Snowy Hydro Collection (1949 - 1974)
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Series synopsis:
This is not strictly a series but a collection of films and footage shot and produced in the main by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority (SMHEA) film unit, during construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme between 1949 and 1974.
Curator’s Notes:
The Snowy Mountains Scheme was a massive undertaking. With its 7 power stations, 16 major dams, pumping station, 145km of interconnected tunnels and 80km of aqueducts, it covered an operating area of 5,124 sq kms in the Southern Alps. As a publicly funded infrastructure project, it was unprecedented. However it was not without its critics. To both record the progress and to advance the cause of the project, a special photographic section, including moving image, was set up. Harry Malcolm, at the time an established cinematographer of documentary and drama, was contracted by the Commonwealth on behalf of the SMHEA to make films on all aspects of the construction of the scheme. Malcolm’s film unit documented construction and related subjects and events from about 1951 through to completion of the scheme in 1974.
For Malcolm it was a welcome appointment. His career had commenced in the early 1930s and he’d worked with the likes of Ken Hall and Charles Chauvel. By the early 1950s the Australian film industry had virtually collapsed and he, like others, was finding his only work on newsreels and documentaries. The Snowy film unit job saw him right through the tough times to the beginnings of the renaissance.
The National Archives of Australia’s Snowy Hydro series consists of about 300 titles produced by the unit. About 130 of these are edited and completed films. These range from training and information films for scheme personnel to broadly informative public education programmes. They vary in length – some as short as two-minute-long safety messages. Most follow a conventional instructional documentary style and format, with authoritative narration typical of the period. Many of the safety titles are humorous. The remaining 170 titles are collections of rushes or unedited footage, some with sound and some mute. They contain material such as engineering and technical tests (surge tanks, spillways, explosives, power stations, wind studies, etc), royal visits to the scheme, stock shots for use in specific productions, recorded milestones in the scheme’s construction, and collections of outtakes from other titles. In all titles the technical standard of the cinematography and camera work is excellent, almost everything being shot by the highly-trained Malcolm. Sound quality in the earlier titles, produced when location recording was still very constrained, is more variable, but improves vastly in the later titles.
Titles in this collection
Snowy Hydro – Conquest of the Rivers (1957)
Produced in 1957 by the SMHEA photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film promotes the Snowy Mountains Scheme as a source of employment for local Australian recruits.
Snowy Hydro – Conservation in the Snowy Mountains (1955)
Produced in 1955 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity Authority (SMHEA) photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film traces the history of soil erosion in the Snowy Mountains and demonstrates the approach taken by the Snowy Mountains Scheme to ...
Snowy Hydro – Gardens of the Snowy Mountains (1967)
Produced around 1967 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority (SMHEA) photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film promotes the establishment and maintenance of gardens, for the beautification of the newly established townships in the Snowy Mountains.
Snowy Hydro – Operation Adaminaby (1958)
Produced in 1958 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity Authority (SMHEA) photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film tells the story of moving the old town of Adaminaby to allow for the damming of the Eucumbene River.
Snowy Hydro – Safety on the Snowy Scheme (1964)
Produced in 1964 by the SMHEA photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al. with narration by James Dibble), it’s one of the many films made for the Snowy Mountains Joint Safety and Rehabilitation Council. The film sets out a range of ...
Snowy Hydro – Snowy 69 (1969)
In 1969 the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electricity Authority (SMHEA) was entering the final stages of its twenty five year construction period. Produced by the Scheme’s own photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al. with narration by James Dibble), the film explains ...
Snowy Hydro – Sound and Safe (1963)
Produced in 1963 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electricity Authority (SMHEA) photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film lays out safety procedures for hard rock tunnelling.
Snowy Hydro – The Best of the Years (1974)
A documentary record of the construction and completion of the Snowy Mountains Scheme from 1949 to 1974. The film examines the multicultural work force and its achievement in building one of the world’s largest hydroelectric schemes to that date.
Snowy Hydro – The Construction of Geehi Dam (1967)
Produced in 1967 by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority (SMHEA) photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al. with narration by James Dibble), the film is a fairly technical description of the construction of Geehi Dam.
Snowy Hydro – The Jindabyne Story (c1965)
Produced in 1964–5 by the SMHEA photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film tells the story of the moving of the town of Jindabyne to make way for Lake Jindabyne.
Snowy Hydro – The Snowy Flows Inland (1954)
Produced in 1954 by the Australian National Film Board, the film presents the aims and objectives of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and looks at the preliminary phase operations.
Snowy Hydro – The Snowy Mountains Scheme (1952)
Completed somewhere around 1952, the film celebrates the achievements of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, now three years into its endeavour.
Snowy Hydro – The Snowy–Murray Development (1969)
Produced in 1969 by the SMHEA photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al. with narration by James Dibble), the film marks the completion of the Snowy-Murray Development – the northern section of the scheme. The development is explained and the construction ...
Snowy Hydro – Where Giants Meet (1948)
Produced in 1948 by Cambridge Film Productions for Industrial Sales and Service (ISAS) and the SMHEA, the film is both a domestic recruitment promotion for the Snowy Mountains Scheme and an ode to the International TD-24 bulldozer.
Snowy Hydro – Where Men and Mountains Meet (1963)
Produced in 1963 by the SMHEA photographic unit (Harry Malcolm et al.), the film looks at the spectrum of male work involved in the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
