MEENIYAN identity, Glenys Shandley, was left shocked and scared by an enormous bang early last Friday morning, and clinging to her armchair for dear life while her rural home on Meeniyan-Nerrena
Road shook violently as a 4.3 (Mw) magnitude earthquake struck the area.
Never mind that she was due to celebrate her 90th birthday, on the same day, Friday, February 9, at the Meeniyan Hotel later with family and friends.
“It was terrifying. I never want to go through that again,” Mrs Shandley told the Sentinel-Times this week.
“I was sitting in my chair when there was this enormous bang, a huge bang, and the whole place shook. Some photos and things I had on the mantlepiece fell down and I was just worried the air conditioner was going to fall on me next.
“I suppose it took only a few seconds, but it feels like a week when it’s happening.
“It was very strong. The strongest I’ve felt. It was a whopper!”
Mrs Shandley’s home is located little more than a-100-metres away from the epicentre of the quake (GPS coordinates longitude 146.00 latitude -38.56), that was felt over a wide area of the state at 12.49am last Friday morning, near the corner of Meeniyan-Nerrena Road and Beecrofts and Hanks Road, just north of the township of Meeniyan.
“There was a huge bang and a huge roar, and then the noise rolled up from the east and hit the house. It really rattled and shook. It was scary, honestly. I don’t want to experience that again.”
Mrs Shandley went on later in the day to celebrate her 90th birthday at the Meeniyan Hotel but the whole experience caught up with her and she was taken to the Wonthaggi Hospital by ambulance after collapsing at the birthday gathering.
“I fainted and they took me in to the hospital. I’m feeling better now,” she said this week.
That’s some sort of 90th birthday!
There were plenty of other stories, although not quite as dramatic as that, shared around the streets of local towns last Friday and on social media. It was all everyone wanted to talk about.
The Sentinel-Times’ Facebook page had almost 10,000 views and there were 220 comments, including the following:
* Andee Dee, Leongatha: House shaking, dogs and birds going nuts and a large thunderous sound in Gatha.
* Jess Edwards, Wonthaggi: Yup, woke me up in Wonthaggi. Friends in Bittern felt it as well.
* Bronwyn Lee, Beaconsfield: Yes, I felt it in Beaconsfield. I heard it coming and then the place rattled for a few seconds.
* Irene Holm, Buffalo: Sounded like a truck driving through the house!! Very noisy.
* Adam Dowling, Leongatha: I live in Leongatha. The whole house was shaking. I was sitting on the couch rocking with it.
More expected, Geoscience Australia
To answer some of the questions posed by Sentinel-Times’ readers, Spiro Spiliopoulos, a seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said the ‘Leongatha Earthquake’ last Friday morning wasn’t connected to the Korumburra seismic activity of the past 20 years, last quake 3.7 (Mw) in 2011. And yes, they do expect more.
“Not wanting to alarm anyone, but yes, we do expect more, although we can’t predict when,” Mr Spiliopoulos.
“Parts of Western Australia are our most active, but the Korumburra-Leongatha area has a network of known faults and is considered more active than average.
“There have been three in the area in 2024.
“Typically, when you get a reasonable one like that, 4 or above, you can expect aftershocks, smaller and trailing off, and that’s what we have seen.”
A light magnitude 2.9 earthquake hit between Leongatha South and Nerrena (Latitude: -38.52, Longitude: 146.01) in the early morning of Sunday, February 11 at 1.54 am local time. The quake had a very shallow depth of 6.5 km.
He said the monitoring equipment Geoscience Australia had located in the Korumburra area was “still proving useful”.