North Queensland has been rocked by the second biggest earthquake ever recorded off the east Australian coast, but thankfully there have been no reports of serious damage.

Geoscience Australia said the magnitude-5.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Bowen about 2:30pm.

It is the strongest recorded since a magnitude-6.0 quake struck east of Gladstone in 1918.

Senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate said it was fortunate the quake’s epicentre was at sea because its magnitude was bigger than the Newcastle earthquake which was responsible for 13 deaths and more than 150 injured.

“It was bigger than the Newcastle earthquake so in comparison to that, it certainly had the potential to do some significant damage,” Mr Bathgate told AAP.

The earthquake follows a magnitude 4.4 earthquake off the coast of Bundaberg, 370km north of Brisbane, on Saturday.

Mr Bathgate said the magnitude of the Bowen earthquake was significant, but it wasn’t the biggest in recent years in Australia.

“We had an earthquake in Northern Territory earlier which was 6.1 and that was the largest earthquake in 20 years and it has certainly been an active 12 months for earthquakes in Australia.”

Tsunami fears

Bowen Golf Club employee Margaret Need said everyone was wondering what was happening when the two-storey timber clubhouse started shaking. 

“It was only for a few seconds and we were more concerned about the ocean,” Ms Need told AAP.

“If the ocean started sucking out we would have started running because we are right on the beachfront. We just watched that for a bit to see if there was any change in the water. The club shook violently and it was very scary.”

Mr Bathgate the quake posed no tsunami threat, but a large portion of the Queensland coast felt some shaking.

“We know it’s been felt all the way from the Sunshine Coast up to north of Townsville,” he said.

“At this stage we’ve had almost 1,000 reports come in to our earthquake alert centre here in Canberra of people having felt the earthquake.”

By 5:00pm, there had been six aftershocks recorded in the same area as the initial quake, the highest of them magnitude-4.

Queensland Police have not had any reports of major damage, however minor cracking has occurred at some properties.

Mag 5.8 Offshore Bowen, QLD. 18 Aug 2016, 14:30(AEST). Lat/Long -19.85 148.66 Depth 0km Info is prelim. #eqaus

— EarthquakesGA (@EarthquakesGA) August 18, 2016

‘The whole place is shaking’

Townsville resident John Towning said he was watching ABC News 24 when his chair started to shake.

“I thought, ‘there’s no train around, no plane around’ then I got up and had a look and I thought, ‘geez, the whole bloody place is shaking’,” he said.

“I sat down again and it was like the bloody chair was vibrating.

“When you looked around at everything on the wall you could see it all shaking.”

Mr Towning said one of his neighbours fled her house because she believed it was not safe.

“I’d say it lasted a good six or seven seconds,” he said. “It was more funny than scary. You don’t normally get those things here.

“You watch the clock shaking across the wall a bit, everything on top of the fridge is shaking.”

‘A few things came off the shelves’

ABC journalist Brigid Glanville is holidaying with her family on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays and also felt the quake.

“It certainly shook everyone up. I went into the general store and a few things came off the shelves and everyone is talking about it,” she said.

I was in a level 8 apartment on Hamilton Island and felt that tremor. https://t.co/HnHgA7ZFcu

— Ha-rrumph! | 游秋霞 (@harbugs) August 18, 2016

Felt a slight tremor here at work in Rockhampton but Mackay more so apparently

— Neil McDonald (@neilalpha) August 18, 2016

Earth tremor here (Far North Queensland) just a few minutes ago. Made the house creak; went for about 20 seconds. Not felt one for a while.

— Helen Larson (@Eviota) August 18, 2016

Queensland has experienced several quakes in past two years

Mr Bathgate said earthquakes had been particularly active in Queensland over the past two years.

As well as the Bundaberg quake, he said there had been three earthquakes of magnitude-5 just off the coast of Fraser Island late last year and also near Eidsvold.

“The largest earthquake that has been experienced in Queensland is actually a magnitude-6 that occurred off the coast of Gladstone in 1918, so that’s not too far away from this one,” Mr Bathgate said.

“Australia generally gets earthquakes as a result of the plate that we’re on, moving north at about 7 centimetres every year.

“That stress builds up within the plate and gets released along lines of weakness like we’ve seen today.”

– with ABC, AAP