The Snowy River at Jindabyne before regulation
The Snowy River, the way it was
The Snowy River at Jindabyne before regulation
For thousands, if not millions, of years the Snowy River carved an impressive path from Mt. Kosciuszko to Marlo on the Victorian coast. The Snowy was a broad shouldered mountain river, of more than 500 kilometres in length, often testing and tempting the courage of man and beast.
Unlike many Australian rivers it was a regularly flowing river fed from a large relatively predictable catchment. Each year the spring snow melts flowed for many months, with summer flows being swamped occasionally by pulses from summer storms. This liquid and dynamic system regularly changed and reformed the river's pattern of the pool riffle sequence (alternating deep pools and fast-flowing rapids) stimulating the natural flora and fauna. The stimulation of activity was not confined to the riverine biota but also to human activity and habitation.
The Snowy River and the landscape that it flows through is unique in character to Australia. The Snowy is born in the highest mountains in the country. It echoes through what is now Kosciuszko National Park, spilling down spectacular gorges, revealing itself on the dry Monaro Plains, turning the bend into some of Australia's most breathtaking mountain landscape before entering the coastal farmland, flood plain and estuary.
| The Snowy River, a trout fisherman's paradise and one of the best Australian
Bass rivers was recognised world wide. The Snowy formed the backbone of
a very large catchment supporting many other world class fishing streams
that relied on the Snowy for the maintenance of their fauna. This significant
river system also played an incalculable role in dispersing nutrients,
young fish and crustaceans through the Snowy River estuary, stimulating
the coastal fishery and triggering fish migration.
It is little wonder that the stunning beauty of the Snowy River and the majestic nature of the country with its thousand foot gorges, sheer bluffs and high mountain peaks, have inspired and captured the imagination of poets, script writers and song writers. The attention hasn't stopped there, with activities such as fossicking, canoeing, swimming, fishing, horse riding, camping, bushwalking, boating, farming and tourism also centring around the Snowy River. |
The dynamics of this once great river that existed for many thousands of years were maybe too impressive, attracting one final inspiration of man (a hydroelectric scheme), so that in one fell swoop it was gone.
