The Women of the Snowy Mountain Scheme
In 1949 the Snowy Mountains Scheme was born - a massive engineering project to divert the waters of the mountain streams inland to the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, providing water for irrigation and hydroelectric power. It was the largest plan ever conceived in Australia's history, and to build it a huge workforce was assembled. People from over thirty nations would embrace life in Cooma and the small mountain townships of Cabramurra, Khancoban, Island Bend and Talbingo. The story of the project and the social experiment it became is an extraordinary one and much has been written of the men who built the Snowy.
But what of the women? For there were many highly motivated women, young and old, who made the Snowy their lives. They were staff working on various projects, Australian and migrant wives coping with the harshest pioneering conditions and professionals challenging and overcoming stereotypes of race and sex. By 1952 there were 108 "girls" on staff and more than 200 wives, and they carved out a vital multicultural community of which future generations could be justly proud.
In 'Snowfraus' Kirsty McGoldrick has collected the stories of many of the Snowy women, their memories of the good times and the challenging ones. These are recalled with lively humour and a marvellous sense of wonder at how different it was then.
