“Hydro kid” now 72-year-old Perth man Ian Dalby, his engineer son Mitchell and daughter Emily recently arrived in Tasmania to tour Poatina, on a family pilgrimage to honour the achievements of their late father and grandfather Kevin Dalby who was an engineer for the excavation of Poatina Power Station. 

“Mum passed away in August…” says Ian. “We were opening the suitcases with all sorts of documents and photographs… My younger son Mitchell started to have a look at some of those - he being an engineer - like my father, tweaked his interest in it and he said I want to come to Poatina and have a look at what Grandpa did.”

“It’s been amazing… obviously seeing and hearing the stories and seeing the photos, Grandpa and his colleagues were all mid 20’s to early 30’s when they worked on this sort of thing, tunnelling from both sides and meeting in the middle. It’s really cool, next-level precision, you would struggle with now days, especially 60-years ago,” said Mitchell.

Picture supplied, tunnelling works at Poatina

[Pictured in main image: Ian Dalby, Mitchell Dalby and Emily Dalby]

Ian’s mother Jessie Dalby raised four children in hydro villages, birthing three of them during the time her husband Kevin Dalby worked as an engineer on “the Hydro” for 10 years until 1964. 

Picture supplied, Dalby family

The trip to the village for Ian certainly brought back a lot of memories and emotions for Ian. He was “very proud” to be able to show his son what his grandfather did.

“The only thing that had changed was the cars and the people living in the houses.”

Throughout the small part of change in the villages, one thing has never changed and that is the strong sense of community and friendships throughout the entire time Hydro Tasmania has been operating for. “The families moved from town, to town, to town… So, we didn’t have to start new friendships or anything, they came with us… so as a kid it was just awesome,” says Ian.

Picture supplied by Dalby family

People and family are at the centre of everything we do here at Hydro Tasmania, and there are a million stories told about people and 'the Hydro' in Tasmania. This is one of them. 

“I don’t know if my dad ever got back here to see it operational... but I’m sure he would be pretty proud…” says Ian.