A 3.5 magnitude earthquake has rocked a small mining city in Victoria’s west.
The quake’s epicentre was recorded at Glenorchy, about 2km northwest of Stawell, about 7.58am on Friday, in line with Geoscience Australia.
Stawell resident Tania Dignan mentioned the rumbling went on for about 25 seconds.
“It was unbelievable,” she advised NCA NewsWire.
“It simply stored going, it felt prefer it was slightly below the home and I went right away to wake my son up as a result of I didn’t know what on earth it was.”
She mentioned she drove by the city’s primary avenue and spoke to a different resident whose bike had toppled from their caravan roof, whereas her cousin in Bendigo couldn’t really feel something however the canine “had gone mad abruptly”.
“It was unreal, nothing like this has ever occurred right here earlier than,” she mentioned.
“I first thought one thing may’ve been improper down within the mines, I hope they’re all OK down there.”
The city’s underground gold mine has operated for 30 years, using about 350 folks at its peak within the final decade.
Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Phil Cummins mentioned the earthquake might be felt about 100km away however was not robust sufficient to trigger structural injury.
“It’s doable should you had been very, very near it and on delicate soil you may get issues falling off cabinets, you may get some cracking of plaster, however typically you want to get to an earthquake round magnitude 5.0,” he mentioned.
“It may have been a rumble … in an earthquake of this measurement, folks typically mistake it for a giant truck passing by or possibly a automotive hitting one thing.”
