Melbourne earthquake: thousands of tremors near Pakenham, Victoria

Victoria was woken up by a magnitude 2.4 earthquake, the second earthquake in five days.

The quake hit Melbourne near Pakenham, 53 km south-east of the CBD, at a depth of 3 km, just after 1am on Wednesday morning.

More than 80 residents have so far reported feeling the quake, but no injuries or damage have been sustained.

Up to 12,000 Victorians reported feeling the effects of the magnitude 4.6 earthquake that hit the state early Friday morning.

Last week’s larger quake struck 127km east of the city near Rawson at 1:32am, with a depth of 3km, according to Geoscience Australia.

Residents asked via Twitter if others had felt the tremors.

What’s going on with the Melbourne earthquakes? My whole house was shaking,” someone said.

“I definitely felt something,” wrote a second.

A third shared: “Far away… another? Watch out Melbourne friends.’

The quake is the latest in a series of earthquakes to hit Victoria in recent weeks.

Mornington Peninsula was rocked by a magnitude 2.4 earthquake on June 3.

The earthquake struck just after noon at a depth of 8 km.

A magnitude 4.0 earthquake woke up Melburnians on May 27, with people feeling the quake as far north as the Victoria-NSW border and as far south as Hobart.

Just 11 days earlier, a magnitude 2.3 earthquake hit Melbourne on May 16, at 11:15 am near Ferntree Gully, with a depth of about 4 km.

More than 100 residents reported feeling the earthquake to Geoscience Australia.

In September 2021, Victoria was rocked by an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale. It was one of the largest to hit Australia in decades.

The shallow earthquake occurred near the town of Mansfield, 110 miles northeast of Melbourne at a depth of about 6 miles.

That quake, which felt as far away as Sydney and Tasmania, shook buildings and knocked down walls because residents said it sounded like a “jet engine.”

It was followed by two aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 and 3.1 18 and 39 minutes later – both within 10 km of the original quakes.

In a popular shopping area around Chapel Street in Melbourne, masonry debris fell from buildings and littered the roads.

Bricks and rubble surrounded Betty’s Burgers fast food restaurant and large metal plates hung from the restaurant’s awning.

Chrissie Maus, general manager of Chapel Street, said about 60 merchants in the popular shopping area were affected by the quake – largely due to power outages or damage to buildings.

The burger chain said in a statement that no one was in the building at the time and all staff were safe.