Residents in the Mitchell and Macedon Ranges Shire and greater north-west fringe of Melbourne were awoken by a magnitude 3.8 earthquake originating in Sunbury just before midnight on Sunday.
Geoscience Australia recorded the earthquake three-kilometres in depth at 11.41pm, with some individuals experiencing a second tremor a few minutes later.
More than 24,000 reports of the quake were made to Geoscience Australia by Monday morning from individuals spanning the distance from Bendigo to Hobart.
Chief scientist of Seismology Research Centre Adam Pascale, who recorded the magnitude slightly higher, said the earthquake was the largest earthquake to hit within 40 kilometres of the Melbourne’s Central Business District in more than a century.
“Last night’s magnitude 4.0 was the largest earthquake within 40km of Melbourne in over 120 years, the last being a magnitude 4.5 in 1902,” he said in a Tweet early Monday morning.
The tremor measured smaller than the magnitude 5.9 quake that hit near Mansfield in September 2021, but Victoria State Emergency Service, Vic SES, still warned ‘it’s not uncommon for aftershocks to occur after an earthquake’, and that those affected should ‘drop, cover and hold on’.
Vic SES confirmed no injuries or damage had yet been recorded in the hours following the earthquake.
