Toyota’s role in constructing Australia’s largest engineering project has been remembered during 50^th anniversary celebrations for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.

Obtaining reliable transport was a major challenge for the men and women working to build the scheme on the roof of Australia in the 1950's.

Toyota vehicles were first introduced to this environment as workhorses carrying men and equipment around construction sites across the Great Dividing Range.

"Toyota’s birth in Australia is tied to the construction of the Snowy scheme," senior executive vice-president John Conomos said at the 50^th anniversary celebrations.

"Working in some of the toughest conditions imaginable, Toyota LandCruisers provided transport across a range of different worksites and in a variety of roles."

Australian industrialist Leslie (later Sir Leslie) Thiess of Thiess Brothers Construction secured an $18 million contract on the Snowy scheme - the largest at that time awarded to an Australian company.

While in the Snowy Sir Leslie discovered a privately owned LandCruiser.

Impressed with the durability and rugged performance of the vehicle, Sir Leslie negotiated Toyota’s first Australian franchise on his next trip to Japan.

He also imported an initial shipment of 13 LandCruisers and set them to work on the Tumut Dam site.

The vehicle which caught Sir Leslie’s eye went on to forge its reputation in the snow and mud of the Snowy scheme in the late 1950s, and is now Australia’s most popular four wheel drive.

Mr Conomos said Toyota shared memories of the hard work which marked the scheme’s construction and forged reputations for resilience, ruggedness and ingenuity in men and machinery.

"Those qualities are still evident today in Snowy veterans and Toyota itself," said Mr Conomos, who also paid tribute to opportunities offered by the scheme.

"The Snowy scheme marked the start of a prosperous new life in Australia for many of the men and women who worked on it," he said at the 50^th anniversary celebrations.

"It is fitting that Toyota can also look back with pride to the Snowy as its heritage in this country."