However, this reservoir was still limited in its capacity to meet the growing demand for water in the Goulburn Valley and to protect farmers during drought years.

[2] The embankment dam wall is constructed with an earth core and rock fill, rising to a height of 83 metres (272 ft).

[3] The core component materials of the wall include 10,200 thousand cubic metres (360×10^6 cu ft) of rock and earth.

[2][3] Lake Eildon is connected to the metropolitan water supply of Melbourne, the state capital, via a pipeline from the Goulburn River.

[6] These smaller turbines were relocated from the former Sugarloaf Power Station on the Eildon Weir,[5] completed in 1929 and in use until work on the larger dam started in 1951.

On 15 October 2022, due to an abnormal amount of rain in the region, the lake filled up to 100.3% of its capacity for the first time since 1994.

[13] Lake Eildon is most notable for its extraordinary cloud cover in winter, measuring only 69 sun hours in June; this is especially cloudy for a location at only 37 degrees of latitude.

Summers are generally warm and sunny, though with the passage of cold fronts are normally interspersed with much cooler days and nights.

Eildon Fire Tower to the west-northwest is 407 metres (1,335 ft) higher in altitude and located on an exposed hilltop.

Snowfalls are common here and cloud cover is extremely heavy in the winter months, as evident from the mean afternoon humidity readings in June and July.