Snowy Mountains

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Overlooking the Talbingo Reservoir, Snowy Mountains Scheme

The Snowy Mountains ( " Snowies ", sometimes also Australian in the German Alps ) are the highest mountains of the Australian mainland, but not of the Australian continent, and include the highest mountain Mount Kosciuszko with a height of 2228 m, and the second highest mountain Mount Townsend with a height of 2209 m in the Kosciuszko National Park.

Location

The Snowy Mountains are located in south-eastern Australia in the states of Victoria and New South Wales, south-west of Canberra. The Snowy Mountains are part of the Great Dividing Range, the Coast Ranges, which pulls down the east coast from north Queensland to Victoria. The highest peaks protrude above the tree line. Several lakes are evidence of massive glaciers that covered the mountains during the ice ages. In the Snowy Mountains Snowy River the rivers, the Murrumbidgee and Murray, which are home to some of the oldest known organisms.

Aboriginal

In the area of ​​south-eastern Australia Aborigines lived for over 20,000 years, with their own identity and language. The native Aborigines of the Snowy Mountains talked Ngarigo. The territory of Ngarigo extended 200 km north and south of the Snowy Mountains beyond and 120km east of Mount Kosciusczko. The related language group Wolgal or Walgalu remained at around the Murrumbidgee and Tumut River to Kiandra, south of Tintaldra and northeast of Queanbeyan.

In the first voyage of discovery by Europeans in search of the Aborigines came in 1823 at Cooma by the Europeans Currie and Ovens and an Aboriginal who helped in the understanding, as they came to a peaceful meeting of a group of Aboriginal people, which were staying in the Snowy Mountains.

Before the time of European colonization when the Bogong moths gathered here for Summering, more than thousands of Aborigines came from about 25,000 in New South Wales, then living Aborigines in the Snowy Mountains. Those who did not speak Ngarigo came from the Monarogebiet, Ngunnawal speaking tribes from the southern highlands and Yuin -speaking Aboriginal people of the south east coast of Australia, as well as other groups from the south of the Snowy Mountains. The moths were an important food source for the Aboriginal people were roasted in sand or ashes, and then eaten in one piece or ground into a paste and dried to a tough cake.

The Aborigines were displaced by the European colonization of the Snowy Mountains and the surrounding highlands. The initial European settlement was accelerated by the discovery of gold in Kiandra in 1859. The encounters between Aborigines and settlers were rare. 1877 were seen on the goldfields of Kiandra Aborigines by a government official, the opium were dependent. In the area of Tumut died the last Aborigines in 1877, in the Canberra area in 1897 and the " last of the Snowy Mountains Aboriginal " died at the age of 62 years in the area of Cooma in 1916.

Development

The study began in 1835. Known the Snowies were a dam project that Snowy Mountains system. It is a dam project of the Snowy River, which should guarantee both drinking water and electricity for Canberra. Began in 1949 with the project, this 100,000 people were employed, of which two-thirds came from 30 other countries. Social marked this era for Australia, the emergence of a "melting pot ", which changed to a character of Australia and encouraged the other hand its opening to other cultures.

1974, 145 km of tunnel and 80 km aqueducts were built, ( 2 of them underground) and a pumping station combined 16 dams, 7 power stations with each other. The largest dam of the plant is 162 meters, the Talbingo Dam dar. 1967 downgraded the American Society of Engineers, the Snowy Scheme as one of seven engineering wonders of the modern world. Although the principles of electricity from hydropower are simple, this project was a milestone in Australia's industrial and cultural development in the 20th century.

Tourism

At 140 days of the year snow covers the peaks. Today the Snowies are the center of Australia's winter tourism. Well-known ski resorts are Thredbo, Falls Creek and Mount Hotham. The winter sports season lasts from June to October.