Thousands of Victorians were given an unexpected wake-up call overnight after a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck near Leongatha in South Gippsland.
The earthquake hit just after 2am on Saturday, with Geoscience Australia placing the epicentre near Leongatha, around 135 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.
The quake occurred at a relatively shallow depth of about 10 kilometres and was strong enough to be felt across a large part of Victoria, including Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
By 3am, Geoscience Australia had received almost 15,000 reports from people who felt the shaking.
Despite the strength of the tremor, there have been no reports of injuries or significant damage.
Geoscience Australia geophysicist Hadi Ghasemi described it as one of the strongest earthquakes experienced in the region in the past two decades.
The earth wasn’t quite finished either.
A magnitude 3.1 aftershock was recorded near Leongatha shortly before 3am.
The earthquake comes during a particularly active period in Gippsland. A magnitude 3.9 earthquake was recorded near Ensay last weekend, while another magnitude 3.3 tremor was detected near Yarram on Thursday morning.
Australia might not sit on the edge of a major tectonic plate, but earthquakes are more common here than many people realise. Geoscience Australia says an average of two earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 occur somewhere in Australia each week.
For anyone who felt the house move overnight and wondered whether they were imagining things … nope.
Victoria really did shake.