I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains
Of rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains

These well loved words of poet Dorothea McKellar could well have been written specifically about Snowy River Shire. The Shire is located in the Southeast corner of NSW. It has an area of 6059 square kilometres and is surrounded on three sides by Kosciuszko National Park, with the Snowy River forming the southeast boundary. The area is characterised in the east by rolling plains and in the west and south by rugged mountain ranges. Much of the Shire is subject to snow, ice and high winds during the winter months, while summer is usually a time of blue skies and moderate temperatures.

Whilst the Snowy River provides the ultimate iconic image of the shire, it is actually the mountains which underpin the social history and economic development of recent times.

Seasonal use of the mountains and their resources has been a feature of the history of human interaction with this unique environment

The relationship of local indigenous people with the mountains is complex and not clearly understood. The widely held belief that aboriginal people "died out" on the Monaro after the advent of white people is now universally discredited. The notion that they congregated in the mountains for a few short weeks to feast on bogong moths and engage in bartering, trading and marriage arrangements has also been largely discounted as being far too simplistic.

A number of alternative scenarios have been developed by academics and researchers in a range of specialist areas [1] . Whilst there is still no agreement on the exact nature and extent of the interaction of the aboriginal people with the mountains, three strands of activity seem to have been clearly identified. These include the utilisation of a range of food and other resources over a number of different environments and localities in the region; a spiritual connecting with the land; and social and economic interaction with people from other regions.

For the first white settlers it was the land.

The first white exploration of the area occurred in 1824 with Hume and Hovell sighting the Main Range from the west (near present day Tumbarumba) and Currie, Ovens and Wild coming down from Lake George to near present day Cooma. Settlement followed soon after, the establishment of Gegedzerick Run near Berridale being recorded in 1827 - or if locals are to be believed, settlement actually pre-dated the official opening up of the area with Thomas Pendergast settling in at Moonbah in 1821 with 400 head of cattle.

For the miners, it was the gold.

The discovery of gold at Kiandra in 1859 signalled the beginning of the rush in the mountains. Within six months Kiandra grew from nothing to between 10,000 and 15,000. Within another 12 months it was almost over, with only 400-500 industrious Chinese remaining to pick over the tailings.

Today there is little trace of the miners and their search for gold. They did however leave a legacy. Those serious-looking bearded men with fence palings strapped to their boots formed the first ski club in the world and foreshadowed a major industry of Snowy River .... recreational skiing.

For the graziers it was the lush mountain pastures

Between the demise of the miners and the advent of full-on tourism development there was almost 100 years of fairly orderly expansion and consolidation of the area's rural base. A distinctive feature of grazing in this area was the use of "snow leases" to spell the lowland pastures. Every summer mobs of sheep and cattle were moved up to the high country in October-November, staying there until the first snows in May.

Today, the major land use in the Shire is still grazing. Although there is little prime agricultural land, there are significant areas of prime grazing land. These have been identified by the Department of Agriculture as Class 4 agricultural land (suitable for grazing but not for cultivation).

For the engineers it was the water and power

Proposals for the development of the waters of the Snowy River date back to 1884. Initial schemes were to provide irrigation; others sought to use the waters of the Snowy for power generation. The first dual-purpose development (ie: power and irrigation) of any magnitude was proposed in 1944. By this time the governments of NSW, Victoria and the Commonwealth were all interested, and in 1949 the Snowy Mountains Authority was established to oversee the construction and operation of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme.

The completion of the scheme over 30 years later saw the construction of 6 major dams and 10 smaller ones; the deployment of a workforce of over 1600 professional, technical and administrative officers, and twice as many labourers and tradesmen; the establishment of a dozen construction camps and townships; as well as the re-location/ re-construction of the towns of Jindabyne and Adaminaby.

The Snowy Scheme left tangible results of dams, roads, power stations, transmission lines and new towns. Some would see also a legacy of social dislocation, a stranglehold on land ownership, and ongoing issues around water catchment responsibilities, degradation of waterways and reduction in river flows.

However, since the corporatisation of Snowy Hydro in late 2002 significant progress has been made in some areas, notably in the restoration of environmental flows to the Snowy River and more recently - 2004 - the release of urban land for development around the township of Jindabyne.

For the fishermen, skiers and tourists it was and continues to be the unique alpine environment

Tourism, which is the economic mainstay of the area in 2004, had its beginnings exactly a century ago, with rainbow and brown trout released into the mountain streams as early as 1894. The NSW Government played a pivotal role, initiating the construction of the Kosciuszko Road in 1906, and building both "The Creel", (a fisherman's lodge on the Thredbo River) and the Hotel Kosciuszko in 1909 and the Kosciuszko Chalet at Charlotte Pass in 1928. During the 1930's and 40's the Government Tourist Bureau and the Department of Railways actively promoted the area for school and other group excursions .... the precursor in effect of the mass tourism which characterises the region in the winter months today.

Today it could be said that all the key players have a stake in maintaining the unique alpine environment of the region. This has been recognised by Council and is embodied within Council's vision

"a caring community, in a unique environment with a prosperous future"

[1] The Aboriginal People of the Monaro. Michael Young. National Parks and Wildlife Service. 2002