Before the official opening of the power station in April 1955, a sudden crank of the turbines caused a gush of water so large, it destroyed several nearby prefabricated structures on the banks of the Snowy River, NSW.
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00:00Music
00:14For almost 70 years we talked about diverting the snowy river inland
00:18and making use of the vast annual source of water from the melting snows on the great dividing ridge.
00:24Music
00:29Before Prime Minister Menzies opened the Gothiga power station, staff here thought they should give the turbines a bit of a test run.
00:39Lucky they did.
00:41For water gushed down these penstocks with such force that it destroyed a couple of prefabricated buildings on the other side of the creek.
00:49The Gothiga was the first power station as part of the snowy hydro scheme and its scale and size captured the imagination of the nation.
00:59It was a hard and slow slog for the workers in trying conditions.
01:05Check out the snail's pace of this Antar Prime mover as it delivers material to the remote site.
01:13During the final stages of construction one workman slipped all the way down one of those penstocks.
01:21Luckily he survived but not surprisingly he ended up battered and bruised.
01:27This is a day for the Australian history books.
01:35We are here in the snowy mountains to see the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable R.G. Menzies start the power streaming from the Manyang Gothiga powerhouse.
01:43Thankfully the opening went much more smoothly, except for one little detail.
01:50The fridge had broken down and so when Prime Minister Menzies was served a cocktail,
01:55a flustered waiter chilled his drink with ice that he'd grabbed from, wait for it, a horse trough that had frozen overnight.
02:06Thankfully the PM didn't notice.
02:10In the history of Australia.
02:13But I've been told that I'm to move a switch here.
02:17And as usual when I move a switch, nothing happens for a little while.
02:23It takes apparently a couple of minutes for the turbines to warm up.
02:28Many Norwegians who worked on the Gothiga project enjoyed skiing off a jump made at nearby Gothiga Dam.
02:34There are also reports of some daredevils skiing down that steep slope beside the penstocks.
02:42Heck, my neck sore from just looking up there.