The Snowy

The Snowy: A History tells the extraordinary story of the mostly migrant workforce who built one of the world’s engineering marvels.


The Snowy Scheme was an extraordinary engineering feat carried out over twenty-five years from 1949 to 1974 – one that drove rivers through tunnels built through the Australian Alps, irrigated the dry inland and generated energy for the densely populated east coast. It was also a site of post-war social engineering that helped create a diverse multicultural nation. 

Siobhán McHugh’sThe Snowy reveals the human stories of migrant workers, high country locals, politicians and engineers. It also examines the difficult and dangerous aspects of such a major construction in which 121 men lost their lives. Rich and evocative, this prize-winning account of the remarkable Snowy Scheme is available again for the 70th anniversary of this epic nation-building project.