Geoscience Australia reported the initial earthquake struck 110 kilometres east of Fraser Island at a depth of 10 kilometres
A magnitude 5.7 event struck near Fraser Island, about 200 kilometres north of Brisbane, shortly after 1:30pm on Saturday, in what was the biggest such even to hit Queensland since 1918.
Little more than one hour later, another quake measuring 5.2 in magnitude struck the same area, which was then followed by an aftershock of about 3.
Geoscience Australia reported the initial earthquake struck 110 kilometres east of Fraser Island at a depth of 10 kilometres, and experts compared the quakes to the most damaging in Australian history.
'This is equivalent to the earthquake that occurred in 1989 in Newcastle, which of course is the most damaging earthquake in Australia's history,' Senior seismologist Dan Jaksa told the ABC.
It is estimated that the impact could have been felt by people up to 340km away.
Mr Jaksa also said Saturday's quakes were likely caused by a 5.3 magnitude event that hit 100 kilometres off the coast of the Coral Sea on Thursday morning.
'This is simply the event of [three] days ago seems to have triggered another part of the fault to release its stress and it's certainly done that,' he told the ABC.
Mr Jaksa said Saturday's quake is estimated to have been up to 20 times stronger than that experienced on Thursday, with shockwaves reportedly hitting the Gold Coast in Brisbane, and reaching inland to Toowoomba - about 300 kilometres away.
A magnitude 5 earthquake is the equivalent of an atomic bomb, he said.
A number of residents said they were shaken by the quakes, and there were reports of buildings and homes swaying during the events.
'I was sitting here, listening to some tunes at my desk and was like 'Whoah! I've never had that before,' Brisbane local Jade McGuinness said, according to the Courier Mail.
The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre did not issue a tsunami warning.
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