22:37
‘If it was non-lockdown, someone would be under it’
NS Melbourne The building visible in all footage of earthquake damage this morning is the Betty Burger & Concrete Company, an American-style burger shop on Chapel Street.
Betty Burger’s managing director Tim McDonagh said the damage was surreal to see and it was a “catastrophe” under already unusual circumstances.
Guardian Australia spoke to him outside the building. McDonagh said fortunately there was no staff member at the site at the time of the damage, and a resident of an apartment above the restaurant was able to eject safely.
No one got hurt, so that’s the main thing. Our team is safe, our guests are safe.
Pointing to the rubble lying on the pavement, he said:
If it was a non-lockdown period then someone or the other would be under it.
McDonagh was in Alsternwick at the time of the earthquake, about to open a new Betty Burger branch. The roof and side wall of the Chapel Street building suffered major damage, and McDonagh said he had been told repairs could take three to four months.
It’s hard enough to just end up during this period without major disasters like this one.
A large part of our team are young team members who are desperate to get back to work. We are very excited by the plans to reopen the dining room, and now 40 to 50 young team members will no longer be able to return to work at this restaurant.
McDonagh said the Windsor establishment was the company’s number one branch for takeaway and delivery in the country.
Because we are in lockdown, we are very dependent on it, so the last restaurant we needed was this.
Donna Luce
(@donnadlu)Another angle from Betty Berger – the crew working on the fallen power lines at Green Stow #Earthquake @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/F6Yws55P7d
Updates
22:14
Dr. Adrian McCullum, A senior lecturer in geotechnical engineering at the University of the Sunshine Coast said these earthquakes occur because the continental plate on which Australia sits is moving north by about seven centimeters per year.
“This builds up compressive stress within the Australian plate,” he said.
He said this stress is sometimes released – resulting in earthquakes – usually along pre-existing fault lines, where these stresses have caused the Earth to shear (and re-shear).
Inspection of geological maps of Victoria reveals A large number of faults in the Mansfield area Victoria.
“Thus it appears like an area where the release of compressive stress via earthquakes could be potentially,” McCullum said.
Updates
21:32
in the back Melbourne, Mia Mannick and Tia Gardiner live in an apartment in Windsor near the damaged building on Chapel Street. He said he was “scared” by the shock.
I thought the wind was blowing initially, but our whole building was shaking, the walls were shaking. After that we went out and The outside pavement was broken.
21:30
Earthquake report from north-east Victoria: ‘It felt like a truck hit the building’
Jamie Cronborg, who works for the state’s MP Tania Maxwell As a media spokesperson, Faithfull Street sat in his first-floor office in Whangaratta.
It was like a heavily loaded truck. It felt like a truck had hit the building. We are in this squat flat building, which has a ground floor and one above. It was gone, no question, quite briefly and then it was gone. Someone in the front part of the office shouted ‘Let’s get out’ so we did.
Then everyone was out in front of their respective buildings because Faithful Street is the main street.
Jamie’s partner, Peter Kenyon, was at the butcher’s shop in Beechworth and the town went out of power. Some shelves hit the floor in the slaughterhouse.
Robert Reeves and his partner, Kay Dyson, live in the village of Meringig, about 15 minutes from Mansfield.
He said that when the first quake struck at 9.15 a.m., the building went into a “really intense rattle”.
This was followed by another mild earthquake about 15 minutes later.
Updates
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