Moderate earthquake hits Melbourne, leaves residents shaken

An earthquake of 3.8 magnitude struck the centre of the Australian city of Melbourne's suburb of Sunbury at a depth of three kilometres, according to Geoscience Australia, with felt shaking, however, are no immediate reports of damage.

The earthquake hit Sunday at 11:41pm near Sunbury, on the city's northwest fringe. Residents in the CBD and downtown Melbourne reported that they could feel the tremblor.

According to an earthquake geologist, Dr Dee Ninis, "it was widely felt across Melbourne."

"The earthquake occurred at 11:41pm with widespread felt reports. No injuries or damage has been recorded at this time."

In a warning, the emergency service told residents to be wary of aftershocks and to "drop, cover, and hold on if they experienced one."

SEN 1116 radio host Damian Watson experienced the tremor while presenting live on air.

"We've experienced a tremor in the studio, I'm not sure if you have it at home. That felt like a bit of an earthquake."

Residents flooded to social media to share their experience of the quake.

Journalist and writer Sasha Petrova said: "My house just shook so violently I thought several bombs had exploded."

Petrova also noted that it did not feel like the "trembling of a quake but rather just two one-second violent shakes close together, with some books falling off the shelf."

One startled Twitter user said he had been "woken up" by the tremor while shooting a video from the terrace showing the lights of the nearby buildings switched on.

"The whole house was shaking!" he said.

“My phone alerted me with safety information, shaken and got up to check on my family, alhamdulillah all ok!”

Those people living in the affected area with Android phones received automatic alerts, saying: "Expect light shaking. Initial estimate M4.5 about 21.6km away."

Sunbury resident Corey Lainez, 41, told The Age the quake left a crack in the wall of his kitchen.

"I thought a car or truck had hit the house and before I could even stand up the dogs were running around the house barking," he said.

"It was one very big, violent shake."

Back in September 2021, there was a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in Victoria.