South-eastern Australia, including Seymour, was rocked by its largest recorded earthquake on Wednesday morning.
A 9.09 am the earth started shaking as millions of people within several hundred kilometres of the epicentre, which was south-east of Mansfield, looked at each other in confusion.
The 10 km-deep earthquake was felt across Melbourne and as far away as Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide.
Buildings shook, stock rattled on shelves and lights swayed during the magnitude 5.8 earthquake.
Two smaller aftershocks were recorded in the hour following the quake, measured at 4.0 and 3.1 on the Richter Scale.
St Mary’s Parish priest Father Eugene Ashkar said the quake caused some damage at St Mary’s church.
“Some of the cement columns from the front window crumbled and fell to the driveway and others fractured,” he said.
“The window has been panelled because if there was a strong wind, some of the stained glass windows could fall out.
“There are some cracks in the front wall of the church and a couple on the side that faces the new construction. The top of the cross at the front of the church also fell off.”
Fr Ashkar said a team of builders had made the building safe and a structural engineer was contacted to assess the damage further.
“We’re awaiting an engineer to assess the damage and determine if it is cosmetic or structural,” he said.
“We are unsure if more aftershocks or vibration from Puckapunyal could aggravate the situation.”
University of NSW professor of geology Martin Van Kranendonk said the quake ‘‘really came out of the blue’’.
Prof Van Kranendonk said the earthquake was caused by tectonic activity in the Victorian Alps, where tectonic plates were still putting pressure on mountains, pushing them up ‘‘very slowly’’.
He said it was hard to predict earthquakes, especially in Australia where there was limited tectonic activity.
“I think we’re lucky it was in a largely unpopulated area,” he said.
“It was absolutely large enough to cause damage, but the energy dims as it goes further away (from the epicentre).’’
He said it was one of the biggest quakes the country had seen since the 1989 earthquake in Newcastle, and earthquakes this large were only seen in Australia every ‘‘20 to 30 years’’.
Prof Van Kranendonk said more aftershocks in the coming days and weeks wouldn’t come as a surprise, but it was unlikely they would be as strong as the initial quake.