An Albury man says his first thoughts when Victoria's earthquake hit was to protect his four-year-old son from harm.
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Mark Dallinger said he was in his family owned business, Camera House on Dean Street, when he started to feel the ground shake beneath his feet.
"My son was upstairs so I ran upstairs to grab him," he said.
"In the meantime [my brother] already grabbed him and was running down the stairs and the stairs were just like jelly."
Mr Dallinger said small, light items started falling off the shelves.
"I was thinking, 'oh, I better get out of this place it's going to fall down!'," he said. "Everything was wobbling, I've never really experienced anything like this before.
"We just headed outside in the lane way. It was a bit scary, everyone just wanted to get out of the building because it was pretty old."
Mr Dallinger said there was minimal damage.
About 45km away at Beechworth, Tim Jarred feared for his life and thought his house was being bulldozed in the same incident.
"All the verandas and roof started shaking in our 150-year-old building and we thought that things were going to end right there actually," he said.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Wodonga residents Di Chandler and her friend Susie were having a coffee at Platinum Brew Cafe on Beechworth Road when they felt the tremor.
"You could feel the floor moving and the lights were swinging," Ms Chandler said.
"It was just so unusual, you were thinking 'what was that?' and then you realise it feels like an earthquake."
Susie said it brought back memories of her time living in New Guinea.
"It's been a while since I was up there, but we used to get them all the time," she said. "It was something you got used to, it's a bit like living in New Zealand where there was shaking all the time.
"I have a friend in Mount Beauty and they said it was noisy and things were shaking. It was like a roar and the windows were really shaking.