The Snowy Mountains Scheme: Bringing More Water to Australia from On High

[@thedamnedatheist]

A strange side effect of the Snowy scheme was that Starbucks failed in Australia. So many Greek & Italian immigrants came to work on the Scheme and stayed that the country developed an excellent coffee culture.

[@lauragranger9813]

This is the best flow on effect I can think of

[@paterson022]

I see that as a bonus, great coffee resulted from the European immigration

[@yohjijames1413]

First time I went to Starbucks I thought they’ve combined my coffee and my milkshake

[@hughboyd2904]

Amen to this!

[@randomstuff9322]

The coffee in Australia is overrated

[@paigeprice7642]

As an Australian, this is a much appreciated surprise.

[@BearsTrains]

Yep, good video though Eucumbene Dam has certainly shrunk in capacity.

[@nicosmind3]

As a non-Australian, i appreciate learning a little about your great country :)

[@tomharper2709]

@@nicosmind3 and a great country it is! Absolutely love Australians, by far the best people

[@tomharper2709]

From a fellow non Australian

[@jezrix]

Makes me homesick! I come from a land down under….we make hard things seem possible.

[@davidb1630]

My father, John R. Bower, was one of the engineers who designed the turbines used in the hydro scheme. They were massive and quite new technology for their day. I still have a clipping from the Sydney Morning herald of my dad shaking hands with the Prime minister and the minister in charge of the project. My father was a brilliant man, but he never saw himself in that light, he was a very humble man.

[@BrenBarnes]

Simon: *Mispronounces towns, rivers, and reservoirs* Me: Strewth mate. Simon: *Counts reservoir capacity in equivalent Sydney harbours* Me: Fair dimkum, carry on then.

[@Slickstaff_Stainpants]

never met an aussie who really says strewth :)

[@mini696]

@@Slickstaff_Stainpants You should meet Alf.

[@jarradblair1793]

@@marvindebot3264 WTF Sydharbs? Nah mate. This is known as retarded "trying too hard slang" used by immigrants, backpackers, hipsters and children who cant swear yet

[@StephenJohnson-jb7xe]

@@jarradblair1793Harry Butler described the flow of rivers in terms of Sydharbs per hour and you don't get much more Aussie then Harry Butler.

[@ian9toes]

Stephen Johnson I’m afraid it didn’t catch on though

[@andymanaus1077]

The Snowy Mountains is significant in my family history. My dad was a chaplain on the Snowy Mountains Scheme in the early 1960s. I have visited several of the reservoirs, dams, power stations and ski resorts in the area. Our family used to have a holiday house a few minutes walk from Lake Eucumbene. I have many happy memories of the Snowy.

[@RCTanksTrucks247]

Great video. My grandfather from Croatia worked on this.

[@Noughtilus]

Ayyy my grandparents came from Italy to work on it.

[@Yourmumsrectum]

Had family work on it we where already here but its amazing how big the project was and how it changed our country.

[@Your.Uncle.AngMoh]

It wouldn't have happened without chocko migrant labour. I think there's a small statue somewhere commemorating the men who migrated out here and worked their guts out to build the Snowy Scheme. It requires a decent museum, at least. Prfound thanks from me and so many of us here for their efforts.

[@Natsirt666]

My grandfather worked on it too, as an Engineer! Aussie but.

[@dramoth64]

My dad came out to Australia with my grandparents, got his plumbers ticket down in Melbourne and married my mum there. They moved up to Sydney, and then got a job on the scheme. I was born in Cooma and we lived in Island Bend until we moved back to Melbourne.

[@TerryNew62]

Simon, You’re very brave to even have a crack at all the Aussie names. Maybe 15% correct. Good on ya!

[@Taurencowpew]

I'm going to add this to my favourites, and come back to it when I'm feeling crap. Those mispronunciations are giggle-worthy.

[@pretenda]

Tumut. Guthega. Haha. Love it, almost as good as the Uluru one!

[@Taurencowpew]

@@pretenda I fell off my chair the first time he said Murrumbidgee!

[@MrJules2U]

Its amazing hearing the mispronunciations haha. I completely understand that us Aussies are a unique bunch who hold our speech closely and dearly lol

[@kylemorris1484]

A little painful to listen to aswell.

[@degreaserman]

@@Taurencowpew it took me a bit to work out what river he was talking about when he said murrumbidgee haha

[@davegrimes3385]

I thought Nimbin is the highest town in Australia 🤔

[@gavreynolds2689]

😂😂😂👍👍 Use to be mate now I think it's mostly full of ice addicts.

[@Intermernet]

@@gavreynolds2689 It's got more ice than Thredbo and Perisher combined!

[@dantemadden1533]

Nah Shepparton is, it’s nickname is literally the Ice capital of Australia

[@anthonymassmann4537]

Non Australians pronouncing Australian town names is always hilarious to us. Just so you all know.

[@rohanlg790]

Muraaay😅

[@virginiatressider5753]

He got Talbingo and Kosciuszko right OK, not so good on Eucumbene, Guthega, Tumut, Murrumbidgee, Cabramurra, Khancoban or Tantangara. I was starting to wish Canowindra and Goondiwindi were part of the Snowy Scheme, just our of morbid curiosity.

[@danesorensen1775]

@@virginiatressider5753 Technically he got Kosciuszko wrong, but we all do. Polish is unpronounceable to non-Poles.

[@Slickstaff_Stainpants]

@@danesorensen1775 TIL its a Polish name

[@DerptyDerptyDUM]

Crawk... oh.... dile. 🎓

[@captainredbeard5231]

I had a great time listening to Simon butcher the names of our rivers 😂 Seriously though, thanks for this one mate!

[@kcharles8857]

Yeah I don't think he got one right ! :)

[@deanpd3402]

Ridgee didgee it's the Murrumbidgee.

[@davidpe76]

I visited the Tumut power generation on holidays as a young kid, had awesome viewing platform above the turbines. Big as a football field and with a clock bigger than Big Ben hanging on the far wall. All the rock that was excavated was used to help build local roads amongst other uses

[@kineticdeath]

my family did the snowy mountains thing like 20 years ago. We visited one of the Tumut powerplants, it was deep underground. I still remember it well as the tunnel entrance was in a deep valley and the air force were doing training that day so not only a cool powerplant experience but also full camo'd F-111's flying low through the valleys

[@mattyt1961]

yes I am going to be 'that person' Big Ben is the bell, not the clock. now I will dislike my own comment

[@youareawesome5236]

I did a report on this in year 5. I had to write a letter n send it a Minister in Canberra. By post, a week later I got a big yellow envelope back with Info about it. Remember when writing letters was a thing. Good times.

[@tncorgi92]

I had to write to a state governor as part of a school project. Everything I got back was pre-printed and probably signed by an aide. Still as a kid I thought that was cool.

[@youareawesome5236]

@@tncorgi92 same, a letter n a bunch of pamphlets. Felt awesome as a kid

[@brucehewson5773]

Yes, I did the same, and got a really good supply of material in return.

[@bengibson3955]

Fun fact - Snowy Hydro also works as a huge battery. During off-peak times when power is cheap, Snowy Hydro scheme pumps water from lower reservoirs into higher ones, analogous to charging a battery using cheap electricity. This water is then released back down through the turbines during peak times when power demand is up. Snowy Hydro sells power back to the grid at a significantly higher rate. While I don’t know the quantities, a significant proportion of water diverted by this scheme will do multiple passes through the same turbines.

[@fikanera838]

My Czech father-in-law was one of the huge number of migrants who worked on this megaproject. 🇨🇿🇦🇺

[@andrewhallett-patterson9778]

My families transport company was primary transport and earthmoving contractor for the project. This was expanded to include fabrication,mechanical and diesel engineering services and workshops. At the projects peak, a combined total of 200 employees were engaged, with 120 different vehicles onsite, many purpose designed and built for the Snowy Scheme. Unfortunately, little physical property remains, and what there is are now restored museum pieces, or the many thousands of photos in my families archives. Excellent overview.👍👍🇭🇲

[@terben7339]

Can we just get a video of Simon reading a list of Aussie place names.

[@taylor....]

This would be triggering but still not worse than Australians getting them wrong

[@PeterKelley]

There is a little museum in Adaminaby (add 'em in a B) which was one of the towns moved to make way for Lake Eucumbene. They show a short film on the making of the scheme. In it there is a scene where a bunch of dignitaries are assembled underground for the last blast completing a tunnel. The blast is so big that it blows all their hats of. Hilarious every time I think of it.

[@55vma]

Always funny listening to poms mispronouncing our words like Murrumbidgee.🇦🇺🐨🇦🇺

[@StormTalara]

Legit. Only one he got right was Talbingo. 🤣 i love that he changes the way he says names each time like “one of the ways i say it might be right”. Lol.

[@Empdizz]

Everyone outside of Australia has issues pronouncing Australian names.

[@sixstringedthing]

murRAY river. :D

[@Kneedragon1962]

There were lots of them. Let's start with a major. When you combine two or more words, you get a river and a dam called Eucombene. It sounds like You-Combine.

[@revert6417]

Tamoot for Tumut 🤣

[@greg1348]

Great video mate, my dad worked in the snowy for about 20 years and we lived in Jindabyne and than moved to Cabramurra.

[@annwilliams2075]

My Uncle Jimmy was one of those recruited from the Welsh valleys mining villages to work on the dams. Unfortunately he, and many others, suffered from altitude sickness and had to leave the job. Instead he went to work in mines in Tasmania, met my aunt and settled, eventually, near Melbourne.

[@youareawesome5236]

What a cool story.

[@StormTalara]

The fact he suffered altitude sickness here (highest point at top of Kosciusko is only 2200m) highlights why i did so well in the mountains of Peru (at almost 4000m). Amazing.

[@annwilliams2075]

I think it is easier to understand when you realise that although the mountains are high the mines are in the valleys. The mountain behind my house is 1000 ft - 305 mts - high but the now closed mine is at the bottom of it with the shafts going down several 100 ft before spreading out underground. Some of them go up to 8 miles. Also the highest point in South Wales is Pen y Fan which is only 2900ft - about 888mtrs. None of our mountains are high enough to have year round snow - not even Snowdon our highest one at 1085 mts - 3560 ft.

[@lasentinal]

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is a project designed as a form of energy storage. Electricity from wind and solar will be used to pump water from lower reservoirs to upper reservoirs to be used when the sun isn't shining, to produce electricity, similar to the way a home system works, with solar collectors and storage batteries in a house. Snowy Hydro does this now to a certain extent, producing electricty during peak usage times and then pumping water back to upper reservoirs using off peak power from coal fired power stations at a cheaper rate. Apart from the mispronunciation of some of the places, rivers and dams, this has been a very good presentation.

[@jofisk]

As an Aussie, I learnt something new about the Snowy Scheme. It would be interesting to see you do a video on CY O'Connor as he engineered the Goldfilds pipeline, taking water from Perth to Kalgoorlie in early 1900s . This is a pipeline that is over 500km.

[@jbrisby]

2118: Australia creates the first "Dyson Sink", a basin designed to capture ALL of the water that falls on the continent.

[@VK2FVAX]

like a Liberal voted Dyson Sphere .. except because the buggers privatised and under-funded it like the NBN .. you only get a bowl shape ..and it gets glorified as a "sink" ;)

[@Mcwhi0]

Right after building and funding it, we give it to dear leader Rupert Murdoch's head in a jar like futurama

[@mini696]

@@Mcwhi0 Nah we'd lease it to China.

[@flamingfrancis]

You are a few millennia behind the times...read up on the Great Australian Artesian Basin.

[@aussietaipan8700]

My Wife's parents came here from Europe for the Snowy Mountain scheme. A big win for Australia and a big win for me. Thanks for presenting this matey,

[@glenchapman3899]

People dont realize that with out that immigration, Parliament House in Canberra would never have been built either. So that makes it a hat trick!!!

[@matthewkendall5235]

Nice coming across this - Snowy Hydro touched so many people. I live in a small street of 14 houses - two of the original Dutch residents were engineers who came over to work on Snowy Hydro (both named Bob). Last week I visited the Snowy Hydro display centre just outside their head office - and bought a bevy of their Snow, Water, Energy Repeat Tee shirts. My mum told me my uncle was the headmaster of the local school (I guess in the 40s or 50s) and we had a lot of family around Tumut. Just four years ago I led a team of 30 specialist to do Snowy Hydro Business and IT Strategy - and it was a real blast (no pun intended) and a privilege to work on this iconic client (just before Snowy 2.0 came along to make everything really interesting). I got to tour all through the power stations and trading floors and meet all the execs and their key team - and they were a group of really interesting and devoted professionals. Many thanks for sharing this video!

[@albino267]

Sitting here as an Aussie with a real feeling of pride watching this one today

[@SkyJUSTIN6]

Go watch friendlyjordies documentary and you will understand our water situation better

[@mdevil9133]

What I find most interesting about the 2.0 project is how it is funded… The majority of costs is covered by Snowy Hydro themselves who make an absolute killing from energetic storage with the existing infrastructure mentioned in the video. The 2.0 program is not designed to increase water capture, but to increase energy storage capability.

[@thegruffalo5383]

Simon. Can you do a side projects video on the “Great Emu War”. I am sure us Aussie’s would appreciate this ridiculousness on your channels Also the relatively unknown story of the Parkes satellite dish in rural NSW is definitely worth a look considering it’s major importance to the 1969 moon landings

[@-Yogo]

there's a movie about it! The Dish (2000)

[@ravencanis8998]

Seconding this one, I visited the dish when I was younger and most people don’t realise just how important it is

[@emjay0507]

Oh please do this one, and for research watch the epic movie “The Dish”. RIP Tom Long.

[@AbbyMaskell]

@@-Yogo I need to rewatch it, it's so good

[@skullandcrossbones65]

@@AbbyMaskell Halt, Who goes there??? Bahhhhhh

[@sonjanordahl3158]

Thanks for this video. My grandfather worked on one of the early tunnel constructions. The tunnel nearly killed him. A bolder fell through the chain link safety netting. It glanced off the back of his hard hat and hit him between the shoulders. They didn't expect him to live through the trip down mountain to the nearest hospital. But he was a tough old bird even before he was old. He lived. He spent months in a body cast but, he was able to walk out of the hospital. He has since passed away but my aunt still has that hard hat.

[@MrLurchsThings]

Sadly we'll never see another public project the size of this one again (remembering Snowy 2.0 is tiny in comparison). We privatised 9/10ths of the NBN scheme and it became a wreck. Projects like these today are sold as "too much like socialism" and thus never get up.

[@mecklas]

NBN was an enormous lesson in what happens when a great idea is used as a political pawn

[@RandomStuff-he7lu]

@@mecklas The NBN is an enormous lesson in what happens when you put the LNP in charge of literally anything.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

@@RandomStuff-he7lu It was a Labor brain-fart, designed on a paper napkin, given over to Telstra and corrupt installers, all aimed at giving us the best 2007 stantard internet in 2025 and the very highest of prices for users.

[@damiendeecee]

Privatisation doesn't ruin anything. The NBN was terribly designed and horrifically implemented by governments.

[@MrLurchsThings]

@@damiendeecee *a* government. One that specifically decided to cheap-out and not do it properly.

[@jon-paulguseli5817]

Thanks mate, appreciate this one. My family came here from Italy for this project, and my uncle was one of the miners that died in the elevator shaft accident.

[@sjdtmv]

There was a Megaproject in Australia that many Aussie have never heard of, That is the bridge over the Nullarbor Plains, they had to pull it down due to too many Aussies fishing off it....

[@sprintershepherd4359]

that and it was only a one way bridge .you had to wait and give way for a week until the other side had cleared of traffic

[@bunyip42]

Very nice video! I'm an Aussie, learned about this in school (in the 70s). One little thing that could have been clearer in the "background" section is that the majority of the precipitation used to run down a couple of steep rivers going straight east. The Snowy Scheme sends the water westwards.

[@longboardfella5306]

Thanks Simon. I requested this and you did a great job. One tweak though. We are a huge country actually with loads of water. But it’s not always where we need it or when we need it. And thanks for mentioning the cultural diversity as a result of which we have great coffee and spices and many cultural delights to offer visitors when travel resumes

[@chlorineismyperfume]

Good thinking

[@paulinejackson5861]

I was an external consultant for Snowy Hydro with their projects - their staff were always friendly and were a great bunch to work with.

[@Reklaimart]

From an Aussie Thankyou!🙏

[@originalsusser]

There's something about u that makes any subject u report upon thoroughly enjoyable. Your absence the previous channel that we all know u from is obvious but thank God u r still rolling along here & at your other new channels. Of course it goes without saying another accurate, concise & informative presentation. Really great job, thanks Simon

[@andrewpeterson5003]

"There's too many people" Simon knows

[@gazgadgets]

Nice Vid. As an Aussie it was nice to see a Brit talk about one of our great infrastructure projects. We are proud of it. I learned more in these few minutes about the Snowy Scheme than I have over a life time. Thanks for all the work you put in.

[@jaystewart9765]

For those playing at home : Tumut = CHEW - Mutt Eucumbene = YOU- Come- BEAN

[@blairweatherall8976]

Tan tang gra

[@WillTDaZuner]

Muh-rum-BIDGE-ee

[@Femster1968]

Guth-Eegah

[@ipwnism]

I was up at thredbo for snow season recently and stopped at the Snowy Hydro info centre. Ive been to Jindy heaps of times but never actually went! If you find yourself in this neck of the woods i 100% recommend visiting the info centre. You learn sooooo much cool shit. One of my biggest takeaways is the cultural impact the snowy had on our society. I wouldn't have many of my european mateyz if their parents/grandparents didn't have a means to earn some coin when they came down here :)

[@sixstringedthing]

Hard not to do the proud Aussie thing. But that would be ignoring the fact that unless we as a nation decide to fully embrace and commit to alternative nuclear/hydro/wind/solar/pumped-storage/battery farms in a sensible multi-technology approach to our future energy needs, our "land of droughts and flooding rains" is pretty much f**ked.

[@CapoRip]

"nuclear/hydro/wind/solar/pumped-storage/battery" Amen.

[@peterwilliams6289]

Snowy 2.0 is a pumped-hydro project - basically a big battery, anyway!

[@sixstringedthing]

@@peterwilliams6289 a good start. :)

[@NoName-ds5uq]

Totally agree! I find it refreshing that you included nuclear power in that mix!

[@OllieVK]

unless you live in Tassie ;)

[@shinkicker404]

Used to stay at Cabramurra, one of the towns constructed for the workers, if I remember right its somewhere above Tumut 1 Power Station. Used to go skiing at the ski lodge there in winter. Had some private tours down into the power station as well, it was incredible going through the road tunnels and the stations under the mountains.

[@jesmondsaunders7746]

“Cries in Australian” It’s MurrUMbidgEE! Edit* There’s a vintage scheme gathering more support that could equal or exceed the Snowy Mountain scheme to solve our water issues. Our north of the country is saturated yearly by a tropical monsoon season. Our south is in constant drought. Capturing this excess water and diverting it through an artificial river system to the south is known as the Bradfield scheme. It’s a mind boggling expensive way to do it, but we are more than a bit desperate at this point.

[@DamImperial]

Yeah you would think solving most of the water issues by doing this would be worth it but crackheads in Canberra can't seem to see the logic

[@peterhoz]

The Bradfield Scheme, first proposed by Bradfield, the same bloke who designed the Harbour Bridge

[@bodyjar78]

As a boy I used to spend holidays in Talbingo. I must have taken the tour of Tumut 3 Power Station dozens of times, and swam and fished in the Talbingo Dam. Those rocks were tough on the feet...lol

[@Maadhawk]

When you started telling us how big the project is, the Tennessee River Valley Project was the first thing I thought of that would be on a comparable scale. Makes this a truly vast project and a true Megaproject indeed.

[@anthonysimoes7307]

I love that you look through the comments and take suggestions for new megaprojects here... Even from us little Australians👍

[@pablonh]

6:30 4.8 million liters. LOL - that's less than two Olympic-size swimming pools. The actual amount is 4.8 TRILLION liters. You are only off by a factor of a million...

[@stusmith1074]

Yes I picked up on one the dams having 6.7 million litres of concrete, yet one of the largest reservoirs only 4.8 million litres 😂 M Y Eclipse has a 1 million litre fuel tank ffs. 👍🏼

[@joshuastoate1125]

@@marvindebot3264 ***500,000,000,000*** litres buddy.

[@gregessex1851]

Not the only mistake. The video was riddled with incorrect claims.

[@pablonh]

@@gregessex1851 That's often the case here. Quantity over quality.

[@davidgrowsdragonfruit5301]

I came here to check if anybody else had noticed that the 'largest reservoir' in the snowy hydro scheme was apparently smaller than the smallest ring tank on any broadacre farm in the country 😂

[@rodneyvandenbosch1884]

Oz recieves little water not because of ANY of the reasons Simon mentioned, but because it has only 1 mountain range, which is not very high and very close to the east coast. There is nothing inland to make the rain precipitate out and no (significant) permanent or semi-permanent snow capped mountains to produce year long melt water.

[@sixstringedthing]

Whilst it's true that the Great Dividing Range is extremely prominent and Koscuiszko National Park is the home of Australia's only year-round snow capped mountains, to suggest that a continent this old and vast has only one mountain range is simply false. A thirty second google search can prove this. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_ranges_of_Australia Huge tracts of this country have been shaped by water erosion, past and present, and what causes water erosion...?

[@captainnapalm4173]

The most disturbing accidents I remember from a documentary about this are the following. One man fell into some of the quick drying cement used to make the dams up to his waist and died after they tried to amputate his legs without anesthesia in an attempt to free him. Another man slipped while walking besides a small train carrying out debris from the construction of a tunnel and his arm was cut off as he instinctively threw it out to catch himself as he fell. Then apparently in shock he made the bad decision to try and recover his severed arm between the tracks of the moving train and lost the other arm also. The man survived but committed suicide latter.

[@AdvanceAU]

I can't help but wonder how one goes about offing themselves without the use of their arms.

[@captainnapalm4173]

@@AdvanceAU If I remember correctly they drowned themself.

[@elenidemos]

My mothers other half (now passed away), worked there. He fled Germany in 42, eventually ending up in Australia in 59. Due to his qualifications he ended up as a senior electrician within the power stations.

[@harryobriensmith40]

Wooo, he finally acknowledged the aussies

[@KriLL325783]

Who scammed Simon into thinking South Austria is real this time?

[@The1ArcticWolf]

Pretty sure you cuzzies got an entire geographics vid on a monolith too bro, Love NZ x

[@Albert-Arthur-Wison225]

He did a superb video on Uluru.

[@The1ArcticWolf]

@@Albert-Arthur-Wison225 that's what it's called! I went through an alarming amount of Simons whistle's in my history to try find it, truly a beautiful place.

[@somethinglikethat2176]

@@FckYourFeelingsYT I never knew that the US played such an important role in it's construction in regards to engineering and technical expertise.

[@garyradley5694]

A simpler explanations would be to say that the tunnels take the water flowing from the East and West sides of the Great Dividing Range and send it under the Great Dividing Range into dams on the West and North sides of the range where it is then stored for electric power generation before being released into rivers and irrigation canals flowing into the interior.

[@ptrsrrll]

Spectacular Project - Spectacular Mispronunciations But thank you for the Video..

[@sixstringedthing]

Overseas commentators MUST mispronounce Australian place names, it's a longstanding tradition. :D

[@holidaymail]

Hahaha Aussie coming here looking for this comment 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@CaseyForrest3]

Thank you so much for doing an Australian mega build. I love watching and listening to your videos and this brought back all the awe and pride from learning about it at school. And yeah, you mispronounced a few places but that comes with the territory of a lot of Australian places. 👍🏻

[@TheExpatpom]

Glad to see you covered this one. I was just thinking of suggesting it again when I saw you’d put a vid out. I’m that case can I suggest The Great Ocean Road next time you want to do an Australian video. Might be more Side Projects or Geographics, but it might be mega enough. There’s bound to be a channel somewhere on WhistlerTube for it.

[@rastan49]

And that town you mention, Cabramurra. Half the town burnt down in those fires you also mentioned, along with a small Ski resort Selwyn Snowfields just up the road.

[@briangarrow448]

Could you do a segment on the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project in Washington state and associated structures, which includes the Grand Coulee Dam.

[@familywilliams4058]

Don't forget to also talk about the fish ladders.

[@robertchautardjensen6846]

I worked in Cabramurra in the late 1970's, it was a wonderful town and visiting all the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric facilities around the region was really interesting. So many tragedies while the Scheme construction phase was pushed through at breakneck pace. Wonderful town, lovely people and a beautiful place to live.

[@VibranceVFX]

Would have been cool to go in power station from the massive hole in the mountain. Last known photos from inside was 2002 by urban explorers. 240m underground

[@robertchautardjensen6846]

@@VibranceVFX I doubt you would have found the T1 Power Station cool after spending any time in it. The place is very haunted and it makes your skin crawl. I would not encourage anyone to break in and go exploring for this reason.

[@tototakto4611]

Megaprojects idea: The floating airport of Kansai

[@robertthompson6637]

Tumut 3 power station is fed from Talbingo Reservoir, not Jounama Pondage. Jounama is the outlet for Tumut 3. So good to see a video so close to home (I live in Wagga - a town on the Murrumbidgee). The place names have me a good chuckle!

[@magpie2541]

I suggested this awhile glad I wasn’t the only one

[@toddavis8151]

I suggested it too

[@MsJubjubbird]

Did you suggest another youtube channel as well? I don't think I can watch a video of his without another youtube channel being announced

[@peterwilliams6289]

Me too - definitely belongs on this channel.

[@alanscottholmes8913]

I too mentioned this as a topic, so glad the Boy with the blaze took it up 🇦🇺🇦🇺

[@Scholesy92]

Bloody Oath!

[@maxrockatanksyOG]

My Pop was one of the Draughtsman on the project, lived in Cooma for 15 years whilst working there & raising dad, uncle & aunty

[@mustafaemad3614]

Mega Project suggestions: Benban Solar Park, Aswan High Dam, Bar Lev Line and Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

[@justv7536]

This was great, I remember suggesting this a while back and I'm glad you got around to it, this thing is a marvel! Australian pride.

[@danielsundberg1977]

Simon the Murray flows into the Southern Ocean at Goolwa in South Australia.

[@adriaandeleeuw8339]

The Snowy River however flows through Victoria into Bass Straight which is the Pacific, it was the vast quantities of what was considered wasted water by the engineers and politicians down the Snowy River annually from the snowfields of the Australian Alps that was the instigation of the scheme, which by the way came in on budget and on time. By the way it was a Labor party initiative that was whole heartedly upheld as a worthwhile scheme by the Liberal Party who fortunately did not try to water the scheme down. pun intended!

[@artistjoh]

More correctly the water from the West and Southern flanks of the Alps flows west then south via the Murray and ends up in the Southern Ocean, but runoff from the eastern flanks flows east and south via the Snowy and enters the Pacific Ocean at Marlo in eastern Victoria. Marlo is not far from the eastern most extent of Bass Strait. Simon was thus partially right as far as a portion of the Snowy Mountains, at least if he was talking about the Snowy River at that point.

[@kyranhayward885]

Great video! A tribute to all the workers that came from Europe to find work and start a new life in Australia. Including my grandfather!

[@TheScrubExpress]

NGL this is the first time I found out that there's...*snow* in Australia. I don't know why I didn't realize before. I mean NZ is practically next door and they get snow.

[@Sergiblacklist]

Was a shock to me when I was in the blue mountains in September and got snowed on 🤣

[@youareawesome5236]

Our South is cold n our North is hot. Opposite of America. Our Sun moves overhead North as well. The Phoenicians discovered this by circumnavigating Africa for the Egyptians.

[@aaronleverton4221]

All of New Zealand sits at a latitude equal with Australia's southern half, well south of the tropics, and its southern half sits at a latitude to the south of Australia's mainland. It is closer to Antarctica and its mountains are young and tall. Of course it has snow. Australia's mountains are old and small, how much longer will they have snow? Also, we're celebrated for the big, red rock in the middle of the big, red desert.

[@rodneyvandenbosch1884]

The "age" of a mountain range has nothing to do with how much snow it gets - altitude and latitude determine. I think your evolutionary and uniformitarian indoctination is showing :)

[@ComaDave]

During a good winter, we can have more snow coverage than Europe. Obviously not as spectacular as the Alps, but quantity over quality I guess.

[@gregjones3183]

Great video Simon, not the Snowy mountain scheme but here in Tasmania I am fortunate enough to have a great old Italian friend that worked on similar hydro constructions in the 50's and 60's . Tough old bugger with some amazing stories to tell :)

[@damienmacpherson395]

Gotta love how Simon says Murrumbidgee haha

[@clothnappies123]

The scheme has two principal parts: The Snowy-Tumut Development (diverts water to the Murrumbidgee River) and the Snowy-Murray Development (diverts water from the Snowy to the Murray River). I know a lot more than you think about the snowy hydroelectric scheme. I had a passionate about the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme and they took me onto where the general public wouldn't be allowed to go been on the generating floor and under I saw 1 of 6 turbine generator and pump units of Tumut 3.

[@kobra666au]

C.Y O’Connor would be a good bloke to do a biographic episode on and perhaps the Perth to Kalgoorlie Water Pipeline for Megaprojects

[@Mc-beardy]

I was thinking the same thing

[@Mcwhi0]

Thanks, I love when classic examples of Aussie history/achievement are shared with the world

[@Natsirt666]

My grandfather was one of the main engineers on this project. He was a legend.

[@kelschofield8515]

I taught at Corryong for a term. Every morning coming over Shelley Tops I'd see the white pipes going down into the power station and the snow on the NSW Alps; there's a cutting near Koetong notorious for black ice on the road. You can't buy these experiences. Good times!

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:20 - Chapter 1 - Australian water scarcity 2:45 - Chapter 2 - Background 4:20 - Chapter 3 - Construction begins 5:55 - Chapter 4 - Dams 7:30 - Chapter 5 - Power stations 8:50 - Chapter 6 - Impact 10:10 - Chapter 7 - Snowy hydro 2.0 11:00 - Chapter 8 - The schema that built australia

[@punditgi]

Another excellent suggestion from a follower of your channel. Well done!

[@djph30n1x]

Another project to look at with regards to water in Australia is the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfields_Water_Supply_Scheme

[@jamesflaherty4713]

Awesome video. thank you very much for bringing this to the masses. And i also had my father work on this scheme as one of many engineers which is where he met my mother. Keep up the great work and hope to see more.

[@Train_Tok_Man]

Virginian Railway and Erie Railway Triplexes: The most unusual steam locomotives ever built.

[@milk-it]

Thanks, Simon. You explained this better than any politician or media outlet over here.

[@spamletspamley672]

I remember having to write a school geography essay on this over half a century ago! I got told off for copying big words from the only book the school library had on it. Blowed if I could put it any better than the book did: says I! :)

[@benjaminuranga883]

First time in months i have learned about a “new to me” historical event. Thanks Simon, down the rabbit hole I go!!!!!!!!!

[@travisbunce7334]

It was worth all the constant harassment, thanks Simon and team. Now, let me find a new Aussie project.... Maybe the Square Kilometer Array?

[@abeeson86]

The SKA is amazing, and he should definitely cover it. The data transmission requirements alone are staggering, AARNet (the education network operator here) set up a bunch of the transmission equipment and talking to them its absolutely nuts how much data comes out of it.

[@chrismcdonnell1695]

How about the trans Australian railway

[@peterides9568]

I went to TAFE(technical college) with a SKA technician. He was telling me they cryogenically cool their amplifiers to elimate Johnson (thermal) noise. Just nuts. But very cool.

[@VanillaMacaron551]

Half of it is in South Africa I think

[@michaelfink64]

Great video. This was a big deal for the country and, as you mentioned, changed the fabric of our society. An important aspect of Snowy Hydro 2.0 that you didn't mention is that it will be a massive energy storage system. When there is excess renewable energy being produced, water will pumped from the lower to the upper dam and when more energy is needed, the water will flow down again to turn the turbines. This will not be as efficient as grid storage batteries, but it will have a massive capacity.

[@feartheamish9183]

Moscow metro would be interesting

[@ivan7453]

I'll second that, Simon

[@Slickstaff_Stainpants]

already 3 games about it.. pretty good ones too

[@jc_da_killa7132]

Not sure a lot of foreigners actually properly understand how scarce water can be here in Australia. I live in toowoomba, about 200km west of Brisbane. In 2010 the 3 dams in my region were literally almost out of water, like only a couple percent left in them. 10 years worth of drought. Then in early 2011 we had really bad flooding. We got them 10 years worth of rain in a month, all washed straight out to sea. Google them, some of the pictures are amazing to see, especially in toowoomba cus we are 800m above sea level on the side of a mountain range. But 10 years later the whole country was pretty much in drought and it was worse then before. Places like Stanthorpe were getting like 15 trucks a day carting water cus there dams were bone dry empty. That was part of the reason for the bushfires at the start of 2020. We couldn’t fight them fire properly either, we had to save what little water we had and prioritise it to where it was needed most. Drought is our most major natural disaster and it’s really hard to combat.

[@jenniferconners6921]

Can you do a video on the Lock & Dam system in the Mississippi river. How the land was bought from locals so it could be flooded (they couldn't use it for crops or animals anymore) and how it got people back to work after the Great Depression. Thank you.

[@jetsons101]

As always a great watch, thanks to Simon and his team for great work............

[@Green_House]

C O R R E C T I O N : At 6:17 the picture is of the Mount Bold reservoir dam on the Onkaparinga River in South Australia. No where near the Snowy Mountains and quite a small dam and reservoir!

[@carlyharvy7448]

Glad someone else picked it up!

[@Myne1001]

Not surprising. I just saw his National Highway 1 video before this and he shows road with right-hand driving :/

[@Green_House]

@@Myne1001 Wow! That would have been so obvious. And then there was the video about nuclear fission, but he was showing pictures of a Tokamak (nuclear fusion).

[@drslime7]

I'm an ozzy and I did not know half of the stuf in this video great job! But one problem with the snoqy mountain project is how the water is getting managed (managed by other orgoniseations.) Leaving parts of the river flooded and other parts dry. Thats my rant keep it up mate.

[@uwotm8765]

The biggest reservoir is only 4800m3? I think that might be a slight error

[@4k8t]

According to the wiki on the dam, its total capacity is about 4,798 Gigaliters (billions of liters) or about 1,267 billion gallons.

[@JxH]

"4.8 MILLION L" compared to 4800 gigaliters is an error of a million-to-one. Crikey. And hardly anyone noticed. Well done to those that did. The rest of you are innumerate, which is fine; just be self-aware that you are and take precautions.

[@StormTalara]

@@JxH actually it’s about a billion to one. (1,000 million).

[@benja_mint]

every simon video has one big glaring mistake. i think he just makes so many videos that they cant all be completely fact checked.

[@seagullskunk]

@@StormTalara uhm... JH was actually right: 4800 gigaliters = 4800 * 10^9 liters = 4800 * 1 000 000 000 liters = 4 800 000 * 1 000 000 liters = 4.8 million times one million liters

[@pmgn8444]

Megaprojects/Side Projects ideas: 1. US Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - economic development during the Great Depression. 2. US Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) - damming the Columbia River for electrical power 3. Columbia Basin Project - Irrigation water from the Grand Coolie Dam for the deserts of eastern Washington state's Columbia Basin.

[@totterdell91]

congratulations on getting through to Jounama pondage without pronouncing a single place name correctly. A stunning achievement

[@punked424242]

Give the man a break, great content much appreciated.

[@cavramau]

The key feature of Snowey 2.0 in my opinion is that it acts as a pumped hydro electricity store or battery.

[@alexjohnward]

That's the only feature.

[@bryzabone]

Well done on pronunciation there Simon 😝🍻

[@sh8800]

Simon, you legend !!! Mega awesome, thanks for listening to your blazing Aussie fans.

[@Ukg25Haze]

Vulcan jet pleaseeeee I’ve watched all videos and most of your channels.

[@johnpetrich9981]

Wow thank you Simon - great to see this Aussie megaproject