The
Snowy Mountains Scheme is a massive water
diversion and storage scheme, taking water
from the eastern slopes of the Australian
Alps (part of the Great Dividing Range)
in eastern Victoria and southern New South
Wales through pipes, tunnels and aqueducts
into a series of dams, for use in hydro-electric
power generation and irrigation in the
Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys. The scheme
created two major artificial lakes, Lake
Eucumbene and Lake Jindabyne as well as
a number of smaller lakes and pondages.
The associated Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric
Scheme is one of the most complex integrated
water and hydro-electric power schemes
in the world. Listed as a "world-class
civil engineering project" by the
American Society of Civil Engineers; the
scheme interlocks 7 power stations and
16 major dams through 145 kilometres of
trans-mountain tunnels and 80 kilometres
of aqueducts. The Scheme is in an area
of 5,124 square kilometres, almost entirely
within the Kosciuszko National Park.
The
Yarra's lower reaches travel through central
Melbourne. It is approximately 242 kilometres
in length, with a mean annual flow of
718,000 megalitres. It is the most westerly
snow fed river in Australia. The total
catchment area is approximately 4000 square
kilometres. Some of the Yarra's major
tributaries include the Maribyrnong River,
Plenty River, the Merri Creek, Darebin
Creek and the Moonee Ponds Creek. The
river's source is a series of swamps in
the upper reaches of the Yarra Ranges
National Park, directly to the east of
the Baw Baw plateau a thickly forested
subalpine park, which are entirely closed-off
to all except the employees of Melbourne
Water. The park features extensive stands
of mountain ash, a very tall eucalypt,
tree ferns, as well as patches of remnant
rainforest. The Upper Yarra Dam, one of
a number of dams in the Yarra Catchment
that supply most of Melbourne's water,
is the furthest upstream point on the
river visible to the general public (though
the dam itself is closed off). The first
settlement the still-young river passes
through is the small town of Reefton,
but most of the river is surrounded by
hills covered temperate forest until the
subalpine resort town of Warburton. The
Woods Point Road follows the river through
this section.
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