Authorities say aftershocks are possible are a 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck Melbourne’s north-west late on Sunday.
Geoscience Australia said the quake hit at a depth of three kilometres at Sunbury, about 40 kilometres north-west of the city, at 11.41pm on Sunday.
More than 22,750 people contacted the agency to report they had felt shaking.
Most of the reports are centred around Melbourne, but there were some as far north as Bendigo and as far south as Hobart, Geoscience Australia said in a statement.
Seismologist Hugh Glanville said the tremor would have been widely felt but would have been unlikely to damage infrastructure.
“While it’s stronger shaking that travels a decent distance throughout the region, we don’t expect damage from an earthquake of that size,” he told the ABC.
“You don’t tend to get minor damage until around magnitude 4.5 where you’ll get things like plaster cracking and things rattling on shelves.”
He said more tremors were possible in coming days.
“We could expect aftershocks from an earthquake of this size. I t’s not guaranteed, of course, sometimes you just get a single earthquake and no aftershocks associated,” he said.
Tweet from @GeoscienceAus
Seismology Research Centre chief scientist Adam Pascale posted on Twitter that it was the largest earthquake in more than a century in the Melbourne metropolitan area.
Victoria’s SES state commander David Baker said his crews had received only three calls for help following Sunday’s quake.
“We were fortunate that there was no damage or consequences as a result of the earthquake last night,” Mr Baker told ABC News.
He said there was always a concern of aftershocks.
In the past five years, four other earthquakes of magnitude three or greater have been recorded in Victoria. They included a 5.9 magnitude north of Rawson, in Victoria’s high country, in 2021, which caused some localised damage.
On average, about 100 earthquakes of magnitude three or larger are recorded in Australia each year.
The Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories as a result of the quake.
-with AAP
