Find out more about the last years of hydropower with this timeline. Learn More. When Was Hydropower Invented? Hydropower News. Ben Chifley, Australian Dictionary of Biography. The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture.
Defining Moments Snowy Mountains Hydro. See our classroom resource. The Snowy remains an important source of power and irrigation water today. Prime Minister Ben Chifley, May Snowy Mountains Hydro live-sketch animation Postwar reconstruction The trauma of the Second World War forced Australia to seriously reconsider its place in the world.
To encourage this, Australia needed to develop a better and more consistent power supply. Federal and state governments were under pressure to find new electricity supplies. Hydroelectricity was now a viable alternative to coal power. Snowy plan The final proposal, presented in November , consisted of two physically separate projects — one in the north and one in the south of the Snowys. Jennifer Rayner on the Snowy Mountains Scheme Lightbox showing the elevations of dams and generators.
Curriculum subjects. Year levels. In our collection. On display. Explore Defining Moments. If there were an arrangement, the States, as co-operators in the project, would themselves have had a say in the appointment of the Authority.
If the States were, in fact, jointly involved with the Commonwealth, as they ought to be, we should avoid a good deal of duplication of effort. For instance, New South Wales has a well-equipped and experienced Public Works Department, which has carried out works to the value of many millions of pounds, including some similar to the work envisaged in this bill - not identical, of course, because never previously has a work on this scale been undertaken in Australia.
The New South Wales Public Works Department has resources and equipment which ought not to be duplicated, but the Commonwealth says: "No, we are running this show.
It may be that we will take or borrow from a State such equipment as it has, but we will do the job ". My point is that the States, which are bodies entitled to their own place in the Commonwealth, ought to be regarded as co-operating on full and equal terms with the Commonwealth in carrying out this work.
Take the three major aspects of the scheme: first of all, hydro-electric power is to be generated. For Commonwealth purposes, no great volume of power is required, but that aspect of the matter clearly comes within Commonwealth jurisdiction.
Then, power is to be generated for industries in New South Wales and Victoria, as well as for domestic purposes. Clearly, that is a State matter, outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth.
The scheme also envisages the conservation of water for the irrigation of land in New South Wales and, to an extent, in Victoria and South Australia also. That, too, is a matter of State jurisdiction. Yet, all those considerations, which point to the need for joint action between the Commonwealth and the States, are swept to one side, and we are presented with a bill which claims to exercise Commonwealth power, and that only; which sets the States on one side, and relegates them to the position of mere customers.
I know that honorable members opposite have no sympathy with my argument, not the slightest, because they made it clear many years ago that their ultimate ambition was to get rid of the States, and concentrate all power in Canberra. Occasionally, they try to achieve that end by referendums on proposals to alter the Constitution, hut when they fail in that direction they seek to achieve their purpose in some other fashion.
That is what they are trying to do now. They are saying, in effect: " Here is something that will be popular, something that will be well received. It is a proposal that will give the people a feeling of relief, because it promises a vast addition to the volume of electric power available for their use ".
Therefore, honorable members opposite regard it as another chance to obliterate the line of demarcation drawn in the Constitution itself between the powers of the Commonwealth and those of the States. All I need say is that we, on this side of the House, believe that it is vital to the freedom of the individual that the line of demarcation between Commonwealth and State power shall be maintained.
We certainly believe that it should not be varied except by the votes of the people. The present proposal is a vast one. If this pretence to power succeeds, if the States can be brushed aside as if they had no vital interest in the matter, then that boundary line between the powers of the Commonwealth and those of the States will become broken in so many places that it will no longer serve to protect any power or any person.
I said earlier that the hill had some curious financial provisions. If I remember correctly, it is about 21 years since I first got myself elected to a House of Parliament - not this one.
For those 21 years I have lived under the impression that one of the vital features of parliamentary government is that the Parliament should retain control of finance. Mr Pollard Mr. Pollard interjecting,. Pollard dissents? Mr Pollard - Absolutely. I draw the attention of honorable members to clause 25 of the bill, which reads-- 1. The Authority shallhave power to borrow money on overdraft from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia upon the guarantee of the Treasurer.
The Treasurer may, out of moneys appropriated by the Parliament for the purposes of this Act, make advances to the Authority of such amounts and upon such terms as he thinks fit.
Except with the consent of the Treasurer, the Authority shall not have power to borrow money otherwise than in accordance with this section. Thus, the Government proposes to finance this undertaking at its own sweet will by overdraft from the Commonwealth Bank, the policy of which it can completely control under the Banking Act of Thus, there will be no longer parliamentary control of expenditure on the project.
If great public undertakings are to be financed in that way, then control by this Parliament of the finances of the country - already becoming extremely tenuous - will completely disappear. As for a long time the only function of private members in this Parliament has been to vote for financial proposals - they have no share in the moulding of legislation - it seems a pity that the Government should take away the one small function it had left to them. Here we have a conception, not yet a detailed scheme, of a project of importance and urgency in the undertaking of which every related State would, I am perfectly certain, be glad to co-operate.
It is a project which is needed by the ordinary people of this country. In these circumstances it is a great pity that the Government should think this to be a proper occasion forbrushing the States on one side, for assuming a power which it does not possess, and for setting out on an undertaking as the result of legislation which is tainted, just as other legislation passed by this Government has been tainted, with serious illegality. Menzies may he properly divided into three parts.
That is, of course, if we disregard the highly superior and barbed witticisms with which he interlarded it and the manner in which he turned to his colleagues for approval. The honorable member for Parramatta Mr.
Beale laughed even louder than the rest. No doubt, he will get on very well. First, there was the Leader of the Opposition's grudging acknowledgment that this, great work is essential to the national interest and must be carried on now. I understood him. A little later he said that by common consent this project is regarded as vital to the industrial expansion of Australia at this stage, although it cannot be brought into effect for a number of years.
Again, he said that no one can deny for a moment that this scheme should be put in hand. To the degree that he gave that grudging approval of this great national work he uttered a most damning indictment of the government which he led and of all the Liberal-Country pasty governments which, while in office in the Commonwealth sphere for many years, frustrated every effort to have some action taken to harness the waters of the Snowy River.
The second part of the right honorable gentleman's speech consisted of a series of niggling criticisms' of this Government which has the courage and vision to tackle a work which his Government and other governments formed by the party to which he belongs were not prepared to tackle. As a result of their work, on 7 July , the Commonwealth Parliament passed legislation to establish a Statutory Authority and start construction of the Snowy Scheme.
On completion, the Scheme consisted of seven power stations, 16 major dams, 80 kilometres of aqueducts and kilometres of interconnected tunnels. For Australia, this was more than just an infrastructure project. Over the course of construction, more than , people from more than 30 countries worked on the Scheme.
Many had escaped the horror of post-war Europe to begin a new life in a new land. Working together on the Scheme, they became part of the Snowy family — former enemies and allies working side by side.
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