More Power From Snowy Mountains Scheme

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29058, 21 November 1959, Page 10

More Power From Snowy Mountains Scheme

[By

PETER DAVISON]

SYDNEY, November 15. important stage in the construction of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme in Australia was completed recently, when Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the Australian Prime Minister, switched on the new 80,000 kilowatt turbine at Tumut I power-station.

The £12,500,000 power-station, 1200 feet under the Australian Alps, in the south-eastern corner of the continent, was completed eight months ahead of schedule and is now supplying additional power to the states of New South Wales and Victoria, and to the Australian Capital Territory.

Among the 1400 guests who were present at the official opening ceremony were many of the delegates visiting Australia for the Commonwealth Parliamentary conference at Canberra. Present also was Mr A. E. Leaver, who flew from America to represent the Kaiser organisation, which was responsible for building the Eucumbene and Tumut Pond dams and the connecting 14-mile tunnel Another visitor who flew to Australia especially tor the opening was Mr M. Le Bel, who- represented the group of six French companies which carried out the civil engineernig work in the construction of the power house. The Tumut I station is the second to begin generating power in the vast and complex Snowy Mountains scheme. The 60,000kilowatt Guthega power station was opened by the Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, in April, 1955. Heavy Expenditure A total of £ A 145,000,000 has been spent on the Snowy Mountains scheme since it was begun 10 years ago and the present estimate of its total cost is £A422,000,00. This figure includes the cost of many miles of power lines linking the States’ electricity networks to the Snowy power stations. The Snowy Mountains scheme is one of the biggest hydro-elec-tric and irrigation schemes in the world, and the largest single project ever undertaken in Aus-

tralia. It is designed to use the snow-fed waters of the Snowy River for both power and irrigation. The river has its source in the Australian Alps and flows southward in Victoria to the Tasman Sea. The waters of the Snowy river will be regulated in a series of nine dams on the eastern side of the Alps and diverted to flow westward through 58 miles of tunnels piercing the mountains on to the dry inland plains of south-western New South Wales. Eucumbene Dam The largest dam in the hydroelectric scheme, the Eucumbene, has already been constructed. It is built of compacted earth and rubble, ,is half a mile thick at the base, and rises to 381 feet. It will store 3,860,000 acre-feet of water —about nine times the volume of water in Sydney harbour. In 11 underground powerstations like Tumut I, between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 kilowatts of electricity will be generated annually. Energy output will exceed 5,000,000,000 kilowatt hours annually. The total amount of water which the scheme will make available for irrigation will be approximately, 1,920,000 acre-feet, enabling 1000 square miles of dry lands to be brought into useful production. It is estimated that these lands will yield foodstuffs to the value of £A30,000,000 a year.