Magnitude 5.5 earthquake rocks central Australia on Easter long weekend

By ASHLEY NICKEL, NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 08:11, 5 April 2026 | Updated: 08:11, 5 April 2026 An astonishing 5.5 magnitude earthquake was recorded in central Australia. Residents in Amata, a remote community in northern South Australia formerly known as Musgrave park, reported feeling tremors at 3.56am on Easter Sunday. Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate told the ABC about 30 reports were made about the quake. 'It woke a number of people up from Yulara and around the region with some light to moderate shaking,' he said. 'Some light fixture swinging from the ceiling and some things rattling from shelves and that sort of thing so it was a bit of an early morning wake-up for quite a few people.' The earthquake was also felt in Yulara, Uluru and Mutitjulu. A 5.5 rating on the Richter scale is strong enough to be felt and can cause moderate damage to buildings. The quake caught the attention of experts internationally as it was located in an area considered stable, with Shawn Willsy, a geology professor at University of Southern Idaho, calling it 'rare' with only two others in the area in the last century.  He noted it was an 'intraplate' quake and not on a tectonic plate boundary, with these this type of seismic activity usually occurring at shallow depths.  A 5.5 magnitude earthquake was recorded in Amata (marked above), near Uluru, on Sunday morning The earthquake near Uluru (above) on Sunday was equivalent to the 1989 Newcastle earthquake The seismic activity recorded on Sunday in central Australia was about the same magnitude to that recorded in the devastating 1989 Newcastle earthquake that killed 13 people and caused $4billion worth of damage. 'It's the same size earthquake, it just happens to be in quite a remote part of the country rather than near a populated centre, so there is that potential for it to have quite some significant impacts,' Mr Bathgate said. Several aftershocks between 2.8 and 3.6 on the Richter scale were recorded near Amata, about 116km south of Uluru, after 9am. While the area does not see frequent seismic activity, there was a 5.4 magnitude earthquake recorded at Ernabella in 2012 and a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Petermann Ranges in 2016. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.