How did the Snowy Mountains scheme affect immigration?
Creating a multicultural Australia The Snowy Mountains Scheme provided opportunities for thousands of migrants to start a new life in Australia after the devastation of World War Two. In the post World War Two period, Australia was asked by the United Nations to accept 100,000 displaced Europeans.
What type of work did they do in the Snowy Mountain Scheme?
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was one of the most complex engineering projects in the world. Between 1949 and 1974 the workforce built seven power stations, 16 dams, 80 kilometres of aqueducts and 145 kilometres of tunnels as well as 1600 kilometres of roads and train tracks.
How did the Snowy Mountain Scheme Work?
Snowy Mountains Scheme The Scheme collects and stores the water that would normally flow east to the coast and diverts it through trans-mountain tunnels and power stations. The water is then released into the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers for irrigation.
What was the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme?
The Snowy Mountains Scheme or Snowy scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. The Scheme consists of sixteen major dams; nine power stations; two pumping stations; and 225 kilometres (140 mi) of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts that were constructed between 1949 and 1974.
How many immigrants worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme?
100,000 people
Of the 100,000 people who worked on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme between 1949 and 1974, more than 65 per cent were migrants from over 30 countries. Most of the workers were men, having left wives and children back home to come to work on the Snowy.
What impact did the Snowy Mountain Scheme have on Australia?
Who owns the Snowy hydro scheme?
The Commonwealth Government
Snowy Hydro is a fully Australian-owned company, incorporated under the Corporations Act (Cth). It is governed by an independent Board of Directors, and operates on a strictly commercial basis. The Commonwealth Government is the sole shareholder of Snowy Hydro Ltd, from which it receives an annual dividend.
What was the purpose of the Snowy Mountain project?
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.
How did the Snowy Mountain Scheme changed Australia?
What is a hydroelectric scheme?
To put simply, a hydropower scheme harnesses the potential from running water and converts it into energy. Placing such systems in the run of a river has the potential to completely power homes, the faster the water flows, the more potential it has, which in turn means more electricity that can be generated.
What was populate or perish?
The Australian Government also sent officers to select people from the camps to migrate to Australia. The slogan ‘populate or perish’ was used to help the Australian population to accept this large intake of migrants.