The majority of Australians may no longer know the significance of what they did, but for 44 years workers from the Snowy Mountains Scheme have met at an Ainslie park to remember their roles in the country's greatest engineering feat.
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On November 6, the now elderly workers will meet again at Corroboree Park for the final time.
Denis Woodhams, 84, an engineering geologist who moved from England in 1956 to work on the scheme, said the difficulties of tough working conditions – 98 per cent of the project was underground – and temporary accommodation brought the diverse workforce together.
"It was a different existence, we had to depend on one another, and a camaraderie built up among people of many origins," he said.
Each year about 70 workers had made it to the park.
"We enjoy a chat and a meal together," he said.
"In the past the BBQs used to appear, but we are no longer up to operating them."
Migrants from more than 30 countries made up 70 per cent of the 100,000-strong workforce across the scheme's 25-year operation.
Artur Baumhammer, 81, from Isabella Plains, arrived from Germany at 16 to work on the project.
His father, a carpenter, had arrived a year earlier in 1951, one of the first 44 Germans to be flown out to Australia by plane from Berlin.
He said he had a great satisfaction remembering what he helped achieve, highlighted again this month as the scheme was placed on the national heritage list.
The annual gathering had been a place to make friends again, with "people who endured the same hardship and missed out on things they'd normally enjoy during their early lives," he said.
As the Australian Bureau of Statistics described, the scheme, which began in 1949, captures the south-flowing waters of the Snowy River and its tributary, the Eucumbene, at high elevations and diverts them inland to the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers, through two tunnel systems driven through the Snowy Mountains. The tunnel, pipeline and aqueduct network is more than 225 kilometres long.
Seven hydro-electric power stations, two of them underground, generate power for NSW and Victoria.
"[Before the scheme] Canberra had power, from Kingston power station, that operated 24 hours a day, but most of NSW had only intermittent power, local diesel power stations that shut down at midnight," Mr Woodhams said.
"We stimulated the development of infrastructure which was needed for Australia to flourish."
While the ageing workers had agreed it was best to finish the annual meeting, a monthly coffee group, the Snowy Hydro Friends and Family Social Group, has recently been started by a scheme child.
