Water has spilled over the Dartmouth Dam spillway in north-east Victoria for the first time in 26 years, triggering concern for downstream residents. 

Weir keeper Peter Liepkalns says “it's not an ideal situation”, despite hundreds of locals gathering to watch the water flow over Dartmouth. 

“There will be extra maintenance after the event on the spillway,” he told reporters this week.

“The one positive I suppose is the next drought we will have, we can't have had any more water to start with.

“When you think of it, this storage is the storage of last resort and we're here for drought, for containment of drought water.”

He says about 5,000 megalitres are currently going over the spillway each day, and could continue to do so for months. 

“Water will be going over for an extended period due to the Bureau of Meteorology's outlook,” he said.

“It's indicating an 80 per cent chance of above average rain until December unfortunately.”

The water that spills from Dartmouth Dam will end up in Lake Hume. Water has been released from Hume Dam since September 2021 to make space for the inflows.