Power outages as earthquake shakes the Hunter and Sydney

A 4.5-magnitude earthquake has rumbled across the NSW Hunter region at a depth of about 5km early on Saturday morning, with more than 800 people across Sydney and NSW reporting the quake to Geoscience Australia.

There have been multiple aftershocks around the epicentre near Muswellbrook, where about 2500 homes were without power.

Earthquake reports across the Hunter region on Saturday morning.Credit: Geoscience Australia

The quake, which occurred about 6am, was reported widely by social media groups in Sydney’s east and west as well as in the regions, with people being shaken awake in their beds or shocked by the sudden shifting stratum beneath them.

“Just felt one at Muswellbrook. Standing in the car park and the ground was shaking. Scared the crap out of me,” one person wrote on the Earthquakes Downunder Facebook page.

NSW Police said there were no reports of injuries or damage to infrastructure in the area.

Ausgrid said by early afternoon it had returned power to all 2500 customers affected by outages.

This tremor follows a series of recent events, including a magnitude 4.7 earthquake felt by thousands across the state two weeks ago in the same area. In that earthquake, some buildings in Muswellbrook’s CBD had broken windows, fallen chimneys and stock spilling off shelves, residents said.

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Trevor Allen defined Saturday’s event as moderate.

“What, we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks is perhaps what we would now define as an earthquake swarm,” Dr Allen said.

“That is where we see a series of moderate sized events, and each of those earthquakes tends to have its own aftershock sequence.”

With AAP

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