Gold mine causes 3.6-magnitude earthquake east of Bendigo in ...

A gold mine in Central Victoria has confirmed its activities induced a 3.6-magnitude earthquake felt in multiple towns near Bendigo.

The earthquake occurred at 6:40am with 22 felt reports submitted to Geoscience Australia.

Fosterville Gold Mine, located 25 kilometres east of Bendigo, said it recorded a mine-induced seismic event.

The mine's environment and community manager Will Wettenhall said staff were working at the site when it happened.

"It occurred soon after a production firing [or] blasting event," he said.

"Our people are safe.

"The mechanisms are similar to an earthquake, however they are related to our mining activities." 

Houses shaking

Local resident Ange Maree, from Goornong, said there was a loud bang when the earthquake hit.

"I thought something had crashed into the house," she said.

"The whole house shook.

"I was in bed having breakfast. I was confused … and then there were small tremors afterwards so I then knew what had happened."

She was concerned a crack in an archway inside her house was larger after the quake.

"Prior to this there was a bit of a crack … but now it has increased in size and there are extra cracks that weren't there before," she said.

"It's a concern if this type of thing is going to be ongoing."

Animal rescuer Mairin McCubbin felt the quake in Echuca, 45km away from the epicentre.

"I have bird aviaries near my bedroom window and the birds were going crazy," she said.

"Then I heard my windows banging. I thought the rescue cats were running around crashing into the windows … but the cats were all asleep.

"Then I felt it, and realised that's an earthquake."

Aftershocks unlikely

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate said it was unlikely there would be aftershocks.

"We tend to get an aftershock sequence after significantly larger events in the the magnitude 4-5 range," he said.  

"Of course, we can't predict earthquake activity, so it is always possible where you've had one seismic event, there could be another one that follows."

He said the National Earthquake Alert Centre looked at seismic activity across the county, but it was common to see it occur near mines.

"Fluids tend to aggregate along the fault lines and you get these ore bodies where the fault lines are," he said.

Mine investigating

Mr Wettenhall said an investigation was underway, and representatives had spoken to locals at a community marquee set up in Axedale Park.

"We have protocols in place to respond to these events underground, which we are currently working through, and we've mobilised our community engagement team to be available to talk to our neighbours or landholders who may have concerns," Mr Wettenhall said.

"We have a team of geotechnical engineers who investigate these mine-induced events.

"As that additional information comes to hand we provide regular updates on our website."

On November 1, a spokesperson from Fosterville Gold Mine said a smaller seismic event registering a 2.3 magnitude had occurred about 1:30pm.

That event was recorded about 1 kilometre below the surface in the Phoenix area of the mine.