A quake of magnitude 3.8 has struck in Melbourne's northwest, with thousands of people contacting Geoscience Australia to say they had felt the shaking.
It was a rude awakening for thousands of Melburnians after a 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city's northwest.
Geoscience Australia said the quake hit at a depth of 3km at Sunbury, about 40km northwest of the city, at 11.41pm on Sunday.
More than 22,750 people contacted the agency to report they had felt shaking.
Most of the reports are centred around Melbourne, but there were some as far north as Bendigo and as far south as Hobart, Geoscience Australia said in a statement.
Seismology Research Centre chief scientist Adam Pascale said it was the highest magnitude earthquake with an epicentre in metropolitan Melbourne since 1902.
He said damage usually occurs when earthquakes are above four or five in magnitude but this event may have caused some cosmetic or structural issues as it was quite swallow and close to the city.
"We can start to see damage at this sort of level of earthquake and above," he told ABC TV on Monday.
"This earthquake is about 100 times smaller than the one two years ago in September 2021, but it was a lot closer to Melbourne. So it was felt in a similar intensity but for a shorter duration."
Victoria's SES state commander David Baker said his crews had only received three calls for help following the quake.
"We were fortunate that there was no damage or consequences as a result of the earthquake last night," Mr Baker told ABC News.
He said there was always a concern of aftershocks.
In the last five years, four other quakes of magnitude three or greater have been recorded in Victoria, including a 5.9 magnitude north of Rawson in 2021 which caused some localised damage.
On average, around 100 earthquakes of magnitude three or larger are recorded in Australia each year.
The Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories as a result of the quake.