Victorians along the state’s south-west coastline have been rocked by a magnitude-3.8 earthquake.
The earthquake struck about 1:40pm near the Great Ocean Road between Apollo Bay and Port Campbell.
According to Geoscience Australia, the quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres.
More than 60 felt reports were logged with Geoscience Australia, with the quake being felt near Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne.
The earthquake was felt by some near Ballarat and Melbourne. (Supplied: Geoscience Australia)
Millions of people visit the Great Ocean Road each year, with more than 2 million visiting the Twelve Apostles, just over 20 minutes’ drive north-west of the earthquake epicentre.
Dozens of residents posted on social media saying they had felt the quake in nearby Apollo Bay.
Helena Hunt, who lives in Ferguson, about 60 kilometres east of Port Campbell in the Otways, said everything in her house “violently shook” for a few seconds.
“I just thought, ‘What the hell was that?” Ms Hunt said.
“This is only the second time in my whole life that I’ve experienced an earthquake.”
Geoscience Australia seismologist Michelle Salmon said earthquakes happen in Australia more than people think.
“They generally tend to be smaller than some other countries like New Zealand or Japan,” Ms Salmon said.
“This particular area [in Victoria] there aren’t that many … but there’s been a few up in the Otways region.”
Ms Salmon said Australia is not on a tectonic plate boundary, but there was still a lot of stress in the crust of the earth.
“If those things change, then we can see earthquakes,” she said.
“There could be a stress that’s been there for a long time and it’s just sitting there; something small can happen, and the earthquake will pop off.”
Ms Salmon said the largest earthquake Australia has seen was a 6.6 magnitude in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory in the 1980s.
“It’s quite significant,” she said.
“There was a large gas pipeline that was badly damaged at the time … luckily in that area there’s not a large amount of infrastructure.”