Part of Australia’s east coast has been shaken by an earthquake that could be felt hundred of kilometres away.

A 4.5-magnitude quake hit at 8.19pm AEST on Tuesday at a depth of 5km about 30km southwest of Orange in central-west NSW.

Geoscience Australia received more than 2000 reports of tremors in the region, which a senior seismologist said were weak to light and felt as far as hundreds of kilometres southeast in Batemans Bay.

Dr Phil Cummins said only five quakes of a similar scale had been recorded within 50km of the quake site since 1977, the previous one being of a 4.3 magnitude in 2017.

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“This is a large earthquake for this area,” he said.

Dr Cummins expected aftershocks but they would likely be much lighter and felt in a smaller area.