Yet the Snowy Mountains are perhaps best known for the Snow Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, a project begun in 1949 employing a hundred thousand men, two thirds of whom came from thirty other countries during the post World War II years. Socially this project symbolises a period during which Australia became the "melting pot" of the twentith centry but which also changed Australias character and increased its appreciation for a wide range of cultural diversities.
By 1974, 145 kilometres of underground tunnels and 80 kilometres of aqueducts connected the 16 dams, 7 power stations (2 underground) and one pumping station. By 1967 the American Society of Engineers rated the Snowy Scheme as one of the seven engineering wonders of the modern world. Though the principles of Hydroelectricity are simple, this project provided a corner stone of Australian industry and cultural change during the second half of the twentith centry.