Snowy Mountains Tour

These are the only 10 remaining photos from a May 1966 tour of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Sadly the remainder have been lost.

Car parked on verge of calm lake reflecting clouds

Perhaps Lake George, which was 4m deep in 1960 (finding records of the depth is not easy). The old Federal Highway was close to lake level, so this is a possibility for location. Dad's "179" too.

Looking down on major earthworks

I am guessing this is the early construction stages of the Jindabyne Dam. It's about the right time, and shape. This would be taken from somewhere near the new Jindabyne township - the old location is now at the bottom of the lake. The Snowy River would be down there somewhere.

Cloudy sunrise over a township

Sunrise over Cooma from our motel, which was on the top of the hill overlooking town.

Large earthen dam wall with tiny vehicle on top

Eucumbene Dam and a fairly full lake behind it.

Mountainside with rock fill spilling down it

This was taken at "Happy Jack's Pondage", and the rock on the mountainside was from the tunnel running under here from Lake Eucumbene to Tumut Ponds Dam.

Note the cars on the right hand side. The Snowy Mountains Authority ran "car convoy tours", in which visitors would drive their own car behind an SMA guide who would stop at places like this and explain what it did and what part it formed in the scheme. A very useful service; and, of course, they provided access to places not otherwise accessable!

Hexagonal concrete structure with cylindrical upper part in river bed.

This is the water control structure at Happy Jacks Pondage, which also has a small dam wall, from which this photo was taken. This is to collect additional water and feed it to Lake Eucumbene or Tumut Ponds Dam.

Underground hall with generators

This is either Tumut-1 or Tumut-2 power station. They are both underground. This photo was seriously underexposed, and while some detail has been recovered, there's not much to see. This is one of the places that the SMA guide had access to for our visits.

The generators (alternators, actually) are just right of centre; there are four, and they each have a light in them - that's the orange blob you can see. The orange lights on the right hand side are control panels for each alternator.

Electrical control room; green panelsat rear with meters; switches on operator panel in foreground

The control room for the power station. I expect this is not normally used, as the stations are likely remotely controlled from a central facility. But it could be needed, for instance, in the event of a communications failure.

Low motel building atop hill, somewhat hidden by trees

The motel where we stayed - "The Motel On The Hill", I think. An appropriate name.

Dark mountains with an area of brown pasture bathed in late afternoon sun

Looks like a cold night is rapidly descending upon this area. I feel cold just looking at it!

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