Mystery ‘Explosion’ Rocks Gordonvale, Queensland Residents
Mystery surrounds the cause of a giant “explosion” in Gordonvale that was so powerful, it felt like a small-scale earthquake.
Several residents in the vicinity of Warner and Crossland roads reported a loud bang and their homes being rocked shortly after 8.30pm on Saturday.
Some suggested it may have been a clandestine drug laboratory exploding, while others who felt the earth shake as far away as Edmonton suggested it may have been a mini-earthquake.
Emergency services do not have any record of explosions, fires or any other such event.
And Geoscience Australia has no record of any major tremors in the area, with the closest recorded earthquake in the past 24 hours as far away as the Solomon Islands.
Warner Rd resident Nickalaus Di Bella was at home with mates on Saturday night, playing loud music, when they heard a huge bang outside.
“We all started freaking out,” he said. “It shook the house. I was inside getting ready to have a shower and I thought someone was doing something stupid.” He said it felt like a small-scale earthquake, feeling tremors through the ground.
“About half and hour later, there was a smaller bang – it kind of sounded like a gunshot in the distance,” he said. “We didn’t know what it was, whether it was even a fuel drum or something.”
On social media, several people reported similar sensations throughout the area, with residents as far away as Edmonton claiming the explosion alarmed several dogs, causing them to bark.
Edmonton resident Nadine Long, who lives near the highway, said she and some friends were drinking outside when they heard a loud “boom” nearby.
“I have no idea what it was,” she said. “We have had people in the area who set off flares and things, but this was a really unusual, deep sound.”
A Geoscience Australia spokeswoman said they had not received any notifications of seismic activity in the Far North on Saturday.
“There was a tiny little blip of something on one of our stations, but that’s not enough for us to determine whether or not there was an earthquake,” she said.
Gordonvale was affected by a small offshore earthquake that took place about 30km off Innisfail in 2011, however no damage was reported.
Daniel Bateman
The Cairns Post
