An earthquake that made homes shake in central NSW has been felt as far afield as Sydney, with reports it sounded like a rumbling train or car crash.

Geoscience Australia said the magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck the regional NSW town of Boorowa, south-west of Sydney, just after 7pm on Wednesday.

Nearly 7000 people reported feeling the quake, with reports from as far away as Sydney, Batemans Bay, Gosford and Albany and the ACT.

It struck at a depth of 12 kilometres.

Social media users flooded the comments section of a Facebook post from NSW Incident Alerts.

“A magnitude 4.5 earthquake has been recorded near Boorowa, east of Young,” said the post.

“There has been no significant damage reported and the Bureau has confirmed there is no tsunami threat.

“Did you feel it?”

Natalie Downey said it was “the biggest one I’ve ever felt in Boorowa”.

“I thought a truck crashed into the house,” she said.

Kazlee Plum said she felt the tremor in Goulburn and it “sounded like a train rumbling past my window and the whole house shook”.

“Felt it in Camden,” said Barbara Smith. “Whole unit shook — I thought my air-conditioner had exploded!! Biggest one I’ve felt.”

Robyn Leigh wrote that it “scared the crap out of us in Gungahlin, ACT”, while Alison Elliott said she felt “two big jolts in Macgregor, ACT”.

Tori Tee said the quake rattled her parked car in Yarramundi in western Sydney and Matt Fleming said he felt house floor rumble and walls shake in Wandandian on the NSW south coast.

In Penrith, Lily Batt reported that her dog was “acting funny” and started barking.

“Then I heard rumbling/bangs and went around asking if anyone heard that or dropped something,” she wrote,.

“Around this size is when you start to get minor damage from earthquakes,” he said.

“We don’t know at this stage, but you can get minor things like plaster cracking, things falling off shells, and light damage to structures.”

Glanville said residents could expect aftershocks that would likely be smaller.