A magnitude 5.8 earthquake has struck north-east of Melbourne.
According to a Geoscience Australia site, the quake hit a little after 11:15am (NZT) with a depth of 10km at Mansfield, Victoria, prompting a flurry of reports on social media. It lasted between 20 and 30 seconds and more than 15,000 people have reported feeling it on Geoscience Australia.
About 15 minutes later, a magnitude 4 shake hit at roughly the same location.
The quake was felt across southern Australia, from Melbourne, to Geelong, to the country's capital of Canberra to Tasmania to south Sydney in New South Wales.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, speaking from Washington DC, said he has been in contact with Victoria Premier Dan Andrews and there have been no reports of serious injuries.
"It can be a very, very disturbing event for an earthquake of this nature. They are very rare events in Australia and, as a result, I am sure people will have been quite distressed and disturbed by that."
The Victoria state Emergency service issued a warning at 12:46pm, saying that number of aftershocks have occurred "and can continue to occur for sometime after the main earthquake".
"If you are located in Victoria, you are in danger. Expect aftershocks, stay away from damaged buildings and other hazards. Avoid driving, except for emergencies."
It said there is no tsunami threat.
One video shows the top facade of a brick building on the corner of Chapel St and Green St, Windsor collapsed, leaving debris on the street below. The building is home to a Betty's Burgers store, which released a statement saying the team "are all safe".
"We were fortunate that nobody was in the restaurant at the time. Thank you to everyone who has reached out after this morning's events, we will keep you updated."
One resident of Carrum Downs, a suburb of Melbourne, told 7News the "walls were moving".
"I was going to grab my phone but I thought ‘I’ve just got to get out'."
Cameras in ABC News Australia's newsroom captured the moment the quake hit.
"Yeah it's an earthquake, holy shit," a man off-camera can be heard saying, before exclaiming: "Wow... f**kin scary!"
Mark Quigley, a University of Melbourne geoscientist, spoke to The Age after the quake hit.
"For something of that size, we're talking about a fault that would be on the order of maybe 5 kilometres long and three kilometres wide.
"For an earthquake of that magnitude, we would expect to get hundreds of small aftershocks. We could get aftershocks in the range of 4.5 magnitude."
The Australian Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says he has spoken to his Victorian counterpart Tim Pallas about the earthquake and "we have offered to assist as required".
About 1000 Victoria homes are without power, with many of those in the Melbourne suburb of Windsor.
In response to the quake being felt in southern NSW, the local Fire and Rescue "dispatched crews across NSW from Alexandria, Manly and Hornsby in Sydney to as far as Dubbo in Western NSW following reports of tremors felt across the state".
"No reports of major structural damage in NSW have been received."
Earthquakes of such a magnitude are rare in Melbourne. One person on Twitter compared the shake to that felt in New Zealand. Thursday's shake was reportedly the largest to hit Victoria in at least 50 years.
"Earthquakes in Australia are reasonably uncommon, being far from the active tectonic zones of the Australian plate (like the one we live on!)" said GeoNet.
The quake comes just a day after violent protests in Melbourne in response to the local government's COVID-19 response and measures around vaccines. The city and other parts of Victoria are in a lockdown, with people only allowed to leave their homes for essential services.
