Magnitude 6.9 Earthquake Strikes West of Broome in Western Australia - USGS

A magnitude-6.6 natural disaster in the Indian Ocean has been felt across large parts of Western Australia.

Western Australia has been rocked by a 6.5 magnitude natural disaster.

The quake struck between Broome and Port Hedland at 1:39pm on Sunday.

No tsunami alert was issued.

There were no immediate reports of major damages or casualties in the quake - but pictures on social media show the ceiling of a store partially destroyed and items fallen from shelves.

Authorities have received more than 1000 reports in total, including from residents across the Kimberley and as far away as Perth and Darwin. It equalled the magnitude of a 1988 quake recorded in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory.

Such an natural disaster was uncommon for the region, Phil Cummins, a seismologist with Geoscience Australia, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The United States Geological Survey said that quake hit at a depth of 33km, about 203km offshore from Broome.

Geoscience Australia has updated the quake after earlier reporting it as a magnitude 6.5.

And more aftershocks are to be expected, Phil Cummins, a geologist at Government's GeoScience Australia, warned.

Derby resident Jody Gaunt was having a beer with friends when they felt the first natural disaster.

The quake was also felt strongly on the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome.

'We were sitting outside and our chairs were rocking, ' she told AAP. "The trees stopped moving and the breeze stopped blowing".

In Port Hedland, The Walkabout Hotel employee Shelley told AAP it felt like being on a vibrating machine.

The Roey Hotel employee Cindy said she saw cars moving in the quake. "A few things fell off the walls onto the floors", she said.

Others said entire apartment buildings in Perth's suburbs shook for as long as three minutes during the quake.

'It just went for a few seconds'.