Australia 1999 Snowy Mountains Scheme 50th Anniversary
- Issue Date: 12 August 1999
- Designed by: Fragile Design
- Printed by: SNP Ausprint
- Print Process: Lithography
- Stamp Size: 37.5 mm x 26 mm
- Withdrawal date: 31 December 1999
Description
1999 marks the 50th anniversary of the Snowy Mountains Scheme – a Scheme that became a source of national pride in the post-war years and remains one of the greatest engineering projects undertaken in Australian history. The Snowy Mountains Scheme is widely regarded to be the most complex, multi-purpose, multi-reservoir hydro scheme in the world. It diverts water through huge trans-mountain tunnels (via power stations for the generation of electricity) before releasing it into the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers for irrigation or river management purposes. There are seven power stations, a pumping station and 16 major dams, 145 kilometres of interconnected trans-mountain tunnels and 80 kilometres of aqueducts that collect and divert water. Water collected and stored by the Snowy Mountains Scheme is used to generate renewable electricity without pollution before being released for irrigation.
Overall, between 1949 and 1974 some 100,000 people worked on the construction of the Scheme, two thirds of them migrant workers, with the workforce reaching a peak of 7,300 in 1959. The Snowy Mountains Scheme is widely recognised as the birthplace of successful multiculturalism in Australia. Workers from more than 30 countries worked on the Scheme. They came from Australia, Austria, Finland, Jordan, Russia, the United States, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, Estonia, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Romania and the Ukraine, to name a few.
Stamps
Four values of 45c printed se-tenant.
Sheet Stamps
- Perforations: 14 x 14½
- Format: sheets of 50 (two panes of 25 separated by printed gutter)
45c Drilling and Rock Bolting Stamp
This stamp shows a driller at the Burns Creek heading at the Tooma-Tumut Tunnel (1959) and workers engaged in rock bolting in the Tumut 2 Power Station Hall (1959). Rock bolting is a process developed on the Scheme to stabilise tunnels.
45c English Class Stamp
An English class for migrant workers at Cooma (1951) is depicted on this stamp.
45c Tailwater Tunnel and Eucumbene Dam Stamp
Featured on this stamp is the Tumut 2 Tailwater Tunnel (1960) and the Eucumbene Dam (1959).
45c Carpenters and Island Bend Dam Stamp
A group of German carpenters (1951), and the Island Bend Dam is shown on this stamp.
Se-tenant Block
Gutter Strip
The printed gutter strip features a Snowy Mountains landscape.
Self-adhesive Stamps
- Perforations: serpentine die cut 11¾
- Format: coils of 100
Single Stamps
Coil Strip
First Day Covers
The first day of issue postmark was Cooma NSW 2630.
Maximum Cards
