Each year on 4 December, Snowy Hydro invites a local Catholic priest to bless a small statue at the entrance to the tunnels of its giant 2.0 pumped hydro project to mark Saint Barbara, the patron saint of tunnellers and miners everywhere.
Those working underground are “reasonably superstitious people”, jokes Dennis Barnes, Snowy Hydro’s affable chief executive, as he leads a media tour of a project whose budget had soared sixfold to $12bn and won’t start supplying power to the grid until the end of 2028 or seven years later than original touted.
