Aftershocks are expected from an earthquake that shook residents awake along a stretch of Australia’s east coast.

The quake struck at 2.55am on Wednesday near Singleton in the NSW Hunter Valley about 200km north of Sydney, Geoscience Australia seismologists said.

Its magnitude was initially read at 5.1 and later revised to 4.6.

No injuries have been reported as a result of the tremor.

The NSW State Emergency Service received several phone calls from concerned residents but only reported responding to one incident.

That was at a Rutherford property near Maitland that required sandbags for a burst water pipe shortly after 3am.

The tremor was felt between Port Macquarie and Wollongong, Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Phil Cummins said.

Sydneysiders are among more than 3500 people who reported feeling the earthquake by 7.45am, according to Geoscience Australia’s website.

‘It’s been widely felt … some of (the reports) were moderate and strong shaking,’ Professor Cummins said.

A 4.6 magnitude earthquake was recorded in the NSW Hunter Region (pictured, the earthquake epicentre is marked in red. Felt reports are marked with yellow indicating reports of a strong tremor and purple weak tremors)

The earthquake was felt in high-rise buildings across Sydney (marked above)

While Australia didn’t have an active tectonic plate boundary like in New Guinea or New Zealand, stress from other boundaries slowly built up to the interior of the plate, eventually causing faults to fail, Prof Cummins said.

‘They just fail at a much lower rate than they would where near tectonic plate boundaries, where the strain rates are much faster,’ he said.

Hunter MP Dan Repacholi was woken by the tremor and said his team was on the ground to help with any damage.

‘Well that was a bit of a rude awakening … (I) reckon most of the Hunter would’ve felt that shake,’ he wrote on Facebook.

One Newcastle resident said the shaking frightened her to the point she thought someone was trying to break into her house.

‘My bed lifted off the floor and the wardrobe doors were rattling … at least I didn’t imagine it,’ she wrote on Facebook.

Preliminary information indicated the quake occurred at a shallow depth of 10km.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake posed no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories.

The locations of Australia’s most significant earthquakes. (Australian Government Geoscience Australia)

But Prof Cummins said aftershocks were expected.

‘They’ll probably be smaller, but some of them may be felt, and that may continue for a few days or even a week or more,’ he said.

The largest ever earthquake recorded in Australia was a 6.6-magnitude quake that struck Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory in January 1988.

The Tenant Creek earthquakes of 1989 are still producing aftershocks, 35 years after the event.

The 7.2 to 8 magnitude New Madrid earthquakes in the eastern part of North America were still believed to be providing aftershocks more than two centuries later, Prof Cummins said.