The earthquake hit about 9.15am, but word is that the tremor has been felt throughout most of south-east Australia.

There were multiple reports of the quake being felt throughout Ballarat, but as far away as Sydney, Adelaide and Tasmania.

There is no threat of a tsunami anywhere.

Some people have told The Courier that cracks have appeared in their walls at home.

The epicentre is believed to be in the Mansfield area.

It is not known if anybody has been injured yet.

Seismologists at Geoscience Australia have said it was a magnitude 5.8 at a depth of 10 kilometres.

It was originally marked as a 6.0 magnitude quake before being revised.

There are reports of building damage in Melbourne.

The SES is receiving calls for assistance from across the state and is yet to make an assessment of any damage.

There are reports of damage in Prahran, Brunswick, West Melbourne and Albert Park and to the exterior of Betty's Burgers on Chapel Street in Windsor.

No one was inside Betty's Burgers but a tenant was upstairs in the same building when the earthquake hit, restaurant managing director Troy McDonagh told AAP.

"We're out for months, it's structural, it looks like the top's come away, we need to get engineers in to assess it and then the works will need to be completed," he said.

Lynne Myers of High County Apparel in Mansfield told AAP "it just scared the hell out of us."

"Everything shook, the roof shook, boots fell off the shelf and I just ran outside," she said.

"There's no cracks or anything in the walls. We seem to have got over it pretty well. Everyone's a bit shaken up here but there doesn't seem to be any damage.

"I've lived here 29 years and have never felt anything like it."

Craig Luelf from the All Seasons Mansfield resort said he was outside the town's hospital when he felt "waves of the ground moving."

"It was quite scary. At first, I thought the car was having a few issues and then realised all of a sudden that everything was moving," he told AAP.

"My father's neighbour is at the top of a hill and he could see the waves of the ground moving up the hill.

"Other than that, it's just having fun trying to avoid the COVID getting around."

Tremors were also felt as far away as the NSW central coast, nearly 1000km from Melbourne.

Building movement was reported in Sydney's CBD, and people at home in some suburbs of Sydney took to social media to say they had felt the quake.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is currently in Washington DC, said he had spoken by text with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews following the earthquake.

"It can be a very, very disturbing event for an earthquake of this nature," he told reporters.

"They are very rare events in Australia and as a result, I am sure people would have been quite depressed and disturbed by that, particularly in the most immediate area affected."

Any federal response to the emergency will be handled by Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.

The earthquake was originally recorded as a magnitude 6 but was later downgraded to 5.8 on the Richter scale.

There are no reports of damage in the other states.

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