O’Punksky’s Theatre, in collaboration with award winning author Siobhan McHugh, are creating an exciting piece of theatre which draws on the myths and legends of one of the world’s most ancient mountain ranges, a timeless setting for the beginnings of a young multicultural nation.
The play follows the story of a group of immigrants from war ravaged Europe, forging a new life for themselves on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. As they work day and night damming and tunnelling, they will change the course of entire rivers to bring water to the arid interior of their adopted continent.
Unique to theatre in this country, this is story telling on a large scale. As such the production is designed to be installed in non-conventional spaces such as factories, warehouses and industrial sites. This will convey the impact and raw excitement of the time, attracting those who may not be regular theatre goers. For those who know and love the theatre it will offer a vibrant new approach to performance.
O’Punksky’s Theatre is devoted to the art and vitality of theatre. In bringing to life this most important turning point in Australia’s history, we are contributing to the growth and enjoyment of theatre itself and to a greater understanding of the forces that have shaped modern Australia.There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune...
William Shakespeare
A History
In the relatively short history of Australia since federation, there are few moments which more clearly define its ‘coming of age’ as much as the establishment of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. Still regarded as one of the world’s greatest engineering feats, it not only represents a significant technical achievement but also marks the beginning of substantial European immigration to this country.
Out of the ruins of post-war Europe they came in their hundreds of thousands - men and women wanting a new life; a chance to begin from scratch. Many had nothing left but the shirts on their backs. While the decision to leave the country of your birth permanently could never be an easy one, for those who had lost whole families in the war, Australia represented a place where painful memories could be put aside and a future created - a place where hard work would be rewarded and neither class nor politics could stand in the way of success.
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was the first major opportunity for many displaced persons and assisted migrants to take the ‘tide’ at its ‘flood’. For skilled and unskilled workers alike it offered the chance to migrate to Australia if they agreed to take a manual job for two years on arrival. In return they would be paid much more than the average wage at the time, enabling them of the chance to build homes and establish their new lives. Approximately one hundred thousand people took up this opportunity between 1949 and 1974.
As many as seventy different nationalities would ultimately work the Snowy, coming from countries with names that many Australians could barely pronounce, never mind identify. Some would work alongside men from nations who during the war were their arch enemies. Despite some initial tensions the Scheme came to represent one of the most successful multicultural projects of the time - a model to the rest of the world of what could come from a little tolerance and a lot of hard work.
This massive influx of different cultures would change the social fabric of Australia in ways that could scarcely have been dreamt of before the scheme was established. To the culinary staple of ‘meat and three veg’ with lashings of dripping, tea and beer was now added pasta, pastries, coffee and wine. The country that we are today, with all of its colour and diversity, owes much to this time of struggle and triumph - when Australia opened its doors to the world.
It was wet, it was nasty - it was damn dangerous! - but I think anyone that’s been there was a better man for it. It taught me everything I’ve known. It even taught me how to live with a small family and a very understanding wife through fourteen moves, and raise four kids in camps and townships ... but hell, I don’t know of any one of those men in the underground years that didn’t take a great joy out of being part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. It was a great thing in its time!
Col Purcill, Australian Safety Inspector
The Snowy - The People Behind The Power
By Siobhan McHugh
A story that needs to be told...
A well-used phrase perhaps but one that Australians do not use often enough. What are the moments in our history that have served to make this country great? When asked this question, many Australians will suggest that because we are a relatively young country we do not have many achievements to speak of. This answer is so inadequate it borders on the embarrassing. But how can we expect the average Australian to know of this country’s achievements if we do not tell them?
America, England, Ireland, France, anywhere where an artistic culture exists, the stories of their past are what fuels their art, so that everyone knows what it means to live in and be a part of the country of their birth. Films like Gallipoli and Breaker Morant and plays such as One Day of the Year are wonderful examples of how successful this type of story telling can be - but they are few and far between. How many plays or films have we made about Kokoda, the fall of the Whitlam Government or our Federation? We know more about George Washington than we do about Edmund Barton!
The Snowy Mountain Project represents an excellent chance to tell one of the most important stories of our past. Based on the NSW State Literary Award winning book The Snowy - The People Behind the Power by Siobhan McHugh, it focuses on the tunnels and the people who worked in them. As such it deals with that first great wave of European migration to this country and its effect on those involved, as well as the hardships and achievements of the scheme itself.
“How” the story will be told will most definitely set it apart from the rest. Performed in and out of doors, the staging will incorporate vehicles of the period, train carriages and earthmoving equipment. There is also the possibility of audience involvement in the ‘wet canteen’, the nightclubs of cosmopolitan Cooma and games of two-up. Some of the story will take place in the tunnels where drilling and other special effects will be integral to the theatre of the piece. Drawn from the real events described in McHugh’s book, the play will not be presented in a linear form but told with the language of theatre - with image, music and situation. It will be a piece of theatre which allows the audience not only to watch the story unfold but to experience the atmosphere of this most extraordinary moment in Australia’s history.
Any dangerous labouring job that men do, you’ve got to be a bit reckless, a bit daring. They’re naturally brave people - they’re of the elite. The same sort of people in the army would probably be in the commandos.
Ulick O’Boyle, Irish labourer and First Aid Officer
The Snowy - The People Behind The Power
By Siobhan McHughSponsorship Opportunities
The Snowy Mountains Project offers excellent promotional opportunities for any company wishing to become a sponsor. With a substantial promotional budget, we expect to conduct a campaign that covers all aspects of print, radio and television. Naturally our sponsors will feature in all paid advertising as well as advertising space in programmes and logo identification on all posters and at the venue during performance. What is far more exciting however, is the amount of editorial such an event will attract.
The Snowy Mountains Scheme is approaching the 50th Anniversary of its birth and the 25th Anniversary of the Scheme’s completion. The Anniversary celebrations officially take place in 1999 and the Snowy Mountains Authority commenced lead up activities at the end of last year when they launched their ‘Search for the Snowy Veterans’ at a media event on 17 October 1996. These events will continue as a lead-up to a global reunion of the Snowy veterans, to be held on 17 October 1999 in the mountains themselves. Association through us with this major PR exercise will give rise to editorial features on the event, the history of the Scheme and ASEA Brown Boveri’s (ABB) involvement with the project.
This last point is a most important one for ABB. If you choose to be our major or sole sponsor, we could incorporate substantial editorial about your important association with the Snowy Mountains Scheme through ASEA Electric, as you were then called. Articles and features about the multicultural aspects of the story as well as the engineering feat itself can more than accommodate reference to the role which your company has had in the project. Thus when we talk about what is essentially the beginning of a truly multicultural Australia, we are also talking about the early days of ABB. Such editorial exposure is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising when you take into account the length of the project as well as the demographic it will reach.
The Snowy Mountains Project will have an initial season in a Sydney venue in the second half of 1997. Because of the nature of the show we will open in a large and unconventional space. We are currently looking at spaces within the Sydney Showground and at the Eveleigh Rail Yards in Redfern, both of which have been used successfully for events of a similar scale. After the Sydney season, we will tour the production to regional centres in NSW. At this stage we are considering the more industrial centres of Newcastle, Wollongong and of course Cooma itself. We will then take the show on a tour of Australia, ultimately leading up to and including the 50th Anniversary of the Snowy Scheme and the Sydney Olympics 2000. Already, we have received expressions of interest from touring companies to take the show overseas, so an international tour is a definite possibility for the future.