An earthquake strikes Victoria, Australia with a magnitude of 5.0.

More than 8000 people formally logged in their experience feeling the tremor in Melbourne and Tasmania's suburbs in, Sunshine, St Kilda, Reservoir, Bendigo, Geelong, Cobram and King Island.

Cracking sounds of the earths crust was heard. Some say the earthquake lasted for one to two seconds. Laurie, a resident of Burtons Lookout, south of Colac, described feeling the earthquake shake his house "violently" for at least 30 seconds.

Laurie explains, "The whole house shook. I thought the house was lifting off its foundations — it really tossed around. It shook violently — the house felt like the room was lifting up." he told the ABC.

Leeyong Soo on X (formerly known as Twitter) wrote, "Another earthquake in Melbourne 2.13am, Eaglemont earthquakes".

n1dailyoffender wrote, "Wtf my room just shook why are earthquakes becoming so regular in Melbourne???".

Jason Lee wrote, "Good to know there are always fellow nightowls to confirm another earthquake in Melbourne and not my house falling apart".

Another X user reported that the quake startled local birds and heard them chirping. "Yep, glad I decided to check if that's why the birds started to chirp, & then my roof creaked like old bones. Thought maybe I'd imagined the slight tremors" Belleo said.

X users in Tasmania reported wildlife waking up. Lisa Brassington says, "Ok, we're not sure we, humans, felt it in Northern Tasmania. However, all animals did wake us up at that time. They went a bit strange. We thought it was part of the larger electrical storm that has gone past for the last x hours". She said.

Another X user said they felt their building lurch. Sally McLean says, "Was that an earthquake in Melbourne about 10 mins ago? Tell you what, they made these 1920's apartments to last - building lurched sideways, but no cracks, not even broken glassware! Still unnerving". She said.

There had only been five earthquakes of magnitude-5.0 and above recorded in Victoria's history. X users agree that there has been an uprise in earthquakes in Victoria and Melbourne for the past few years as well as other parts in Australia and New Zealand.

But according to the chief scientist at the Seismology Research Centre, Adam Pascale, he believes there had not been an increase in earthquakes in the region. "People are noticing them more, and we are getting more earthquakes felt by people, but we aren’t seeing more activity" he says in his opinion.

"A few more earthquakes are being felt because they are close to the population" he adds. Most quakes and aftershocks are so light they’re unfelt and it is often at night or early in the morning when residents are in deep sleep.

Pascale describes the quake, "It was a very short one, only about a second or two compared to the other earthquakes Melbourne has had in the past year or two. There will not be any damage – it would have to be reasonably close for that to happen" he believes.

There was minor damage and no injuries. A wall collapsed in Brighton, and in the Foodworks store in Apollo Bay, bottles smashed in the liquor aisle and a number of items got knocked over off the shelf's. The shop manager Ofelia Danger said it was scary."I was thinking it was the end of the world," she said in fear.

A water tank in the Otway ranges blew out at the Beechy Hotel. "It looked like it had exploded outwards, sent pieces of it flying in every direction" Gwynneth Cowley said.

Premier Jacinta Allan told reporters that two properties in the Colac area may have been damaged. A victims friend says, "A friend unfortunately has lost part of their house. The tiled roof has collapsed, windows blown out".

"For an earthquake of this magnitude, we expect more aftershocks to continue for some months. Most of the aftershocks will go unnoticed; particularly given the remoteness of this region". Pascale warned.

Pascale urged residents to become familiar with preparing for a larger quake because there are multiple fault lines that have been mapped out by scientists. "People need to know what do: drop, cover and hold on" at least until the shaking stops seismologist Pascale instructed.

Lastly, an advice warning was issued to urge residents living near Colac to be alert of falling trees.