'Very rare' magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes near Melbourne, tremors rattle southeast Australia

• A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Melbourne, with its epicentre near the rural town of Mansfield, in Victoria state.
• The quake was felt as far away as Adelaide, 800km to the west, and Sydney, 900km to the north.
• There were no reports of damage outside Melbourne and no reports of serious injuries, "or worse".

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE – A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Melbourne on Wednesday, Geoscience Australia said, one of the country's biggest quakes on record, causing damage to buildings in the country's second largest city and sending tremors throughout neighbouring states.

The quake's epicentre was near the rural town of Mansfield in the state of Victoria, about 200km northeast of Melbourne, and was at a depth of 10km. An aftershock was rated 4.0.

An emergency and rescue official examines the damage to a building in the popular shopping Chapel Street in Melbourne on 22 September 2021.

AFP PHOTO: William West/AFP

Images and video footage circulating on social media showed rubble blocking one of Melbourne's main streets, while people in northern parts of the city said on social media they had lost power and others said they were evacuated from buildings.

The quake was felt as far away as the city of Adelaide, 800km to the west in the state of South Australia, and Sydney, 900km to the north in New South Wales state, although there were no reports of damage outside Melbourne and no reports of injuries.

More than half of Australia's 25 million population lives in the southeast of the country from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney.

"We have had no reports of serious injuries, or worse, and that is very good news, and we hope that good news will continue," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Washington.

'Rumbling like a big truck'

"It can be a very disturbing event, an earthquake of this nature. They are very rare events in Australia and as a result, I am sure people would have been quite distressed and disturbed."

Quakes are relatively unusual in Australia's populated east due to its position in the middle of the Indo-Australian Tectonic Plate, according to Geoscience Australia. The quake on Wednesday measured higher than the country's deadliest tremor, a 5.6 in Newcastle in 1989, which resulted in 13 deaths.

The mayor of Mansfield, Mark Holcombe, said he was in his home office on his farm when the quake struck and ran outside for safety.

He said: 

He knew of no serious damage near the quake epicentre, although some residents reported problems with telecommunications.

No tsunami threat was issued to the Australian mainland, islands or territories, the country's Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement.

The quake presented a potential disruption for anti-lockdown protests expected in Melbourne on Wednesday, which would be the third day of unrest that has reached increasing levels of violence and police response.

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