Snowy Mountains (redirected from The Snowies)

Snowy Mountains, range of the Australian Alps, SE Australia. It is the site of the Snowy Mts. Hydroelectric Scheme, Australia's most extensive hydroelectricity and irrigation complex. The scheme was begun in 1949 and completed in 1972. A series of dams and tunnels control the Tumut and Snowy-Murray river systems and divert water from eastward-flowing streams back across the Great Dividing Range. Seven power stations have a combined capacity of 3,740,000 kW.

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Snowy Mountains 

a mountain range in southeastern Australia, in the Australian Alps system. The highest elevation is 2,230 m (Mount Kosciusko). The peaks are covered with snow approximately five months of the year. In order to use the waters of the Snowy River for irrigation and as a source of electric power, 2.5 billion cu m of water per year are diverted across a divide into the basin of the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers. For this purpose, work was begun in 1949 on a major hydro-engineering complex consisting of 14 reservoirs and nine hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of approximately 4 gigawatts. The project was for the most part completed by 1970. [23–1885–]