‘Growling noise’ and shaking beds as 4.6 earthquake rocks Victoria overnight

Another earthquake has been felt in parts of Melbourne after a magnitude 4.6 quake struck near Mt Baw Baw in eastern Victoria about 1.30am.

The earthquake – the largest recorded in the state since a major quake in September 2021 – occurred at a depth of seven kilometres near Rawson, about 130 kilometres east of Melbourne, according to GeoScience Australia.

More than 10,000 people have reported feeling the quake on GeoScience Australia’s website, including many in parts of Melbourne.

The Bureau of Meteorology and Victoria SES also confirmed the tremor. The SES later confirmed no notable damage had been reported to them.

The largest earthquake recorded in Victoria – a magnitude 5.9 tremor in September 2021 – damaged buildings in Melbourne and was felt across south-eastern Australia.

Friday’s tremor follows a magnitude 3.8 quake near Sunbury, on Melbourne’s north-west fringe, in late May.

Last month’s tremor was the largest earthquake in metropolitan Melbourne for 120 years. Experts told The Age at the time it was part of normal seismic activity.

Dr Dee Ninis, from the Seismology Research Centre, said Friday’s High Country quake was a typical aftershock from the September 2021 tremor – albeit the biggest one so far.

“There is always the chance that we will experience a larger earthquake, but in terms of the time that has passed, this is well within our aftershock sequence,” Ninis said.

“They either happen because they are a continuation of the release of strain build-up which also caused the main shock, or they are a response to the redistribution of stress from the main shock.”

Ninis added the tremor was quite deep – about 10 kilometres underground according to her measurements – so if there was damage “it would be quite minor and close to the epicentre”.

She also clarified how the earthquake naming system works. The epicentre is actually about 50 kilometres north of Rawson in remote forest, but GeoScience Australia’s automated system names tremors after the nearest sizable town.

A small earthquake also rattled parts of Melbourne’s south-east in mid-May, and Frankston was hit with a tremor last September.

The Seismology Research Centre also reported that more than 1500 earthquakes have been recorded in the Woods Point area – close to the location of Friday’s tremor – since the September 2021 earthquake.

Football legend and new Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Bartel, who is hosting 3AW’s Breakfast program this week, said he felt the tremor.

“I join a club, like many Victorians, of three-time survivors of earthquakes,” the ex-Geelong player said on radio.

“Our house rumbled.”

Lisa O’Halloran, from Forest Hill in Melbourne’s east, was breastfeeding her five-month-old when she felt the tremor.

“I was sitting in my bed, and it felt like a wind coming – like a howling. So, I went to check my phone, and then the windows started to shake. I was up for the last one, and I was like, ‘It’s an earthquake’,” she said.

O’Halloran felt the tremor for about 10 seconds and said it wasn’t as severe as the last one in May.

“There was kind of a growling noise from outside,” she said. “It’s just a bit scary when you’re sitting up late at night. It’s a bit of an eerie feeling.”

Tony Faella, 57, who lives in Langwarrin, felt his house shake for about 15 seconds.

“The bloody bed started shaking, and I thought, ‘Oh, there’s another earthquake’,” he said.

Faella said this one felt different from previous Victorian tremors because glasses and plates in his cabinets shook, whereas before he had only noticed his house moving. This time, he did not hear a bang before the tremor.

“I was in San Francisco when there was a seven [magnitude] earthquake and I felt that less than this one,” he adds, figuring the depth of the earthquake affected his experience.

Nigel Beresford, from Drouin in Gippsland, was closer to the epicentre and was woken by the shaking.

“I heard a sort of bang, and it sounded like someone banging on my front door,” he said.

Beresford looked at his smartwatch, which was illuminated on his bedside table with the time: 1.30am. Knowing the watch display was activated by movement, he deduced the table had been bumped by the tremor.

“And then I thought, ‘Oh – that was an earthquake’.”

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