Just what are these weird contraptions in the mountains? If one man knows, it'll be Tony

Detailed summary

Tony knows just about every secret of the Snowy Mountains.

At this time every year, as more Canberrans pull on their hiking boots and head into the Snowy Mountains, photographs of octagonal-shaped contraptions scattered throughout the range start to lob into my inbox.

"What is this? Looks like some sort of alien landing pad," exclaims John Simkins of Kambah.

While some readers have been scratching their heads, others have offered their own theories.

"Clearly they must be part of some scientific study," suggests Steve Black of Hackett.

Well, one man who knows exactly what they are is Anthony "Tony" Werrett of Khancoban.

Tony is a softly spoken mountain man with a larrikin streak - and he's clocked up an incredible 52 years with Snowy Hydro. That's one heck of an innings.

"Oh, they're just monitoring stations for the former cloud-seeding program," he explained.

If anyone knows the story behind these mysterious structures, it's Tony. During his 52 years with Snowy Hydro, he's turned his hand to just about everything, from high-voltage tower work and underground maintenance to meter reading, ski-resort infrastructure, plumbing, hydrology, carpentry and, yes, cloud seeding.

In fact, Tony spent 16 years firing silver iodide into the sky, helping coax a little more snow and rain out of the mountain clouds.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Canberra Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.