Designed and constructed by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of Victoria, the dam was completed in 1967.

The embankment dam wall is constructed with an earth core and rock fill, rising to a height of 34 metres (112 ft).

[1] The core component materials of the wall include 298 thousand cubic metres (10.5×10^6 cu ft) of rock and earth.

When full, flood flows spill over a unique Gothic arch-shaped crest.

It uses the ‘fuse plug' principle, in which a section of earthen embankment within the secondary spillway (the fuse plug) has been designed so that at a predetermined flood level it will be eroded away and increase the discharge through the spillway.