Magnitude 3.9 earthquake rattles NSW Southern Tablelands as ...

A magnitude 3.9 earthquake has hit the New South Wales Southern Tablelands.

Geoscience Australia reported the epicentre of the tremor was near Crookwell, north of Goulburn, at a depth of one kilometre.

The quake has been felt as far as 300km away at Coolamon in the Riverina, along with Canberra and Orange.

There have been no reports of damage so far.

Crookwell resident Richard Stevens said the earthquake woke him up when it hit at about 6:40am.

"I was expecting a truck to come through the front door, the house shook for about five seconds," he said.

"The windows and crockery rattled but nothing fell off."

Rosyln local Katrina Nixon said it was the "loudest tremor" she had heard.

"Before I felt it I heard it — it sounded like a freight train coming," she said.

"It was a big deep rumble and then the windows started to rattle, but what gave me a fright is the really large bang."

There have been about 250 quakes recorded in the Southern Tablelands in the last two decades.(ABC News)

About 150 kilometres away from the epicentre, near Millthorpe in the state's Central West, Haley Lavers was awoken by the quake.

"It was a rumble, things started vibrating on my bedside table," she said.

"I thought it was the nearby mine, but no — it had come all the way from Taralga."

Seismologist Hadi Ghasemi said the quake was felt widely due to its shallow depth.

Geoscience Australia's senior seismologist Hadi Ghasemi said the tremor was recorded at a depth of 1km, which was why it was felt in Canberra, Orange and Wagga Wagga.

"The size of the event, the depth of it, and even the time of it are all factors contributing to how widely it is felt," he said.

"We have received more than 300 self-reports, but given the size of the event I wouldn't expect any significant damage."

There have been numerous earthquakes recorded in the Southern Tablelands over the last 20 years, according to Dr Ghasemi.

"We have registered more than 250 earthquakes in that particular region and 20 of them were magnitudes higher than three."