The incident occurred near the intersection of Cobden – Port Campbell Road and Digneys Bridge Road about 2.30pm in the Glenfyne area.

It sparked a grass fire in a nearby paddock and cut power to more than 700 homes. 

Motorist Carol Boyd and a friend were returning from having lunch at Timboon when the tree hit the powerlines, falling in front of them. 

She said they were lucky it wasn’t worse. “It just goes to show we could have gone for a drive and not come home,” Ms Boyd said.  “I thought straight away ‘this could have been a disaster’.” 

It comes after the devastating fires which tore through the nearby towns of Cobden, Camperdown, Terang and Garvoc on St Patrick’s Day. A power pole snapped and started the Garvoc blaze, powerlines clashed at Terang sparking a fire which raced south and a tree fell on powerlines setting off the Camperdown fire.

“I went through the Ash Wednesday fires and they haven’t learnt their lesson,” she said. “Trees and electricity wires don’t mix. They should learn you don’t have big trees near powerlines.”

Colac CFA operations manager Dean Manson said six tankers responded and took about two hours to contain the blaze.

Camperdown police Senior Constable David Gaw said he and another officer directed traffic around the site until 6.30pm when a crew of “five or six” Powercor trucks arrived.

“The wires were still live at 6.30pm and the road was cleared about 9.30pm,” Senior Constable Gaw said. 

A Powercor spokeswoman said most affected customers had power back by 3.15pm. “Once power to the wider area was restored, the team then worked in the immediate area to repair the lines and restore supply to the remaining customers,” she said.  “The clearing of the tree and repair of the damaged lines was completed by 11pm.”