The 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts constructed by more than 100,000 people from 30 countries to create the Snowy Mountains Scheme has been heritage listed.
The scheme will be officially placed on the National Heritage List on Friday.
Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will announce the listing at the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre in the NSW town of Cooma.
"The Snowy Mountains Scheme is an audacious and brilliant example of modern Australia," he said.
"A bold idea brought to life by the hard work of thousands of people coming to Australia from all over the world."
Mr Frydenberg said 70 per cent of the 100,000 people who worked on the scheme were migrants displaced from their homes during WWII.
The workers and their families lived in towns and camps across the Snowy Mountains and the scheme is a symbol of multicultural Australia, he says.
It becomes the 107th place added to the National Heritage List.
Snowy Hydro operates the scheme and provides 32 per cent of the renewable energy in the eastern power grid.
It also diverts water to $3 billion in agricultural produce.
The connection of 16 dams, seven power stations and a pumping station has been labelled one of the civil engineering wonders of the modern world.
