‘Rumbles and banging’ from Mt Barker earthquake

A magnitude 3.8 earthquake hit the Mt Barker region overnight.

The earthquake was recorded near Denbarker, a town located 70km from Albany and 20km from Mt Barker, at 12.49am.

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Hugh Glanville said there had been 57 public reports from people who felt the earthquake.

“Most of them reported banging and rumbling but there are no major damage reports from the earthquakes,” he said.

“We haven’t got any aftershocks recorded from this earthquake just as yet.

“The region has been recently classified as an active earthquake region.

“Last year we had the Lake Muir sequence in 2018 where we had a magnitude 5.3 and a magnitude 5.2 earthquake — two quite large earthquakes from that sequence last year.

“And the total sequence had over 800 earthquakes in it.”

Mr Glanville said the Mt Barker earthquake was widely detected. It was recorded by 17 WA geoscience stations and two South Australian stations.

On the Albany Advertiser Facebook page, Mt Barker woman Ashleigh Dreyer said it lasted about 10 seconds.

“Felt and heard it in Barker, as I was up with the young lad. Heard the ground cracking before the loud rumble and made the house shake,” she said.

Lesley Fitzgerald said she heard a loud bang and felt the tremor at her home in Kendenup.

“The windows ratted...didn’t know what it was until my partner woke up and said that was an earthquake,” she said.