Key Points
- A 5.0 magnitude earthquake has rattled residents in southwestern Victoria.
- Geoscience Australia said the earthquake struck at 2.11am on Sunday near Colac.
- It was felt in Melbourne and Tasmania.
A 5.0 magnitude earthquake has rattled residents in southwestern Victoria, with thousands of people reporting to have felt the early morning tremor.
Geoscience Australia said the earthquake struck at 2.11am on Sunday near Colac in the Great Otway National Park, about 165km from Melbourne, at a depth of 7km.
The seismologists had originally measured the quake as being of magnitude 4.7 but later revised this to 5.0 and moved the epicentre from Apollo Bay.
An aftershock with magnitude 3.5 was recorded at Apollo Bay at 5.44am, Geoscience Australia said.
Victorian emergency services said no injuries had been reported and the earthquake appeared to have resulted in little or no damage.
More than 4,420 people reported feeling the earthquake by 3.30am, including many residents in the Victorian capital.
Geoscience Australia said the quake was felt as far north as Bendigo and as far south as King Island off Tasmania.
Chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre Adam Pascale said he was woken by the quake.
“It was a very short one only about a second or two compared to the other earthquakes Melbourne has had in the past year or two,” Pascale said.
“There will not be any damage, it would have to be reasonably close for that to happen,” he said.
Aftershocks are still to be expected for some time and felt in the Cape Otway region Pascale said.
“For an earthquake of this magnitude we expect more aftershocks... most of these aftershocks will go unnoticed.”
Users on X reported feeling the earthquake and being woken up overnight, but many users largely made light of the quake as there was no injuries or damage reported.
One user reported the quake startled local birds.
"Yep, glad I decided to check if that's why the birds started to chirp, & then my roof creaked like old bones. Thought maybe I'd imagined the slight tremors," the user wrote.
Users in Tasmania reported wildlife waking up as well.
"Ok, we're not sure we, humans, felt it in Northern Tasmania. However, all animals did wake us up at that time. They went a bit strange," the user wrote.
Another said they felt their building lurch.
"Tell you what, they made these 1920s apartments to last - building lurched sideways, but no cracks, not even broken glassware!" the user wrote.
Earthquakes are not often felt in Australia, but there have been several recently, including a 3.8 magnitude earthquake in Melbourne in May.
In 2021, Victoria was hit by quakes measuring 5.8 and 4.8 in magnitude, while Western Australia was hit by a 5.3 magnitude quake in the same year.
