On Wednesday evening, just before 7:10pm, Claudine Thomasset was sitting on the couch in Breadalbane, NSW with her dachshund Paris, when her house started shaking.

“The whole house shook for what felt like a few seconds, and I didn’t know what was happening,” she said.

“I thought I was going mad to be honest, but Paris was barking, and I could hear the dogs outside and on neighbouring properties barking too, so I realised something must have happened,” added Ms Thomasset.

Ms Thomasset said that she thought perhaps there had been a truck crash, or a tree had fallen on the house.

“But when I finally went outside, I couldn’t see anything, so checked on social media and everyone was reporting the same thing,” she said.

Geoscience Australia has confirmed that in Boorowa, NSW last night, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded.

It was felt widely across the state from Albury in the south up to Gosford in the north.

According to Geoscience seismologist Hugh Glanville, “It is a large earthquake in this area, but it has happened before … we’ve had earthquakes … at least 25 in the past few hundred years that have been at magnitude 4 or higher.”

However, the region has not experienced one this large for a while.

“This is the largest we’ve had since 1977 where we had a magnitude 4.8 in Bowning, that did cause some minor damage,” Mr Glanville said.

“Around this size is where you start to get minor damage from earthquakes… we don’t know at this stage, but you can get minor things like plaster cracking and things falling off shelves and light damage to structures.”

Ms Thomasset said that she couldn’t see any damage at her home. “Not that I have noticed yet,” she said.

Photox photographer Ben Appleton was at the Hotel Realm covering a three-day conference when the shaking started.

“I was sitting in the ballroom editing photos from the day, when the ground shook for about five seconds and the chandeliers started swinging,” Mr Appleton said.

“Attendees were on their way into the ballroom to take their seats … and there was an excited buzz in the room combined with disbelief that we had just had an earthquake in Canberra,” he said.

Mr Appleton also runs the local Facebook group ACT Weather Chasers and Photographers, where numerous members have recorded their experiences of the earthquake.

According to Mr Glanville whilst earthquakes of this magnitude do not feel common in this region, they do occur.

“In the past 20 years, we’ve recorded 346 earthquakes within 100 kms of Canberra, so earthquakes themselves are quite common in this area,” he said.

“This is just a little bit larger than the usual earthquake in the region.”

Mr Glanville added that there may be aftershocks and that there is “Always the remote possibility this might be followed by an even larger event.”

Mr Glanville reiterated that if people experience an earthquake, it is important to stay inside and keep themselves safe.

“Duck, take cover and hold on,” he stressed.

“Get under a desk or a table or a mattress and protect yourself from any falling debris and hold on until the shaking stops.

“It’s not a good idea to run outside as falling debris may impact you.”

Geoscience Australia also encourages people to record their experiences via their ‘Felt Report’ system.

“Felt reports are very important for an earthquake, so if you felt it, please submit a felt report … so we can use that to track both how strongly and how widely earthquakes like this were felt,” Mr Glanville said.

 “And that helps us model the future damage and shaking and extent of shaking from earthquakes.”

For information about recent earthquakes, visit the Earthquakes@GA website.

To make a felt report, Geoscience Australia encourages people to click here.