[rustynutz]

THE biggest earthquake for more than a century has hit Victoria (Australia) tonight with millions feeling it when it struck just before 9pm (AEST) for around 30 to 40 seconds.

http://www.news.com.au/national/earthquake-rocks-victoria/story-e6frfkvr-1226401631728

[Shambles]

wow

I just hope this statement holds true...

The SES says there were no major reports of damage or injuries.

[succulant]

Yikes! I'm glad we don't really get earthquakes here 

[eye30]

Yikes! I'm glad we don't really get earthquakes here 

May depend on the England score tonight 

[Dazzler]

Yikes! I'm glad we don't really get earthquakes here 

Either does Vic or Tassie normally..

We didn't feel that one but just shows it is possible 

I'm guessing you felt it Rusty?

[rustynutz]

Yikes! I'm glad we don't really get earthquakes here 

Either does Vic or Tassie normally..

We didn't feel that one but just shows it is possible 

I'm guessing you felt it Rusty?

Yep, it was quite a good one....
We get a few tremors in this area so I wasn't alarmed....but, I was surprised by how long this one lasted.....

[Doggie 1]

I posted in another thread re this but have now found this one.
Glad all is ok. 
They said to expect a few smaller after shocks too.

[rustynutz]

I heard on the radio this morning that there's been a heap of aftershocks.....I haven't noticed, I slept like a baby... 

But, hopefully our members that live in that area fared ok. 

[Doggie 1]

So it's not near you?

[rustynutz]

Probably 30-40k's away as the crow flies? 

This house I'm in seems to be pretty solid and is built on a concrete slab so doesn't rattle & shake so much with tremors so hard to judge how bad it was.

If I was still living in the house I lived in previously, I reckon it would've been much worse. It was built on stumps and was weatherboard.
I experienced a couple of tremors there around the 4.2 mark maybe 3 years ago and it was quite scary the way the house swayed, causing things to fall from shelves.

[Doggie 1]

At least it wasn't like Auckland's 

[rustynutz]

Yes, we can certainly be thankful for that...

[kittikat]

We felt it over here in the north west. It was very strange, and just a bit scary.   

The things in my china cabinet rattled. Sounded like a strong gust of wind at first, then the whole house seemed to roll like we were at sea.  It lasted 15 or 20 seconds I think.

Already had a lot of sympathy for Christchurch, now I think I have even more. 

[Phil №❶]

We are all very much used to having the rock solid earth under our feet. It is quite an awakening to realise that it too, can be unstable at times. We have only gentle tremors here and I too sympathise with any country that has devastating quakes where there is significant damage and people are killed or injured.

[mjt57]

I live about half an hour from the epicentre. It certainly shook our place. It's the second "quake" that I've experienced in the region. Moe, close to the epicentre had a few issues, mostly with occupied supermarkets being evac'ed and stock and shelving falling.

Our house is an older one, on stumps. I was a bit concerned about it being "shook off of the stumps", as it were. But we sustained no visible damage.

However, a number of generators (I live in an area which has a number of coal fired power stations) tripped due to various faults. About 2,000MW was lost. I've not been to work so I don't know the full details.

[rustynutz]

Thanks for the update, Martin...I was wondering how you fared....

[Dazzler]

Yes, thanks Martin.. Bit of a worry 

[mjt57]

They said that we could experience after shocks which could be worse than the original one, or they could go undetected. So far, nothing.

But, as you can imagine, the jokes were flying thick and fast. The closest town to the epicentre, Moe, copped the usual bogan and riff-raff jokes...