Darwin Quake
© ABC NewsThe 5.3 magnitude earthquake was centred 650 kilometres north of Darwin
Geoscience Australia has confirmed that an earthquake in the Banda Sea near East Timor was felt in Darwin this morning.

The quake registered 5.3 on the Richter scale just after 9:30am [CST].

Robbie Dalton, who works on the fourth floor of a building in the Darwin CBD, says he and his colleagues felt a strong shudder.

"The entire building sort of started shaking," he said.

"It was really quite noticeable.

"We've had a few earthquakes up here recently and they were fairly minor and everyone was talking about it.

"But this one was really pronounced.

"We've got a young lass here, and she had a glass of water and it spilt all over her desk.

"It was quite bizarre.

"It was over quite quickly so we didn't get to any evacuation procedures or anything."

The quake was centred 464 kilometres east-north-east of Dili in East Timor and 650 kilometres north of Darwin.

A Geoscience Australia spokesman says minor tremors are felt regularly in Darwin because of the geology which runs from the East Timorese coast to the Top End of the Northern Territory.

He added the quake would not have caused any damage to buildings.