HOLLY NOTE: What's so surprising about this quake is that Australia is known as the most geologically stable continent. Quakes of this magnitude rarely strike "the lucky country", yet S. Australia was hit by a 3.9 quake just 4 days ago.

Australia's most memorable temblor shook their east coast in 1989 when a 5.6 earthquake killed 13 people. Like America's New Madrid area, quakes in Australia are felt over a wider area and aren't caused by tectonic plates scraping against each other. They are generally less predictable and shallower.

The Newcastle event damaged 70,000 buildings, left more than 1,000 homeless and ended up costing at least $4 billion. Things are shaking Downunder.

April 20, 2010
By Sophie Tedmanson in Sydney
UK Times

Hundreds of schoolchildren and miners were evacuated when the biggest earthquake in 50 years hit Australia’s Goldfields earlier today, causing damage to buildings in two towns. So far, only two people have been reported as being treated for minor injuries.

The shallow, 5.0 magnitude quake struck about 8.20am local time (23.20GMT), 10km (six miles) north-east of the gold mining city of Kalgoorlie and the neighbouring town of Boulder in Western Australia.

Tremors were felt up to 200km (124 miles) away from the epicentre of the quake, which struck at a depth of 10km and caused structural damage to many buildings, including local pubs.

Locals in Kalgoorlie, including some who initially thought the quake was one of the regular blasts from the nearby mines, said it lasted about 20 seconds.

One woman said her family had sheltered beneath door frames for fear their house would collapse around them, while other residents said holes had appeared in some roads.

The worst-hit buildings were historic structures in the centre of nearby Boulder, a remote town about 600km (370 miles) east of Perth which sprang up in the wake of Australia’s 1800s Gold Rush.

In Boulder, rubble littered some streets in the aftermath of the quake which damaged at least six of the town’s hotels, including the historic Golden Eagle Hotel. The hotel was left with cracks in the walls, holes in the ceiling and the balcony was left hanging off the building’s facade.

Hundreds of children from three local schools were evacuated after a ceiling collapsed in one building, while others were declared unusable after the quake.

Miners were also evacuated from the Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Super Pit – the largest open pit gold mine in Australia – as well as several of the area’s underground mines as several aftershocks shook the region.

John Wulf, a cleaner at the Kalgoorlie Hotel, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he had felt an aftershock but it “was nothing like the major one”. “I was inside and I took off outside very quickly,” Mr Wulf told the ABC of his reaction to the earthquake. “I’ve been through earthquakes before but I haven’t felt one like that before.”

Annie Fowler, owner of the Criterion Hotel in Kalgoorlie said it was “pandemonium” in town. “We’re living in this big mining area. There’s a big hole here and there’s underground tunnels everywhere,” Ms Fowler told Sky News. “It certainly ruined my cup of coffee this morning.”

Geoscience Australia spokesman Chris Thompson said it was largest shallow area earthquake to rock Australia in decades. “It’s certainly the largest event in 50 years for the area, and possibly the biggest since we have begun recording in the early 1900s,” Mr Thompson told The Times.

Mr Thompson said there had previously been a magnitude 4.5 earthquake in the Boulder area in 1987.

He said Australia experiences earthquakes of a magnitude 5.0 or larger on average once a year, however they rarely occur in populated areas.

The largest known on-shore earthquake to hit Australia occurred in Meeberrie, WA, in 1941 and was estimated to be of a magnitude of 7.2. Damage from that earthquake was relatively small because of the low population in the epicentral region.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article7102379.ece