Some Hydro history

Sophie Boot’s article and photo (“The plan from Snowy River”, December 15–21) almost brought a tear to my eye. As a young geophysicist, my first job with Snowy Hydro in 1966 was to seismically determine what needed blasting and what could be ripped with a D9 bulldozer at Tumut 3 dam site in Talbingo, NSW. This was critical, as blasting was seven times more expensive than ripping. I also surveyed the foundations for the Liddell coalfired power station. I recently turned 80 and am not at all unhappy to see Tumut 3 dam standing proudly as a prescient monument to the inevitable renewable-energy juggernaut, nor that Liddell is in its final days.

– Ian Nowak, Subiaco, WA