Melbourne was rocked by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday morning. Photo / Getty Images
Melbourne was rocked by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday morning. Photo / Getty Images
The first thing Melbourne retiree Rita Crispin did after an 5.9 magnitude earthquake caused her home to "sway" this morning was get dressed.
"I thought, if that happens again, I am not being caught out in my pyjamas. I'm not running out onto the street like that," the former Rotoruaresident said.
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck 10km deep near Mansfield, Victoria - about 180km northeast of Melbourne at 9.15am, Geoscience Australia reported.
The shaking lasted about 20 seconds and was felt as far away as Sydney, Canberra and Tasmania, with reports of property damage in Victoria.
Did you feel the 5.8 (downgraded from 6.0) magnitude #earthquake? Video taken in Green St, Windsor shows some significant damage caused. Call 132500 if you need help from the SES or 000 if life-threatening. Know what to do if aftershocks occur. https://t.co/jI6V1pqdhdpic.twitter.com/2vitOZbBVs
Rita Crispin was sitting at the table eating breakfast with her husband Alan when the quake started.
"We are retired so we have breakfast quite late I suppose - at about quarter past nine - and the table started to shake, we could feel the tremors," Crispin said.
"My husband said 'what's that?' and then of course it got worse. It was really shaking.
"Both my husband and I grabbed the edge of the table together.
She was listening to the radio and found reassurance in hearing the host discussing the tremors as they happened.
The exterior of the earthquake-damaged facade of the Betty Burgers building on Chapel St, Melbourne. Photo / Getty Images
Crispin, who left Rotorua in 1972 after several years as a nurse receptionist in the city, said she started to feel "dizzy and a bit sick" as the shaking continued.
"The house was swaying, and it went on for quite a while and gradually got less and less," she said.
"You didn't want to move, because you didn't know if it was going to go again."
She didn't find it "frightening" having experienced earthquakes in Rotorua, but Crispin said it was "quite a shock" for many in Melbourne.
"It was quite a big one for Australia."
She hadn't seen any damage in her home suburb Brighton, which was about 15km out of the city.
Transport administrator Arihia Pinker said the earthquake rocked her office building. Photo / Supplied
Arihia Pinker, a transport industry administrator, moved from Rotorua to Melbourne 15 years ago. As an essential service employee, Pinker was at work this morning when the quake hit.
"It was quite strong and rocked the building," Pinker told the Rotorua Daily Post.
"Many of my Australian co-workers panicked, unaware of what was happening. A few of the Kiwis I work with knew exactly what was happening given the earthquakes we had experienced while living in New Zealand."
Pinker said her two children, aged 4 and 6, were at home with their father at the time.
"They were scared with the noise and shaking. [They] thought our home was going to break.
"It was a very surreal experience given everything else that is going on in Melbourne with lockdown."
