Old Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Old Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene
Historic view of the original town of Adaminaby
Location	Eucumbene, Snowy Valleys Council, New South Wales, Australia
Founded	1830
Built	1956–1958 (dam)
Architect	Snowy Hydro Electric Authority
Owner	Snowy Hydro Limited
New South Wales Heritage Register
Official name: Old Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene, including relics and movable objects; Eucumbene River; Eucumbene Valley; Old Adaminaby Remains; Old Adaminaby Ruins; Old Adaminaby Drowned Landscape
Type	state heritage (archaeological-terrestrial)
Designated	3 June 2008
Reference no.	1794
Type	Townscape
Category	Urban Area
Builders	Eucumbene dam: Snowy Hydro Electric Authority

Old Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene is an important Australian heritage site located in New South Wales, Australia. It includes the historic remains of a former town named Adaminaby, which was flooded in the 1950s.

The flooding happened to create Eucumbene Dam, a massive water reservoir built for the famous Snowy Mountains Scheme. Today, the ancient streets and building foundations sit on the lakebed. When water levels drop during dry seasons, the sunken town reappears like an open-air time capsule. The site was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 June 2008.

History of Old Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene

First Nations History and Indigenous Heritage

The Ngarigo people have lived in the region from Canberra down through the Snowy Mountains for thousands of years. Their name comes from the plains turkey, a bird that once lived across the Monaro grasslands.

The Ngarigo nation consists of smaller community clans. Each clan took care of a specific territory and wildlife. The Bemerangal clan cared for the area covering Adaminaby, Bredbo, and Jindabyne.

Indigenous groups used well-planned travel paths to journey between mountain ranges and the southern coastline. During warm summer months, groups gathered near rivers for hunting and ceremonies.

When the massive dam flooded the valleys, many ancient camping sites ended up beneath the water. Stone tools found along the higher hills show where families set up shelters away from cold valley winds.

Early Pastoral Settlement from 1827 to 1957

European settlers arrived in the Monaro area during the late 1820s looking for vast grazing lands. Richard Brooks brought herds of cattle to the Eucumbene valley in 1827.

Other farmers quickly followed, establishing large sheep and cattle stations across the grassy plains. In 1853, Dr George Young Mould set up a large homestead called Boconnoc.

Pioneering families farmed these mountain plains for generations. The region became famous for stockmen who guided cattle up to high mountain pastures during summer.

This practice of seasonal grazing in high country became an important part of Australian rural folklore.

Growth of the Original Township from 1859 to 1949

In 1859, prospectors discovered gold in nearby Kiandra. Thousands of hopeful miners travelled across the mountain trails through the area.

A small settlement grew rapidly near the Eucumbene River crossing to supply travellers with food, tools, and shelter. Joseph Chalker built the first hotel and a local post office soon followed.

The town was surveyed in 1861 and originally called Seymour before being renamed Adaminaby in 1886. By the 1890s, the bustling town had several stores, blacksmiths, a court house, and schools.

By the 1940s, around 750 people lived in Adaminaby. The town had a cinema, a hospital, cafes, and sports grounds, while remaining a tight-knit community without modern electrical grids.

Roads, Bridges, and Mountain Crossings

Early transport routes grew from simple dirt tracks into important gravel roads connecting mountain communities. Timber bridges were needed to cross fast-flowing alpine rivers.

In the 1890s, engineers built the Six Mile Bridge over the Eucumbene River using a special McDonald timber truss design. This design used sturdy hardwood beams to hold heavy transport wagons.

These bridges and roads allowed farmers, copper miners, and mail coaches to travel safely across rugged valleys. When the dam was constructed, many of these key roads were permanently cut off.

Mining Booms and Early Industry

The Kiandra gold rush brought great excitement to the region, though harsh winter snowstorms made gold mining difficult after a few seasons.

A major copper discovery at Kyloe across the river gave Adaminaby a second major economic boom. By 1910, the Kyloe Copper Mine employed nearly 200 workers.

Huge machinery arrived to process the ore. In 1910, a giant 23-ton boiler was pulled from Cooma by a team of 76 bullocks over six long weeks.

The copper supply was exhausted by 1913, but the mining era helped establish Adaminaby as a primary supply town.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme from 1949 to 1973

Australian engineers had long wanted to capture melting mountain snow to generate electricity and supply water to dry inland farms. In 1949, the Australian Government passed laws creating the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

The project became one of the greatest engineering feats in modern history. It created a network of mountain tunnels, power stations, and 16 major dams.

Lake Eucumbene was designed as the central water storage for the whole system. A ceremony in 1949 marked the start of construction, attended by Prime Minister Ben Chifley.

Engineers moved the dam wall location 6 kilometres downriver to hold back a much larger volume of water. This decision meant the entire town of Adaminaby would be flooded.

Relocating the Entire Community between 1956 and 1957

Because the valley would become a deep lake, the Australian Government had to move the entire town. Residents chose a new site located on the Snowy Mountains Highway called Bolairo View.

Over 100 weatherboard houses were jacked up, placed onto huge trailers, and moved across the countryside to the new townsite. Two historic stone churches were carefully taken apart and rebuilt stone by stone.

Modern amenities like electricity, running water, and paved streets were set up in the new town. However, leaving behind family lands and historic homesteads was very difficult for local families.

Homesteads and structures left behind in the valley were flattened by bulldozers before the water began rising in 1957.

Lake Eucumbene History from 1957 to Present

Lake Eucumbene filled up over several years, reaching its highest level in 1973. It became a popular destination for boating, sailing, and trout fishing.

Special wildlife sanctuaries were set up on higher ground that became islands, including Hallstrom Island, which briefly housed rare albino kangaroos.

During periods of dry weather and drought, the water level drops significantly. When this happens, old building foundations, roads, and machinery emerge from the lakebed.

To protect these historical treasures from theft or vandalism, the New South Wales Government placed strict heritage protections over the entire submerged townsite.

Exploring the Submerged Historic Landscape

Old Adaminaby Town Ruins

When the waters recede, visitors can see the original street grid of Old Adaminaby. Foundations of schools, bank steps, and church entrances remain clearly visible.

Four original buildings located on higher ground survived above the waterline, including the former schoolhouse and local community buildings.

Historic Farming Stations and Homesteads

• Braemar: An early stone homestead and post office built in the 1850s by settler James Holston.
• Burnside: A pastoral site featuring old chimneys, stone foundations, and remnants of horse-powered farming equipment.
• Boconnoc: A large estate established by Dr Mould, still identified by old garden trees, stone shearer quarters, and protected family graves.
• Tryvilla: Concrete foundations and brick stands from an early twentieth-century farm located along Buckenderra Creek.
• Eucumbene: One of the earliest cattle stations in the district, where original farm timber was later salvaged for local halls.
• Hemsby: A property featuring old garden borders and outbuilding foundations near the former copper mine.

Industrial Remains and Mining Relics

• Kyloe Copper Mine: Features concrete foundations, processing slabs, mine shafts, and remnants of old smelting furnaces.
• Waterous Steam Engine: A rare nineteenth-century vertical boiler engine made in Canada, used for powering farm equipment or water pumps.

Lost Roads and Submerged Bridges

• Six Mile Bridge: A historic timber truss bridge built around 1893 that remained standing even after water submerged the valley.
• Original Mountain Highways: Old gravel roads and highway markers that once linked Adaminaby to Cooma and Jindabyne.

Construction Camps of the Snowy Hydro Scheme

• Adaminaby Portal Camp: The early construction camp with concrete pads, shower blocks, and supply foundations from the 1950s.
• Eucumbene Portal Camp: A major workers' camp featuring drainage networks, discarded construction equipment, and granite tunnel rock.
• Eaglehawk (Eucumbene Town): A large, fully serviced temporary town that housed over 2,000 workers, complete with shops, sports courts, and repair workshops.

Preserving Australian Heritage

Heritage Listing Significance

Old Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene are protected under the New South Wales State Heritage Register because:

• They show over a century of Australian farming, mining, and alpine community life preserved in a unique time capsule.
• The site represents the massive social and technological impacts of building the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
• The ruins provide archaeologists with rare opportunities to study nineteenth-century rural engineering.
• The area holds deep cultural meaning for families whose ancestors lived in the valley.

Images for kids

• 

  Eucumbene construction camp during dam operations in 1958

• 

  Shopping centre built for construction workers in the 1950s

• 

  Map of the Eucumbene town settlement layout in 1960

See Also

• Monaro (New South Wales)
• Kosciuszko National Park
• Snowy Hydro Limited
• Snowy Mountains Scheme
• Snowy Scheme Museum