Victorian emergency services authorities have warned the public to avoid driving and ‘stay in place’ after Australia’s south-east was rocked by two significant earthquakes this morning.
The first quake – a magnitude-6 – was detected south-east of Mansfield in the state’s north-east at 9.15am today, while a magnitude-4 earthquake was recorded around 15 minutes later.
The initial earthquake was felt as far away as Sydney, in regional NSW, Adelaide, Tasmania and in the nation’s capital, where employees on the fourth floor of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade building in Barton reported experiencing the tremors.
Victorian residents are reportedly now experiencing aftershocks from the main quakes, as they assess the damage left behind.
One local, 60-year-old, Rose, who lives on the Bellarine Peninsula called in to ABC Radio Melbourne to share her frightening morning experience.
“We’ve just moved into a round earth house on a concrete slab and the whole thing just rock and rolled and the water in the swimming pool went sloshing backwards and forwards,” she said.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
Also on ABC Radio, Seismology Research Centre’s Adam Pascale said the epicentre of the quake was north-east of Aberfeldy and the Thomson Dam in the Alpine National Park.
“We think it’s a mag-5.8 potentially at this point in Gippsland,” he told ABC Radio Gippsland.
“It shook here in the northern suburbs of Melbourne for about 15-20 seconds so it’s quite a significant earthquake.”
