I had the washing machine going, so at 9:15am when I suddenly felt the house shaking, I thought it was the spin cycle going a bit crazy.
But no… it was the first really big earthquake I’ve ever experienced – magnitude 5.9. I’ve felt tremors before, but this was longer and stronger by far.
No damage done to my 90ish year old house, but some other old buildings have had damage. Thankfully there have been no reports of injuries.
And it’s led to some messages from transport operators that were not citing the usual reasons for disruptions. Apart from the Chapel Street tram, two V/Line routes were also affected.
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things… pandemic, lockdown, city protests… another curveball comes at you.
It’s probably a good reminder to check for anything in your home or workplace that could be vulnerable to aftershocks. If you’ve been meaning to secure that tall piece of furniture to the wall, now might be a good time to do it.
And hope there won’t be another one anytime soon.
- Lead image: map from GeoScience Australia
5 replies on “Shakin’ all over”
I thought coaches are already replacing the V-line train network until further notice because some drivers tested positive?
Traralgon and Seymour services did return to close to normal before the earthquake.
I thought my wife was upstairs exercising which can cause the floor to thump a bit … until I saw she was downstairs with me.
Our whole house shook for about 30 seconds, quite scary.
Yeah, hope we don’t get another tremor like that in my lifetime!
I follow one or two of the geo-themed groups on Facebook. One of the experts was telling us, this quake is right on a fault line, of which channels pressure from Indonesia to New Zealand. So, I guess, with all the quakes in Indonesia lately, putting pressure on us, we, cracked, and now the pressure has been passed on across the ditch.
There was also a number of other locations around the world which had quakes around the 6 range, including Japan, California, and western Africa too.
I sure felt it in Narre Warren. Others in my area have felt some of the aftershocks, but I only felt the main one. An empty cardboard dvd box, fell from the top of a speaker it was resting on, but other than that, nothing has changed that I can see.
I understand that, the Great Ocean Road has also been cut of with a landslide somewhere along its route.
It was explained to me, that, the big reason why the trains where put out was, concerns over the risk of platform faces, if they move by just a few cms, they would be hit by any approaching train, and, you dont want that, especially at 160km/h. You could of had a ruling where, a train must stop just short, and approach at a very slow speed, by that, testing the clearances of each one as you go along.
I guess there would be a risk with underline bridges of which may have been cracked by the quake too.
I find it funny that a lot of people happen to be washing their clothes at the time of the earthquake. As for me, I regretfully missed out! I have an authorised worker permit and was on the way to work. I didn’t feel the shake as I was already in the train when it happened. Not sure if the suspension did a good job, or if it was shaky enough in the train that I didn’t notice the tremors.