The Snowy Mountains

After a VERY slow drive towing the caravan over Brown Mountain (I could have walked faster!), we arrived at our next campsite. We are staying in a roadside rest area about 20ks north of Cooma.  We were amazed at the sudden change in terrain once we were over the mountain. We kept waiting for the Cowboys and Indians to come over the horizon on horseback.  It almost looks like the desert here. The landscape has changed from lush green farmland to a stark, dry, brown open terrain. The Snowy Mountains loom over the land below with a very powerful presence. They are beautiful to watch and change colour throughout the day.

Cooma was a small country town before the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme opened in 1949. Cooma became the headquarters for the Snowy Hydro Scheme and is now nicknamed “the Gateway to the Snowy Mountains”.

We are only staying here for a few days before heading to the ACT. We spent a beautiful sunny autumn day at the park in town where the kids had a great time on the playground and playing with the fallen leaves.

The boys visited the Snowy Mountain Hydro Discovery Centre with Dan while I spent a few hours with my Kindle, while Zaccy slept.

I will let Sam tell you about the visit...

“When we went to the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre, we learnt all about how they used water to make electricity. They had lots of exhibits to go to and a theatre which told you how they make electricity. The water flows into big machines and the machine spins. The electricity comes out of the machines by using magnets.”

“The electricity is then used to top up the electricity all around Australia. It was clever because they built pipes which go underground and lead to lots of power stations. The pipes link all the dams together.  They use water from the snow and built dams all over the Snowy Mountains. The snow melts and runs down the mountains and is caught in the dams and then pumped through the pipes to the power stations.”

“There was a picture of all the dams and where the pipes go. There were lots of power stations on the picture and they had two different plans. One was the Snowy Mountains system and the other was the Murray system. It took years to build and they brought lots of people in from other countries to help build it. Thousands of people helped build the system and about 260 people died. ”

“One of the exhibits they showed you how much electricity is used to power a kettle. You had to peddle a bike and go really fast. On a wall it showed you how much energy you needed and the faster you peddled the more energy you made. Will loved the bike, but he went so fast that his foot slipped off and he cut his leg! He didn’t like it after that!”

Next stop.... off to our Nation’s Capital to experience some culture and history.