4.6-Magnitude Quake Rattles Thousands North of Sydney

If you were up late (or got woken up suddenly!) in New South Wales last night, you weren’t imagining things — a 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Hunter region in the early hours of the morning.

The quake hit around 2:55 AM, with the epicentre about 10km beneath the town of Singleton, which is west of Newcastle and around 200km north of Sydney. It didn’t just stay local either — people felt the shaking all the way from Taree down to Wollongong, and yes, even in Sydney.

Over 3,400 people jumped online to report feeling the tremor on the Geoscience Australia website. Some even felt it as far as the Queensland border and Canberra. That’s a pretty wide reach for an Aussie quake!

Geoscience Australia originally recorded it as a magnitude 5.1, but it was later revised down to 4.6. Still, that’s on the larger side for earthquakes in Australia.

Professor Phil Cummins, a seismologist, told the Today show that while a 4.6 isn’t usually enough to cause serious damage, it definitely could shake things up a bit — and may even cause minor damage in some areas.

"This was a relatively large earthquake by Australian standards,” he said. “It certainly would have shaken people over a very wide area.”

Turns out, the Hunter Valley is one of the more earthquake-prone spots in the country. Professor Cummins pointed out that the area around Muswellbrook has had quite a few quakes — two of this size in the past year, plus many smaller ones.

And of course, people in the region still remember the devastating 1989 Newcastle quake, which measured 5.6 and sadly claimed 13 lives.

As for this one — thankfully, no reports of injuries or damage have come through so far, according to police. And just in case you were wondering: no tsunami threat either, confirmed by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre.

Still, it was a bit of a rude awakening for plenty of Sydneysiders. Many took to social media in the early morning hours saying their homes shook or rattled, especially in areas like Wentworth Point.

All in all, a bit of a shake-up — but luckily, not a dangerous one.

More updates to come on AusNewsLanka.