Melburnians might feel some light but insignificant aftershocks after a once-in-a-century earthquake struck north of the city centre.

Geoscience Australia confirmed the 3.8 magnitude quake hit at a depth of three kilometres at Sunbury, about 40km northwest of the city, at 11.41pm on Sunday.

More than 25,780 people contacted the agency to report they had felt shaking.

Most of the reports were centred on Melbourne but some came from as far north as Albury and as far south as Hobart, Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Phil Cummins said.

It was the highest magnitude earthquake with an epicentre in metropolitan Melbourne since 1902.

“The aftershocks will be light and they’re likely to be much smaller,” Professor Cummins told AAP.

“They can go on for some time, years even, but they typically decrease in both magnitude and frequency as time goes on.”

Victoria’s SES state commander David Baker said his crews had only received three calls for help following the quake, but there were no reports of significant damage. 

The Bureau of Meteorology also said there was no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories as a result of the quake.

In the last five years, four other earthquakes of magnitude three or greater have been recorded in Victoria, including a 5.9 magnitude quake north of Rawson in 2021 which caused some localised damage.

That 10km-deep earthquake was felt across Melbourne and as far away as Canberra, Sydney and Adelaide.

On average, about 100 earthquakes of magnitude three or larger are recorded in Australia each year.

Seismologist Januka Attanayake said more earthquakes were being noted and recorded because there were more monitoring systems across the country. 

Recent earthquakes have also made people more sensitive to seismic activity, Dr Attanayake said.

“The notion that the earthquakes are only occurring now is not actually correct,” he told AAP.

“They have been occurring throughout time – it’s just that these earthquakes are infrequent and the last large earthquake, the memory of that is not with us anymore.”

Prof Cummins said there would be more tremors in Victoria although they were often random and it was hard to predict their magnitude. 

“You can get an earthquake of this size anywhere in Australia,” he said.

“Unless there’s some further information that comes along, I would say this is just a random occurrence.”

Prof Cummins encouraged people to report any tremors they feel to Geoscience Australia.

By Melissa Meehan and Tara Cosoleto in Melbourne