Dartmouth Dam's 'gentle' spill will soon become a roar, MDBA says

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, which has predicted more action at the dam on Thursday, said the rate of the flow would depend on rain rather than snow melt.

"Flows will begin slowly and gradually build and the the strength of flow will depend on future inflows to the dam," the MDBA said on Wednesday. "We expect the dam to start flowing over the spillway sometime in the next 24 hours."

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Not being put off by reports of a low flow, dining and food bookings show people will pour into the town on Thursday to catch the spectacle with more than 100 reservations at the pub, countless inquiries about the community-run food store opening times, and a no-vacancy sign at the Dartmouth Motel Inn from Thursday to Sunday.

Former Moira Shire mayor John Lawless on Wednesday travelled from Yarrawonga to camp at Eskdale with friends and made the trip to Dartmouth to see what the dam fuss was about.

"We were talking to a few forestry workers near the dam wall and they reckoned the word out there was the dam was going to tip over at 4pm," Mr Lawless said.

"There were about 20 people up there to have a look - when I looked the dam was about 50 millimetres from the top."

Dartmouth publican Aaron Scales, however, was cautious but optimistic, saying what was a trickle now was bound to become a gush.

"We're all doing long, long days at the moment, people are coming from everywhere," he said. "We've got so many bookings - we've got 120 for Friday and Saturday at the moment - we did 270 last Sunday."

Mr Scales is also a chef at the pub. "My phone doesn't stop which makes it hard to cook," he said. "Every business around here are getting constant phone calls asking about the dam."

Dartmouth Motor Inn owner Debbie Ormrod was enjoying the resurgence in the town's fortunes.

"It's very exciting, everyone ringing with bookings have asked the same thing - is there any news about when the dam is going to spill?" she said.

"This whole dam thing has definitely created a surge of popularity for the motel and the town in general.

"COVID was really hard for Dartmouth because whenever Dan Andrews would announce we were going into a lockdown, it was always just before the weekend so we had a lot of bookings but then we had to cancel them.

"But with the excitement of this dam thing happening, they are coming back in droves."

Dartmouth General Store and Post Office attendant Belle Urbanavicius said excitement in the town was infectious.

"With the wind up this morning, it was actually lapping over," she said. "It's great to see so many people around which is so good for the town - we've got the CFA and anglers and community club starting the food store on Thursday at 11 in the morning now to feed the crowds."

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