Editing Dartmouth Dam (section)

===Power station damage===
On 2 May 1990, the 180 MW Francis turbine-generator running at full speed was instantaneously stopped by a foreign body left in the penstock following maintenance.<ref>SECV, "Report of Investigation into the cause of damage of Dartmouth Power Station on 2 May 1990", State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Power Grid and Distribution Department Publications, June 1990</ref> The installation shifted about 2 m within the base of the {{Convert|180|m|ft|-high|adj=mid}} earth and rock fill gravity dam wall of the 3,906 GL reservoir. After initial consternation regarding the integrity of the wall, declared safe after lengthy assessment), the hydro installation was repaired/replaced, but was off-line for several years. 

A breach of the wall would have obliterated a couple of small towns and a sparsely settled agricultural area in the relatively narrow 120&nbsp;km Mitta Mitta valley below the dam. More significantly, it would have resulted in the over-topping and probable failure of the earthen walls of the {{Convert|40|m|ft|-high|adj=mid}}, 3,038 GL [[Hume Dam|Lake Hume]], 200&nbsp;km downstream on the Murray River. This is immediately upstream of the regional cities of [[Albury]] and [[Wodonga]], and a much more intensively settled irrigation area, and consequences would have been disastrous.

In May 1990, the turbine casing and concrete machine block surrounding the power station were destroyed, when two steel beams entered the turbine. The resulting force ruined the power station and the dam's control systems, making it impossible to gradually release water from the near-capacity dam by conventional means. An improvised system, placing large pipes over the spillway to siphon water over it, was soon installed. The inflow from an unusually wet spring meant that the dam would have overflowed anyway, leading to a spectacular cascade over the huge rock steps, formed when the rock used for the dam was quarried from the valley walls. The station was re-built and recommissioned in 1993.<ref>{{cite web|title=Newsletter of Engineering Heritage |url=http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Learned%20Groups/Interest%20Groups/Engineering%20Heritage/EHA%20No_%2017%20Nov05_1.pdf |publisher=The Institution of Engineers, Australia |access-date=8 February 2012 |date=November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303002952/https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Learned%20Groups/Interest%20Groups/Engineering%20Heritage/EHA%20No_%2017%20Nov05_1.pdf |archive-date=2014-03-03}}</ref>