By ANEEKA SIMONIS
Residents slept through late night earthquake and aftershock…
PAKENHAM was at the epicentre of an earthquake on Tuesday night but most people slept right through it.
Locals, who slept right through the 2.8 magnitude earthquake, woke-up to find the town was the focus of the morning’s biggest news story.
“The whole house slept right through it,” Dylan wrote on the Gazette’s Facebook page.
The earthquake hit about 11.39pm on Tuesday 10 March at a depth of 10 kilometres on the corner of Pakenham Road and Army Road, 10 kilometres north of Pakenham.
It was closely followed by a magnitude 1.3 aftershock at 3.18am.
But some locals had a more severe reaction to the earth tremor.
Heather Elise Donald, who lives off Army Road, likened the quake to an “explosion” which sent her and her mother running onto the street where worried neighbours were gathered.
“We were both sitting on the couch watching TV when all of a sudden, there were two massive explosions,” the 25-year-old said.
“The dogs were going crazy and the parrots were flapping about. We went out onto the road and a few neighbours were out there. We all thought it came from the nearby petrol station.”
Fellow Pakenham resident Bill Boyer told a media crew the earthquake felt like a train roaring through his house.
Geoscience Australia Seismologist Steve Tatham said they received more than 300 calls from people reporting they had felt the earthquake within 50 kilometres around from the epicentre.
“We had a couple of reports from suburban areas like Melbourne CBD but the vast majority of reports came from the immediate vicinity,” he said.
Former Berwick mayor Syd Pargeter OAM said the quake was unmistakable in Harkaway.
“I thought it was quite strong,” he said.“Most talked about hearing a noise, rattling, shaking and a few loose objects jostled about.”
Geoscience Australia did not receive any reports of property damage or injuries.
