Those flags beside Centennial Park have quite a story behind them.
Cooma’s original Avenue of Flags went up in 1959, marking ten years since construction began on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The 28 national flags recognised the people who came from different parts of the world to help build it.
Forty years later, another section was added along Bombala Street for the Scheme’s fiftieth anniversary. That makes the avenue a record of how Cooma chose to remember the people behind the work, as well as the dams and tunnels.
The big engineering numbers are well documented. The smaller memories are harder to find: a first job, a family arriving in town, the neighbours who helped them settle in.
Did your family come to Cooma because of the Snowy Scheme? What’s the story of how they ended up staying—or moving on?
Know a little more? Share a memory or correction, or join the conversation on Facebook.