Bendigo earthquake: Regional Victoria rocked by 3.6 magnitude early morning quake

A powerful 3.6 magnitude earthquake has rocked the city of Bendigo, waking residents in the region with shakes and rumbles.

The quake has been reported at a depth of 0km and was registered as feeling “violent”.

Its epicentre was in Elmore and the shake was felt at 6.41am.

The SES has confirmed multiple calls for assistance have already been received.

Longlea resident Julie Hindle-Cushen said: “I thought a big tree had fallen down.”

The quake is one of many that have rocked the state of Victoria in recent months.

On August 29, a magnitude 3.4 earthquake rattled Hamilton, around 270km west of Melbourne.

The shake came from a depth of 3km and hit at 5.09am.

Residents took to social media to say they had been woken by the tremors and that windows had rattled aggressively.

No reports of major damage have been recorded.

On August 26, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck Victoria’s Gippsland region, shaking Sandy Point, close to Wilsons Promontory.

The tremor, which occurred at around 7.45pm, was confirmed by Geoscience Australia which had 84 reports from Australians who felt the quake.

The earthquake occurred at a depth of approximately 10km.

On August 7, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake rattled Victoria’s high country.

That tremor centred near Woods Point, was identified as an aftershock from the record-breaking 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the region in September 2021.

The 2021 quake caused significant damage in Melbourne and was felt as far away as Canberra, Sydney, and Adelaide.

Professor Phil Cummins, a senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia, explained that aftershocks like the one in Woods Point are common following major earthquakes.

“The physical size of the earthquake was about 100th that of the earthquake that occurred in 2021,” he said. “The energy released would be about 900 times less than that previous earthquake.”

- With AAP