At 3.45pm a magnitude 2.9 earthquake shook the city, with residents reporting two thuds, several seconds apart.

Early reports put the epicentre at 15km south west of Bathurst, but Geosciences Australia later said the epicentre was 15km north west of the city.

“This is a really small earthquake and I would not expect any damage,” spokesman Chris Thomp-son said.

“It would not be enough to dislodge paintings or crockery.”

Duty seismology Steve Tatham said while earthquakes were not a regular occurrence in the region, they had occurred in the past.

“There have been eight tremors in the Bathurst/Blayney/Orange region in the last 10 years,” he said.

“Six of them were confirmed as earthquakes, while two were mine-related, the result of operations at Cadia.

“They were all typical of this earthquake, in the range of 2.0 to 2.5 magnitude.

“Historically, there does seem to be a line of earthquakes that pass through Bathurst in a SE/NW direction and this earthquake has connections with those along that line of interest.

“On average, there is one earthquake a day nationally, but most are very small or they occur in isolated areas,” he said.

Marj Townsend of Dreamland on the Blayney Road was pottering in the garden with her pet dog Matey when the small quake hit.

“I did feel something but Matey really raced over,” she said. “He doesn’t like thunder either.”

Ms Townsend said the tremor was the largest she had felt in 36 years in her current home.

The tremor was also felt at MacKillop College on Gormans Hill but most of the students had left for the day, teacher Pat Eakin said.

“We thought there was a car accident on the road outside. The new administration block shook,” Ms Eakin said.

The team at WHK on George Street was shocked when they felt the two thuds and evacuated onto King’s Parade just to be safe.

“I felt it in my body. A few people down the back felt tables move and upstairs they felt it a lot,” Ashleigh Bell said.

n Residents who felt yesterday’s earthquake are urged to visit the Geosciences Australia website www.ga.gov.au/earthquakes/ and fill out the earthquake report form on the site.

“These reports help us to build up a picture of what people can expect at varying distances from the epicentre of the earthquake,” spokesman Chris Thompson said.

“We would like people can tell us where they live and what it felt like,” he said.

- Additional reporting by MIRIAM SIERS and MURRAY NICHOLLS