Earthquake hits Gundagai area

The earthquake struck 16 kilometres south-west of the town near the Hume Highway about 4.13pm and was felt as far away as Tumut.

The magnitude has been scaled back from 3.4.

GeoScience Australia senior duty seismologist Dan Jaksa said most reports were coming from Gundagai but residents in Tumut, Cootamundra and Adelong had also reported feeling the earthquake.

He said there had been some reports of two earthquakes further away from the epicentre, however, the experience would have been different waves of the earthquake travelling at different speeds rather than a second shake.

He didn't expect any structural damage as a result of the movement.

"You wouldn't expect any damage from this earthquake but there would have been a nice bang nearby for a couple of seconds," he said.

"You don't normally start to get damage from earthquakes until you hit a magnitude of 4 to 4.5. Even then you would need to be pretty close to the epicentre."

There have been 13 earthquakes in the area west of Canberra this year, with this one the largest of them.

But the Gundagai earthquake is not the largest on record.

A 4.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the Brindabellas just across the ACT border in 1998. More recently a 3.9 quake hit near Junee in February, 2004.

Mr Jaksa reminded anyone caught near an earthquake to remain indoors and drop, cover and role.

"Get down on the floor, get under some furniture and hold onto the furniture and your head," he said.

"If you're outside, get away from any possible falling objects."

He encouraged anyone who felt the earthquake to complete a report at www.ga.gov.au.