A 4.8-magnitude earthquake in Victoria has woken residents after homes swayed and windows rattled during a late-night tremor near Leongatha.
Geoscience Australia said the earthquake struck at about 2am, around 135km south-east of Melbourne, at a depth of approximately 10km. More than 14,000 people reported feeling the tremor.
Residents described being startled by the movement, with some sharing their experiences on social media.
“I thought someone was trying to get in my front door,” one person wrote on Facebook, while another said: “I felt my bed swaying.”
A Leongatha resident described the earthquake as a “huge explosion nearby”, saying the house shook and there was a “booming noise”. Another resident wrote: “I’ve never been more scared in my life.”
The largest earthquake ever recorded in Australia is generally considered to be the 1941 Meeberrie earthquake in Western Australia, which reached magnitude 6.9.
