The power blackout meant sports including basketball, squash and volleyball in Horsham and beyond could not run.

Dimboola Basketball Association president Mick O'Dwyer said senior matches were scheduled to start at 6pm.

“When the power went off we had to make a decision pretty quickly whether we would cancel and postpone the games until Thursday,” he said.

“Cancelling matches was the obvious choice.

“About an hour later power came on, so we had some people saying ‘There’s still time – why don’t we play?’

“Had we played even with the air-conditioners in the stadium back on, it still would have been uncomfortable.”

Mr O’Dwyer said women’s matches were rescheduled to Thursday night, while the men’s competition was cancelled for the week.

“We were going to play Thursday, but there were a lot of people who had football training and their teams would have had to forfeit, so we cancelled in fairness to those teams,” he said.

Coles Horsham manager Mark Mason said the store operated on generator power after the power cut.

“However the generator failed after about 30 minutes because it overheated,” he said. “We were then forced to close for about an hour or so, but everything was back to normal about 8.30pm.

“It is pretty rare that the generator fails.

“Obviously the blackout was an inconvenience, but the customers are always great – they know we're trying our best.”

Woolworths Horsham assistant store manager Daniel Hamerston said a generator allowed the store’s lights and registers to remain operating.

Frozen and cold foods were unavailable.

“We usually get a generator truck from Melbourne and that runs the whole shop as normal,” he said. “We had one on the way, but we cancelled it because the power was only out for a few hours.”