The 4.6 magnitude quake struck just before 9:00 p.m. local time about 40 miles (60 km) southeast of Melbourne’s central business district, near the South Gippsland town of Korumburra.
While the initial jolt was felt widely across southern Victoria, residents of Korumburra said they also felt five minor aftershocks through Saturday morning.
Some homeowners reported broken windows and cracked walls as a result of the unusually powerful seismic jolt.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports the last time the earth shook with such force so close to Melbourne was in 1973, when a quake measuring 5 struck at Wonthaggi, also southeast of the Victorian capital.
Geoscience Australia seismologists told reporters that last Friday’s seismic jolt was an “intraplate quake.” “Such quakes occur when a single plate shifts under tension,” said agency spokesman Marco Maldoni.
Stress in the Indian Australasian plate, on which the Australian continent sits, increases gradually as the plate moves northeastward by about 4 inches (7 cm) per year.