Destinations: Dartmouth Dam

It’s about as deep as it is remote. In fact, it’s quicker to come to Dartmouth, the small village that sprung up as a construction camp for the dam when it was built in the 1970s, from the nation’s capital than it is to come from Victoria’s.

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Today, the dam looks close to full – it will hold near 4.0 million megalitres of water when it reaches capacity, more than seven times the amount that’s in Sydney Harbour. Not much of the 180-metre-high earth and rock wall holding back the water fed in via the vast catchment is exposed above the waterline.

If you stood on top of the steep rise next to the dam wall, Mt Kosciuszko, mainland Australia’s highest point, is only about 60km east of where you are. Sea level? That’s almost 500 metres under you.

But Dartmouth Dam is also one of Australia’s best freshwater impoundments. Here, rainbow and brown trout, the elusive Macquarie perch, trout cod and redfin are the targets.

Launching your boat involves a steep, winding road that climbs from river level up to higher than the wall, before dropping down into Six Mile Creek.

Once there, you arrive at a large car park equipped with good toilets, a Telstra payphone – you’ll be lucky to get any mobile phone reception – and a basic, serviceable ramp. 

The day we are there is also pretty special; there’s an old 40-foot Maritime Safety Victoria-owned WWII-era workboat, built in Port Melbourne in the 1940s by a car-maker once known as General Motors-Holden’s, being hauled out of the water for its annual survey.

A small floating pontoon is rigged to the shore on the north side of the ramp; big enough for a couple of boats to tie up, but no more.

Steep hills blanketed in timber frame the water’s edge everywhere you look. Sneaking in close to the water’s edge is difficult due to the tight copses of drowned trees that line the edges.

Once on the water, it pays to start trolling lures straight from the boat ramp. This top Dart River section of the dam – the main branch follows the river’s original course, hence its name – runs west to east, passing a narrow northern arm where the low rise of the dam wall to the west provides a distinctive reference point.

Tow lures slowly, dragging a bucket in the water if you need to peg things back an extra notch to keep the rod tips nodding. Mix and match so that you get an idea of what depth to play with; a Tassie devil at 20 metres, spinner or a crank at 10, and a feathered surface lure running along the top.

If you don’t see any interest in 20 minutes, move on to the next spot. A number of major tributaries have formed where watercourses such as the Shady and Murtaugh creeks once flowed into the valley, and the flooded timber in them provide great fish habitat.

As well as the west-east arm, there is also another that spears south towards the source of the Mitta Mitta River. If you want to get away from the crowds, this is where you head.

We spend about half an hour or so heading south along the old Mitta Mitta riverbed, the clean, protected waters almost flat. We’re the only two boats moving on the water here.

Around one twist in the broad valley, a huge, wide and sheer rock face, 20 metres or so tall, reveals itself to the east. Dark copper-coloured stains run down it where it transforms into a waterfall in the aftermath of rain.

It’s here that we nudge one of our boats up to the shore – the nearest fuel is in Mitta Mitta, a 50km round trip from the boat ramp, so conserving every drop is important – and rig up the other boat with some more lures.

After about 20 minutes of trawling up and down the tributary, we’re slowing down to pull the rods in when suddenly, a fish strikes, smashing the purple crankbait that I’ve poled out to 20 metres.

After a short fight, we land what looks like an 800-gram brown trout – not huge, but still impressive. The sun is starting to get low, so we release it and start to head back.

Since we’ve been trolling, the wind has picked up and swung more easterly. That introduces an all-new hazard that I’ve never experienced before – metres-long solid tree trunks, stripped of their branches, pushed out from the shoreline and floating just below the water’s surface.

The fresher wind has started pushing the logs back out into the water where they float at a right angle to our direction of travel. Spotting them is near impossible, as the low sun reflecting off the water and shining in our eyes, as well as the almost imperceptible change in the water around where they float, disguise them well.

Our only option is to slow right down until we get past them. Even so, I still fail to spot one and it gives a dull “thud” as it hits the bow and starts to slide under the keel. I back up and move around it.

Goulburn Murray Water, which manages the waterway, has a work camp down at the nearby town of Dartmouth and will regularly take a punt out on the dam to collect the floating trees. Even so, it will pay to be cautious the next time we visit, particularly if conditions on the water change.

If you have more time, there’s no need to rush back to the boat ramp. There are two basic campgrounds accessible by water – just south of the boat ramp at Eight Mile Creek, and another up along the Dart Arm tributary – as well as the Eustaces campground on the southern arm that includes the comfort of composting toilets.

By the time we lob back at the boat ramp – making only two changes of course after becoming slightly disorientated in the almost indistinguishable terrain – the team hauling the workboat out has gone. 

We’re alone, for now, schools of Macquarie perch fingerlings recently released as part of a restocking program stirring the shallow water around the ramp. But in a few weeks’ time, up to 500 keen anglers will assemble here for the annual Dartmouth Cup Fishing Classic, where the 10 biggest trout caught over the three days of the March Labour Day weekend will earn you up to $10,000.

It’s a journey to get here, but the rewards it delivers are worth the effort.

Dartmouth Dam sits high in the Australian Alps National Park in eastern Victoria. Remote and rugged, it’s a trip that needs a bit of planning even before you nose out of the driveway.

From Melbourne, head up the Hume Highway to Wodonga, and turn east past the Hume Weir. Travel time is about 4.5 hours.

For those who are a bit more adventurous, head east to Bairnsdale, and then jag up the Great Alpine Road to Omeo and Mitta Mitta. It’s about 100km longer and will take almost seven hours, but you are traversing some of the highest roads in Australia with spectacular scenery as the backdrop.

From Canberra, it’s an almost five-hour trip via Albury, although there’s also the more spectacular option of crossing below the summit of Mount Kosciuszko. It only adds about 20 minutes to the trip.

Take on a splash of fuel whenever you can.

Dartmouth, the former work camp built to house those working on the dam’s construction, is at the bottom of the Dart River valley. There’s no fuel, but there is a motel attached to the Dartmouth Pub, and a caravan park for those who enjoy a few creature comforts. There is also free bush camping nearby, but no camping is allowed at the boat ramp.

Mobile phone reception at Dartmouth Dam is flakey at best, but there is a Telstra payphone at the ramp.

Fuel is available from nearby Mitta Mitta, about a half-hour round trip from Dartmouth, so plan accordingly.

The March long weekend in Victoria plays host to the annual Dartmouth Cup Fishing Classic. Unless you like big crowds it’s best to avoid the dam in the lead-up to, and directly in the wake of, this event.

Victoria has very specific freshwater species bag limits and closed seasons, particularly for the endangered Macquarie perch, so ensure you read up on them before dropping a line in the water.

Parks Victoria has a map of the alpine national park that shows the location of boat-accessible campgrounds around Dartmouth Dam.