Hundreds report fresh earthquake near Melbourne days after Victoria was rattled by major tremor

Hundreds of people have reported feeling an earthquake about 135km south-east of Melbourne after the region was struck by a significant tremor earlier this month.

Geoscience Australia recorded a quake at a depth of 5km just after 2pm on Saturday, with the epicentre at Kardella South, near the Gippsland town of Korumburra.

At least 200 reports were made to the federal organisation.

It comes after a magnitude 4.8 tremor struck near Korumburra on October 3, with locals reporting shaking windows and creaking homes.

Earthquake geologist Dr Dee Ninis, from Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, said aftershocks can be recorded for a while after a quake.

‘Aftershocks are felt hours, days, even weeks after an initial earthquake,’ she told ABC News.

‘Because it occurred in the same area as the earthquake earlier this month and was of a lower magnitude than the initial earthquake, it is an aftershock.

‘Often there’s hundreds of aftershocks after an earthquake and the majority are usually too small to be felt.

‘The Gippsland Basin is a region of heightened seismic activity relative to some other regions. 

‘Back in 2009, there was a magnitude 4.7 which was followed by a similar magnitude earthquake about two weeks later. There was also a magnitude 4.4 quake in the Gippsland basin in 2011.’

During the quake earlier in October, Geoscience Australia’s Hadi Ghasemi said it was one of the strongest tremors the region had experienced in the past two decades.

‘The shaking was widely felt, close to the epicentre. It was a strong shake but I don’t expect any major damage,’ he said.

Mr Ghasemi added that a magnitude 3.1 aftershock was recorded nearby shortly afterwards.

‘The windows shook and the whole house creaked. I couldn’t sleep after that one. Scary, scary,’ Caulfield South resident Jane Barnes told The Age.

Another resident, Michelle Wade, said she woke up to her apartment in Armadale shaking.

‘I could hear things falling down hitting the apartment floor above me,’ she said.

‘It’s not something you expect when you’re sleeping. It definitely took me a while to settle my nerves.’

Geoscience Australia received more than 16,000 reports from people who felt the quake, which had a depth of 10km, within an hour.

It followed a 3.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Victoria’s High Country just weeks earlier. 

The state has experienced a series of quakes since a magnitude 5.9 tremor struck in September 2021, damaging buildings in Melbourne and being felt across south-eastern Australia.

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake along the Great Ocean Road shook parts of Melbourne in October 2023, with the October 3 tremor marking Victoria’s largest quake since then.

Mr Ghasemi also urged people to report how they felt during the quake once it was safe to do so, allowing Geoscience Australia to accurately map its impact.

The latest felt reports and earthquake updates are available on the Geoscience Australia website.