tasman sea, is captured at high elevations and diverted inland to the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers irrigation areas, through two major tunnel systems driven through the Continental Divide of the Snowy Mountains, known in Australia as the Great Dividing Range. The water falls 800 metres (2,600 ft) and travels through large hydro-electric power stations which generate peak-load power for the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria.

In 2016, the Snowy Mountains Scheme was added to the Australian National Heritage List.

Since the 1830s, both the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers have been subject to development and control to meet water supply and irrigation needs. By contrast, the Snowy River, that rises in the Australian Alps and flows through mountainous and practically uninhabited country until debouching onto the river flats of East Gippsland, had never been controlled in any way, either for the production of power or for irrigation, and a great proportion of its waters flowed into the sea. The Snowy River has the highest source of any in Australia and draws away a large proportion of the waters from the south-eastern New South Wales snowfields, and was considered a means of supplementing the flow of the great inland rivers, a means for developing hydro-electric power, also a source of increasing agricultural production in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys.