The Snowy Mountains Scheme

SHIRLEY ABICAIR: Ten years ago, a new sound came to the Snowy Mountains. The jeep, the bulldozer, tractors and graders moved in, for this is the site of Australia's most ambitious engineering project, the Snowy Mountain Scheme.

(Rumbling) This is a plan which will turn the melting snows across the ranges into the great river systems of the west. Instead of running to waste, Snowy waters will irrigate Australia's inland.

It's been hard work, demanding tremendous effort from men and machines. Roads have been carved across the ranges, wide gullies baulked by giant dams, entire townships have sprung up in what was once a mountain wilderness.

# JAZZY ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC

Today, the Man from Snowy River is not only an Australian. He could be one of a dozen nationalities.

# JAZZY ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC

At Cabramurra, Australia's highest township, in their canteen, I met, talked and sang with some of today's men from the Snowy River. Hello. Hello. What's your name? Pat White. Manul Kambouroglou. Leif Larsson. Tex Galvin. And your name? Alain Passarola. And where are you from? Paris. England. Denmark. Greece. Well, we're a pretty mixed bag. I'm from Melbourne. (All laugh) All the way from Melbourne. Yeah. I think Bernie should come in now. Come on, Bernie, with your guitar.

MAN: Hey!

MAN 2: Oh, welcome!

(Plays tune on guitar) # Give me a man who's a man among men # Who'll stow his white collar and put down his pen # Will blow down a mountain and build you a dam 38 # Bigger and better than old Uncle Sam # Oh, roll, roll, roll on your way # Snowy River, roll on your way # Roll on your way until Judgement Day # Snowy River, roll # Sometimes it's raining and sometimes it hails # Sometimes it blows up a blizzardly gale # Sometimes there's fire and sometimes there's flood # And sometimes you're up to your eyeballs in mud # Oh, roll, roll, roll on your way # Snowy River, roll on your way # Roll on your way until Judgement Day # Snowy River, roll # Give me bulldozers and tractors and hoses # And diesels to ease all my troubles away # With the help of the Lord and the good Henry Ford # The good old Snowy will flow on her way # So roll, roll, roll on your way # Snowy River, roll on your way # Roll on your way until Judgement Day # Snowy River, roll # Don't bring your sweetheart and don't bring your wife # 'Cause here you must follow the bachelor life # Where woman is woman A man is a fool # You get much more work from a bow-legged mule # So roll, roll, roll on your way # Snowy River, roll on your way # Roll on your way until Judgement Day # Snowy River, roll # Snowy River, roll. # Bom-bom. (Cheering, applause) While we sang and talked, other shifts were blasting their way through the very heart of the mountains, tunnelling… (Drill rumbles) (Horn toots) (Cart wheels squeak)

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Headquarters of all this tremendous activity is the Snowy Mountains Authority at Cooma. The man in charge of this great scheme is Sir William Hudson, and he deputised John Pritchard to tell me something of the project's vastness. Most of the melting snow, John told me, now found its way to the sea by the Snowy River. The Snowy Mountains Scheme will check this flow by a series of huge dams, and feed the water through tunnels into the rivers flowing west. This will mean the opening up of millions of acres of land, producing more food for this hungry world. in addition, this water will produce electric power in huge generating stations, some of which have already been built more than 1,000ft below the surface. Such progress cannot be attained without some sacrifice. Here was once a town — Old Adaminaby — now waiting in silence for the waters of the man-made Lake Eucumbene to rise and drown it. This is where it all begins, for it's here that the Snowy River begins its new journey across half the continent, filling dams and spinning the great turbines, irrigating millions of acres of what was once near desert. But now it's time for me to say goodbye. I'll be back in another part of Australia next time. Until then, goodbye.

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