Data from Geoscience Australia shows the quake happened at 9.23am at a depth of 10 kilometres.

Reports made to Geoscience Australia say it was felt as far as Wedderburn and Fiery Flat.

More news

Seismic stations in Mount Arapiles, near Horsham, Moama, Mount Clear and Ballarat were among the 25 defining stations that measured the earthquake.

This year earthquakes have been measured in Victoria at Lockington with a magnitude of 2.5 in May and Tennyson with a magnitude of 2.9 in June.

Tim James at the Boort Lakes Caravan Park said he had not felt anything at the time of the earthquake.

Geoscience Australia seismologist Trevor Allen said an earthquake with a 3.1 magnitude would be felt up to 40km away.

"We have only received two felt reports to date but by the sounds of the thing, the event felt more widely than that," he said. "Anyone that did feel something can make a felt report at the Geoscience Australia website.

"For that magnitude, we would expect people feel it at a 20 to 40km range. Sensations people might experience depends on how close they are to the epicentre.

"For many might it have been like a big truck or train was going past and rattling things on shelves. Some might have experience a noise like a shotgun blast which would be the rocks breaking beneath the earth."

Mr Allen said while central Victoria doesn't tend to see many earthquakes, there were clear historical occurrence.

"Within 100km of today's epicentre, there have been about four earthquakes of of similar magnitude in last 10 years," he said. "(Central Victoria) tends to one or earthquakes of a 2 magnitude and greater each year. They are commonly small and not always felt."

Mr Allen said Victorian earthquakes were the result of the tectonic plate Australia sits on being squeezed.

"Australia is in the centre of a tectonic plate," he said. "Most earthquakes occur on boundaries of those plates but Australia as continent is being squeezed by relative continental motion.

"That effect builds stresses in rocks of the Australian crust and over a long period of time, the stress puts strain on zone weaknesses - typically called faults - and the rock breaks. The ground shaking is essentially energy."

Mr Allen said instance of major earthquakes, resulting in surface breaking and changes in the landscape had happening in Australia 60,000 years ago.

"In (Victoria's) general earthquake history, there are several known faults in the general area," he said.

"The Cadell Fault extends from Deniliquin in the north down to Rochester in the south and was responible for a 15 metre vertical displacement near Echuca before Euorpean settlement.

"It created the Barmah choke and wetlands in the pre-historic past and changed the course of Murray River. These events are very rare but you can see they have happened and have the potential to occur again."