The Snowy Mountains hydroelectricity scheme is known as the birthplace of multiculturalism. Marcus Casey looks at how men from opposing sides of the war put their differences aside to build an engineering marvel. 
Long-hours, harsh conditions and an extreme climate - the men who made the Snowy River Hydroelectricity scheme endured it all. But their greatest challenge was learning how to get along.
When the $820 million Snowy Mountains Scheme began in 1949, Australia faced a shortage of scientific skills. A massive international recruitment campaign was carried out, drawing in migrants with expertise in construction, surveying, geology, tunnelling and engineering.
Seventy per cent of the 100,000 workers on the scheme were foreigners, from 30 different countries. Many were migrants fleeing Europe in the hope of a better life. While they came from both sides of the war, these strong men somehow managed to bury their bitterness and build a diverse, cohesive community.
It was hard and dangerous work.
Cooma resident Charlie Salvastro, 78, was 15 when he started work on the scheme.
His father, from Italy, was one of the original recruits. Salvastro says he lied about his age to get a job, starting out as an apprentice carpenter working with Scandinavians, Swedes, Danes, Yugoslavs, Poles and Americans.
"We had people from all over Europe who had been shooting at each other a few years before. But everyone then blended together and worked side by side," he says.
Most of them stayed to make a new home here in both cities and regional centres, bringing their cuisines, their ideas and skills.
This wave of immigrants created boom towns in nearby Cooma and Tumut, which became weekend playgrounds for cashed-up workers.
"Cooma was full of people of all these different nationalities," he says. "We had five nightclubs in the town, coffee lounges and restaurants of all kinds - Yugoslavian, Italian.
"The nightclubs were open all night, and they had floor shows at 1am and 3am. We'd be in the pubs before they threw us out, then go on to the nightclubs. We had singers from all around Australia and the world, because there was money here."
By the time the Queen arrived to inspect the scheme in 1963, the Snowy Mountains culture had changed forever.