Rich history of the Snowy Monaro
The Snowy Monaro region is on Ngarigo country. The region played host to large intertribal gatherings in the High Country beginning at least 20,000 years ago.
The area was first explored by Europeans in 1835, and soon after the region became a favourite for stockmen to graze their animals during summer. It was about this period that Banjo Paterson wrote his famous poem ‘The Man From Snowy River’.
The 19th century Australian goldrush saw thousands of people flock to Kiandra in search of gold. Grazing, gold and timber made towns like Dalgety, long the safest place to cross the Snowy River, prosper as goods and people travelled from coast to mountains and back.
It was around this time the first recorded recreation skiing took place. The pastime boomed in the 1950s when the region became home to an influx of workers from all over the world for the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.
The scheme was considered an engineering marvel, and consists of nine power stations, 16 major dams, 80 kilometres of aqueducts and 145 kilometres of interconnected tunnels.
