Over 40,000 reports of people feeling the earthquake were recorded; some of which were from the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania. The first community messaging was a simple social media post by the Victorian State Emergency Service stating ‘We felt it too. More to follow’. This was followed by an advice warning issued for Rawson, Mount Buller, Woods Point and their surrounding areas.

Approximately 35,000 households and businesses experienced power outages and 90 sets of traffic lights were offline, but triple zero communications were not disrupted. Minor building damage occurred in the Melbournian areas of Kensington, Ascot Vale, Parkdale, Prahran, Balwyn, Elsternwick, Northcote and West Melbourne. In Mansfield, an Ambulance Victoria dispatch bay reported some damage and fallen trees were observed on roads. In Prahran, one Coles supermarket was temporarily closed due to risks of falling facades, parts of a tram line were briefly disrupted and a Betty’s Burgers restaurant was shut for eight weeks due to building damage.

Residential buildings up to 50 stories reported movement for a maximum of 20 seconds, but only one person was reported as displaced and provided with accommodation by the City of Stonnington. While major infrastructure was not damaged, there were instances of temporary closures to major infrastructure such as Melbourne Airport and the West Gate Bridge to allow for inspections. With COVID-19 lockdown orders having been in force at the time of the earthquake, few people were walking on streets under the buildings that were damaged and no injuries or fatalities were identified.

The reduced mobility of labour and production of materials due to COVID-19 restrictions was an added complication to the repair process. However, due to the limited damage the earthquake caused, this was of limited impact to Victorians.

This was the largest earthquake in Victoria since 1900 and was one of the biggest recorded in eastern Australia. Usually, an earthquake of this size only occurs in Australia once every few years. However, the south-east highlands where the earthquake occurred does have a higher than normal level of seismic activity. The region often has small earthquakes with about 60 earthquakes of magnitude of 2.0 or higher having occurred since 2001.