MELBOURNIANS got a late wake-up call as a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the region after it struck near Mansfield at around 9.15am.
Melbourne Catholic Vivien Lemalu said she had just made a coffee when she felt the tremor.
“I live on a main road and thought it was a big truck passing my house at first or possible next door, but it felt like it lasted such a long time,” she said.
“And felt like it just kept growing and then died down.
“Couldn’t believe it. Instantly jumped on Google to see if there was a tremor and saw a notice saying ‘there have been reports of a tremor’.”
She said her brother who lived in Canberra had also felt the quake.
While the damage being reported was minimal, many Melbournians had taken to social media to document the earthquake.
Melbourne Catholic David Schutz took to Twitter and said an “astonishing” earth tremor hit for about a minute, “never felt anything like it”.
“Whole house shaking,” he said.
Another local Catholic Karen Luzan said she was at work on the second floor when she started to feel the building shake.
“At first I thought it must have been a strong wind but I looked out the window and it didn’t look windy,” she said.
“I went outside my office and all my colleagues were in the hall saying ‘Did you feel that?’ We checked the building and found a crack in our front window – but luckily nothing too serious.”
Her parish at Burwood was in the middle of a 9am Mass when the earthquake hit.
Parish priest Missionary of God’s Love Father Daniel Serratore was seen stopping and smiling as he looked around at the tremoring church.
“We just had a little tremor here,” Fr Serratore said on the livestream. A parishioner at the lectern laughed and said, “Praise God.”
Other locals have reported losing power, which was especially problematic for the many Melbournians still working from home in lockdown.
ABC News Breakfast was caught in the midst of the earthquake live on air with the hosts unsure of what to do.
Hosts Michael Rowland and Tony Armstrong could be seen looking off-camera at the producers for direction.
With many parish churches shut during lockdown, it could be some time before church damages are fully counted.
Earthquakes are rare in Australia because we are located far from active tectonic zones, typically found at the borders of two plates.
Another two earthquakes were reported by Geoscience Australia in under an hour.
The first of the three was the largest on-land earthquake in Australia since 1997.
The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed there was no tsunami threat.
