Culture / Melbourne, VIC

Magnitude 4.8 earthquake hits Victoria with tremors felt across Melbourne

3 Oct 2026 05:57 AEST Summary

From the report

Geoscience Australia said it detected an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 at 2.01am near Leongatha, 130km south-east of Melbourne.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

The Guardian Australia Magnitude 4.8 earthquake hits Victoria with tremors felt across Melbourne plain
WAtoday Biggest earthquake in three years rattles Victoria plain
7NEWS Victoria earthquake: Towns rattled by 4.8 magnitude tremor plain
ABC News Magnitude-4.8 earthquake rattles rural Victoria plain
WAtoday Victoria shook by 4.8 magnitude earthquake plain

Headline check

All two things this headline claims are in the report.

Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. One figure in this headline has a decimal point in it. We match figures digit for digit against the report, and that comparison is not reliable for decimals, so that one was not checked either way rather than reported as missing. How this is checked

This is a summary. The indicators are not. Every score on this page was measured over the full 220-word report, which is the only way the numbers mean anything.

How it is written

Niral Score 6.4 · calm mundaneloaded

10 more readings adjectives, repeated words, sentiment, sourcing and 1 more and 5 at zero

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

earthquake6felt5across3magnitude3quake3shaking3geoscience2people2south-east2struck2tremors2

Sentiment +0.0 hostilefavourable Sourcing 84 unattributednamed sources Mood 28.5 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

How the article is written, not whether it is correct. How each is measured.

Measured on The Guardian Australia’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by WAtoday, The Age, Brisbane Times, The Sydney Morning Herald. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
The Guardian Australiaas they published this story	6.4	3	84	0.0	28.5
7NEWS	5.1	1	63	-0.3	18.1
ABC News	9.8	7	80	-0.0	36.6

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The same event elsewhere

7 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

WAtoday Biggest earthquake in three years rattles Victoria Niral 13.4 · mostly calm political 0 The Age Biggest earthquake in three years rattles Victoria Niral 13.4 · mostly calm political 0 Brisbane Times Biggest earthquake in three years rattles Victoria Niral 13.4 · mostly calm political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald Biggest earthquake in three years rattles Victoria Niral 13.4 · mostly calm political 0 7NEWS Victoria earthquake: Towns rattled by 4.8 magnitude tremor Niral 5.1 · calm political 0 ABC News Magnitude-4.8 earthquake rattles rural Victoria Niral 9.8 · calm political 0 WAtoday Victoria shook by 4.8 magnitude earthquake Niral 4.1 · calm political 0