Cooma’s Charlie Salvestro was 15 years old when he went to work for the Snowy Scheme. In 1999 he was honoured to be the workers’ spokesperson at the 50th reunion of the start of work on the Snowy. Charlie and his wife, Sue, are now helping organise this year’s 60th reunion, planned for October 15 to 22. Charlie remembers his Snowy days well and shares a few memories in his own words:

“I arrived in Australia on the 16th of June, 1952, and spent a couple of days in Sydney with relatives, and then straight to Cooma. I turned 14 a few weeks after I arrived in Cooma. I arrived with mum and four little sisters to join dad who was already here in 1950. He worked for the Snowy and then when the Italian contractor Pasotti arrived with 300 men to build 101 homes and the head office in Cooma, dad went to work for him. They worked six or seven days a week, more money.

I went to school for a few months then got a job with a builder who lived across the road, Rodney Parkes. He was building a house at 24 Cromwell Street. That was my first job. Then eventually I was drawn to the mountains: big money, adventure, independence. I went to Guthega to work for Selmer. I had my 16th birthday in camp. I grew up in this area and practically saw the project from start to finish. Down the years I worked for companies such as Selmer, Kaiser Walsh Perini Raymond, the French company EEE, Utah Brown and Root, Thiess Bros and Monier McNamara, in places like Guthega, Tumut Pond, Kenny’s Knob, Thiess Village, Deep Creek, Burns Creek, Section Creek, Jindabyne and Talbingo.

In the tunnels they were working 24 hours day: day shift, afternoon, night. In those days nobody cared where you came from or what religion. As long as you got the job done, that’s all that mattered. On the job it was like a competition between shifts, who dug more feet. We were all on bonuses. We could all swear in a dozen different languages. I worked mostly as a carpenter, but for instance when the camp was built you tried to get a job with your mates in the tunnel, more money and out of the cold wet weather.