Well it’s been a wild couple of days, I’ve never been Murdoched, but now I have the measure of it.
When I got the call the Daily Telegraph was asking questions about my trip to Snowy 2 I knew it wouldn’t be because they loved my work.
I answered the journalist’s questions (which had a clear agenda) and waited. It was the waiting that left me with a sick feeling in my stomach, but once I saw the headline I felt sheer relief. The fact they hadn’t bothered to check the spelling of Snowy Hydro (Snow Hydryo) was icing on the cake.
I realised that “3k payday” was such a desperate stretch (it’s not a huge sum of money) certainly not for a week’s work, it works out to be $44 an hour before tax and super.
And it was quite the week, I’ll go through what that 3k paid for.
My trip began with a very early flight (7:30am) that had me racing to the airport to catch an rescheduled earlier flight as mine had been cancelled, yes I was THAT person running though the airport with my name being sternly repeated over the tannoy.
Landing in Canberra, Sam from Snowy and I jumped in a hire car and drove to Cooma. Here I made a reel at the Discovery Centre EV chargers and then watched a 45 min presentation about the project, it was fascinating and I’ve popped it on my YouTube.
Snowy Hydro 2.0 In Depth Walkthrough
I then made my first Snowy reel, a brief explainer of how the project works.
What is Snowy Hydro 2.0?
https://youtube.com/shorts/8jzuIix8rgA?feature=share
Sam and I then changed into our PPE and grabbed a take away lunch. Hitting the road we drove to Tantangara (the top reservoir) and I started shooting my second reel, this was the beginning of my walkthrough of the whole project. I don’t script anything, so I record everything on the fly and then shoot it again in landscape for YouTube.
Information was coming at me thick and fast, I just had to absorb it and shoot where and when I could.
As I’m a presenter, camera woman and producer I have to carry everything in my head, plus I’m always conscious of needing coverage for both vertical reels and YouTube.
We headed from there to Cabramurra, the highest Snowy town. It’s tiny and you can only stay there if involved with Snowy.
I had an hour to shower and change, ate dinner, made plans for the next day spent an hour backing up footage until 9pm.
5am start, showered and packed, I headed down to breakfast. We were on the road by 6am heading to Lobs Hole where the power station is located. It was misty and incredibly cold. After going through the wheel wash we headed down the very steep and windy Ravine Road, one road in one road out.
Before going underground I was given an induction and all the relevant extra PPE: a mask, hard hat, self rescuer (which is quite heavy), safety glasses and gloves. It’s a bit daunting, but I knew I was in safe hands.
All the time I was making Stories, these are all on my main Instagram profile as a Highlights reel and well worth watching.
https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MTIxMzA3MzkyNjcyNDM2?igsh=ZzlwaXFmeGRwa3c5
Underground is noisy and extraordinary. The Main Access Tunnel is lined with concrete liners made locally in Cooma and like everything else shipped in by truck.
We travelled down to the Machine Hall which is HUGE, honestly you can’t get your head around how big it is. There are thousands of metal rods drilled into the walls and roof to stop it from collapsing, a groundbreaking technology developed on the original Snowy project and still used today.
From there we visited the ECVT or Emergency, Cable and Ventilation Tunnel, this is where the electricity once generated will travel up to the transmission lines on the surface. It’s also where the spoil from the tunnel boring machine is carried out to the surface via conveyer belt.
Next was the Transformer Hall, which was almost as big as the Machine Hall, this will hold the Transformers. Equally as breathtaking, equally as complex.
From here I travelled to the lower Surge Shaft, all of this is covered in more detail on my YouTube walkthrough and involved some interviews, well worth a watch. Link below.
And finally we traveled to the lower reservoir at Talbingo where I shot the lower intake.
As a bonus they took me to view some of the huge components for the power station, the size of each piece was extraordinary, a reminder of how everything about this project is so big.
SNOWY HYDRO 2.0 SNEAK PEEK
We headed back to Cabramurra for lunch and started to worry about the weather; the mountains are wild and unpredictable. It was predicted to turn next morning, when we’d planned to leave, and as we were only in a 2WD car we decided to depart early.
Sam arranged alternate accommodation closer to the Tumut 3 Power Station which we were going to visit the following day.
We arrived late afternoon in Tumut, had a great debrief at The Oriental Hotel while eating dinner, and returned to our Motel. My bedroom had rather exciting scratch marks on the back of my door, and yes I’ve listened to too many true crime podcasts. I then spent that last couple of hours of the day dumping and making sure it was backed up and collated.
Next day was another early start and an amazing experience! Imagine gorgeous Soviet Era brutalism rolled into one gorgeous building.
SNOWY HYDRO TUMUT 3 POWER STATION
After making my T3 content, we drove to Wagga where I jumped on a prop plane and headed back to Sydney.
The whole experience was truly extraordinary and I feel very privileged to have witnessed such an incredible project.
The next four days I spent sifting through footage and editing. Well worth 3k I reckon and certainly a lot less than the 350k the taxpayer forked out for Scott Cam during the Morrison term.
So all in all the Murdoch playbook failed miserably and my biggest takeaway from feedback online is that I should have charged more.
I also gained a thousand extra followers, so thanks!
What I have realised is that I’m being effective if I’m landing on their radar, I guess they didn’t like that I spoiled their negative narrative. They also proved me right when I said Snowy 2 had been weaponised, or Snow Hydryo I should say. I guess they’re also not used to people expressing their “own views”.
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