The Snowy Mountain Scheme

17 October 1949 marked the start of Australia's ambitious 25-year project to complete the sixteen dams, seven power stations, one pumping station and 225km of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts that would make up the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

The construction transformed Australia’s critical infrastructure and significantly shifted the country’s ethnic diversity.

In 1954 American group Kaiser-Walsh-Perini-Raymond (Kaiser) was awarded the contract for construction of the 22.5km Eucumbene-Tumut tunnel and the Tumut Pond dam. At a cost of £25,296,586, this was the largest contract for any public undertaking in Australia at the time. Allen Allen & Hemsley was Kaiser’s legal representative in Australia and played an important role in the project. Kaiser revolutionised engineering in Australia, consistently breaking tunnelling records and completing projects ahead of schedule.

One of the biggest challenges the Allens team faced during the project was communicating with Kaiser in Cooma. With limited phone lines available, arranging calls to the client was a time-consuming process.

Despite the challenges, Kaiser’s work ethic and the commitment of the workforce saw construction progress at a rapid rate. In June 1956 Kaiser took over construction of the Adaminaby Dam (later called Eucumbene Dam), one of the biggest dams in Australia and among the largest earth-rockfill dams in the world. Many overseas contractors refused to tender for the work, believing the four-year timeframe was unachievable. Kaiser completed the project in under two years.

Seventy years on, Allens’ work with the project continues, assisting Snowy Hydro Ltd with Snowy 2.0, a multi-billion dollar pumped hydro storage project. The project will increase capacity of the Snowy Scheme by almost 50% to more than 6,000 megawatts, enabling greater security and stability of electricity supply and paving the way for additional future investment in Australia’s renewable energy sector.