Melbourne's ABC studio rocked by earthquake: 'HOLY S***'
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake has hit southeast Australia, sending shock waves through Melbourne, regional Victoria and as far north as Sydney.
ABC News Breakfast presenters Michael Rowland and Tony Armstrong were recording when the tremors hit the studio as the quake struck at Mansfield, north of Melbourne at 9.15am on Wednesday morning.
“Is it an earthquake or a structural thing?” Rowland asked crew off-camera, before making the call to leave, saying, “Let’s go. That was a big one.”
"Holy s***," someone can be heard saying in the background.
Both presenters appeared unnerved as tremors continued to be felt throughout the studio.
“That was hopefully the first and last time we will experience an earthquake. [That was] clearly an earthquake in the studio now in ABC Melbourne,” Rowland said.
The earthquake’s epicentre was in Mansfield in the Victorian Alps, around 180 kilometres northeast of Melbourne. The Victorian SES says there is no tsunami threat.
There are reports of building damage in Melbourne, while others in Sydney have had their buildings evacuated amid the tremors.
Australia’s largest earthquake ever recorded struck in 1988 at the Northern Territory’s Tennant Creek, with an estimated 6.6 magnitude.
A year later 13 people were killed in a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Newcastle.
However, the last major earthquake occurred on 21 May 2016 when a 6.1 magnitude quake struck the Petermann Ranges Region in the Northern Territory.
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