Magnitude 4.5 earthquake strikes near gold mine in regional NSW

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake has struck near a gold mine in regional NSW, becoming the largest ever recorded in the area.

Weak to light shaking was felt as far afield as Sydney and Wollongong after the tremor on the edge of the Canobolas State Forest about 8.20pm.

The Cadia Gold Mine is just a few kilometres from the epicentre near Panuara.

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"Newmont Cadia is committed to safe and responsible mining," mine operators said in a statement.

"Our sensors detected seismic activity in the region at approximately 8.20pm and safety procedures functioned effectively to ensure the safety of our workforce."

Emergency services haven't reported any major issues in the area.

Geoscience Australia said the earthquake struck at a depth of five kilometres.

GA senior seismologist Dr Phil Cummins said it was a large earthquake for the area.

"The list of earthquakes recorded within 50 kilometres of that location shows one that was magnitude 4.3 in 2017 and a couple more that were 3.5 to 3.8 in that same area," he said.

"So that's not very many. That's about five earthquakes since 1977 so it's not a place of elevated seismicity, and it's the largest earthquake ever felt in that area."

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Close to 2000 people reported feeling the shaking by 10pm.

"Our seismometers give us the location and sort of the physical size of the earthquake, but that doesn't really tell us how strong the shaking can be," Cummins said. 

"It gives us some idea, but doesn't give us an accurate picture of how strong the shaking is. 

"So getting those felt reports really tells us how strong the shaking is and helps us estimate how strong the shaking might be in future earthquakes."

Cummins said the earthquake was probably over very quickly in this instance but in case of strong shaking people should "duck below something that will protect you from any falling objects and and hold on".

He said aftershocks would not be surprising but they would tend to be smaller than the initial shake.

A dog trainer in Mudgee, about 100 kilometres north-east of the epicentre, shared the effect the shaking had on her pet.

"One of our dogs felt something as she got up and looked towards the floor worried about something underneath her, I thought she was going to have some sort of turn and then she settled," she said, on Facebook.

"She is old and very sensitive to noise and vibration, we humans didn't feel anything."

The quake was slightly more powerful than one that struck further south, near Boorowa, about 100 kilometres north of Canberra, last month.

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