The tremor, measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale, hit 80 kilometres offshore in the east and south-east regions of Port Stephens at 3.24am.

"It was felt by people around the Hunter region, in Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie," Chris Thompson, a Geoscience Australia spokesman, said.

"There were no reports of damage and we don't expect to get any."

Mr Thompson said most quakes that took place in this area usually occurred onshore, where damage to people and property was more likely.

Last decade, Geoscience Australia recorded almost 3600 earthquakes on the Australian continent - about one a day.

The largest recorded was a 5.4 magnitude quake recorded near Mount Redvers in the Northern Territory.

"Because Australia sits in the middle of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate, we are not prone to regular, large damaging earthquakes," Clive Collins, a senior seismologist at Geoscience Australia, said in a statement released last month.

"However, within the last 100 years there have been 14 magnitude 6 to 7 earthquakes which have occurred on the Australian mainland."