View AuSIS data from local Australian earthquakes

Earthquake Near Orange Felt Across Eastern Australia

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck near Orange on Tuesday evening, shaking homes across the Central West and being felt as far as Sydney and the coast. Despite its moderate size, the quake was widely experienced by more than 2,000 people, highlighting how efficiently seismic waves travel through Australia’s ancient crust. Occurring at a shallow depth of around 5 km near the Cadia gold mine, the event produced noticeable local shaking, with reports of buildings moving and rumbling lasting several seconds.

What’s especially exciting is that our AuSIS school seismometers across QLD, SA, NSW and the ACT all captured the event beautifully.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook remote central Australia on 5 April 2026.

At 03:56 local time, an earthquake struck near Amata in the Musgrave Park region of South Australia, close to the SA–NT border.

While no major damage has been reported, six aftershocks (M2.7–3.6) followed through the day, with the largest, a M3.6, occurring at 01:32 local time on 5 April.

This region has a known seismic history. A M5.4 struck near Ernabella in 2012, and the 2016 M6.1 Petermann Ranges earthquake left a ~21 km surface rupture, one of the most significant Australian earthquakes in recent decades.

What makes this event especially exciting for AuSIS is that it was clearly recorded across our network of school-based seismometers, spanning NT, SA, WA, NSW, and VIC. And the timing couldn't be better.

In early March, we upgraded our AUALC station to a Nanometrics instrument as part of the Opportunity Fund, and this earthquake put that new equipment to the test beautifully.