An April 1958 Cooma Monaro Express newspaper report records the deaths of Antonio Guseli, Michele Di Salvio, Benito Pizzol and Giuseppe Rugolo in the 1958 Tumut 1 accident. Photo: Antonio Guseli.
One impulsive Google search has grown into an international effort to identify, photograph and tell the stories of the men who died building the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
In January 2023, Antonio “Tony” Guseli decided, almost on a whim, to Google the name of an uncle who had died on the Snowy Scheme 65 years earlier – and opened the door to a much bigger story.
He wasn’t expecting much, but instead uncovered a reference to the coronial inquest into the accident that killed his uncle and three other young Italian men – Michele Di Salvio, Benito Pizzol and Giuseppe Rugolo.
The four men died at Tumut 1 Power Station on 16 April 1958 in what is regarded as the worst multiple-fatality accident during construction of the scheme.
So Mr Guseli obtained the inquest records from NSW State Archives and began researching the other victims.
Starting with little more than their names and dates of death, he gathered enough information to locate and contact relatives of all three men in Australia and Italy.
That search soon expanded.
Mr Guseli is now working to document the 29 Italians who died on the Snowy Scheme, while also compiling information about all 121 workers officially commemorated on the Cooma Snowy Workers Memorial.
So far, he has confirmed the identities and supporting records, including photographs, of 81 of those men.
He said migrant workers were often easier to trace because their immigration files were held by the National Archives of Australia, while publicly available records about some Australian-born workers contained little identifying information.
But his search has also taken another turn – looking at other industrial deaths which may have been overlooked when the official list of 121 was compiled in 1981.
He has so far confirmed four additional workers, including two Italians, were not included in that total.
Four generations of the Guseli family visit Tumut 1 Power Station, almost 68 years after Antonio Guseli was killed at the site. Photo: Antonio Guseli.
Through his Facebook page, Remembering the Workers of the Snowy Scheme, Mr Guseli shares photographs, migration records, family histories and details of the accidents that claimed workers’ lives.
“The tragic untimely death of a relative in the circumstances of the 1950s and 60s Snowy Scheme has been a long-term sad and unresolved event for the families and loved ones of the deceased workers,” he said.
“Researching the topic has given me an unexpected motivation and purpose in understanding my family and migration story, including my personal life story and connection to Cooma and the Snowy Scheme.”
The page is now also helping him connect with descendants across Australia and Europe. And interest is surging.
One post, about 40 Snowy workers who had lived at the Bonegilla Migrant Centre, attracted about 53,500 views after it was published in June.
He’s also sharing his research in Facebook groups linked to the Italian towns where many of the workers were born.
The approach has already helped resolve family mysteries that had remained unanswered for decades.
The niece of Italian worker Ernesto Vecchiato contacted Mr Guseli and provided legal correspondence from 1958, including details of compensation paid to his parents and younger siblings.
Relatives of Domenico Pellegrino also made contact.
His surviving brother, now aged 80, had never known the full circumstances of Domenico’s accident or where he had been buried.
The family learned through Mr Guseli’s research that he was buried in Cooma.
Mr Guseli has also connected with the granddaughters of Norwegian worker Peder Henriksen, including one living in Norway, and the daughter of Australian worker Laurence Brander.
Mr Brander’s daughter told him she knew little about her father’s death because it had not been discussed within the family.
Mr Guseli’s search has also taken him to Griffith, where he recently met people with links to the Snowy Scheme and learned that 43 former Snowy workers were living in the Riverina in 2000.
The visit reinforced how widely the scheme’s workforce dispersed after construction ended, and opened another avenue for finding former workers and their families.
“The most surprising aspect generally has been the positive engagement from the Facebook community and the reality that Facebook can actually be a tool for good,” Mr Guseli said.
His research has also brought his own family back to Tumut 1.
On 14 April, about 15 relatives spanning four generations joined a supervised visit arranged by Snowy Hydro, almost 68 years after Antonio’s death.
Among the group were Antonio’s younger brothers Pietro and Guido, now in their 80s, who were teenagers living in Castelliri when he died.
Their brother Donato, who was in Cooma at the time of the accident, chose not to return to the site because of the painful memories it would revive.
The younger generations were represented by family members including Australian Winter Olympian Valentino Guseli.
The family visited the lift structure where Antonio and the other men had been working and travelled through the entrance tunnel into the underground power station.
Mr Guseli said the most emotional moment came when Pietro and Guido stood within metres of the accident site and the underground station where the bodies were recovered.
“Visiting the location in person helped them to better understand the beauty and tragedy of the place and events,” he said.
Mr Guseli plans to continue locating relatives of the 29 Italians and documenting their lives beyond their migration and deaths.
He also hopes to work with Snowy Hydro, the Snowy Scheme Museum at Adaminaby and other institutions to bring the workers’ stories into public displays and commemorations.
What began as one search for a lost uncle is becoming a broader record of the people behind the memorial and the families still living with their absence.
