4.8 magnitude earthquake wakes residents in Perth

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake in WA’s central Wheatbelt has woken residents across the state overnight.

The quake was recorded at 2am in Wyalkatchem, 192 kilometres north-east of Perth.

More than 500 felt reports have been recieved.Credit: GA

Geoscience Australia reported tremors were felt as far away as Fremantle, Perth and Mandurah. So far, more than 900 reports of feeling the earthquake have been received.

Its depth was two kilometres.

Wyalkatchem is a small agricultural town, home to around 500 people.

A worker at the Wyalkatchem Roadhouse told Radio 6PR the quake “woke the whole house up” but that she was not aware of any damage in the town.

“I don’t think it was big enough to cause major damage, but it was enough to shake the whole area , kind of wake people up, it was a loud rumble,” she said.

“[My grandma] told me they do have a few little [earthquakes] now and then [here], but she hasn’t had anything that big for a while.”

A Geoscience Australia spokesman said Wyalkatchem was one of the most active seismic areas in the country with around 140 quake events recorded in the past 12 months.

Today’s earthquake was the biggest on record, with the previous being a 4.5 magnitude event.