Panic briefly set in among Bureau of Meteorology app users across the country on Wednesday morning when they received a tsunami warning for areas as far inland as Canberra.
However, the shocked users breathed a sigh of relief when it became apparent BOM was testing a new tsunami early warning system for Australia.
The test message triggered alarm along the east coast of Australia, with residents in Wollongong through to Queensland posting to social media about the alert.
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App users variously reported the warnings applying to Sydney suburbs inland such as Cherrybrook and Wahroonga, as well as Canberra when the warnings were sent out just after 11am (AEST).
“An undersea earthquake of magnitude 8.2 has occurred at 10 am AEST on Wednesday 25 off the coast of South Island New Zealand,” the alert read.
“Media please use the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) top priority for immediate and frequent broadcast.”
“Confused about why the BOM app just sent out a tsunami warning for the East Coast?” one user said.
“Looks like a test alert went out to the app for a fictional 8.2 magnitude earthquake off New Zealand.”
Another person replied, saying the message “would have given quite a few people a fright”.
The government posted warnings of the test on the increasingly disused X (formerly Twitter) social media platform, however many app users were oblivious.
Although it claimed to have sent app users a pre-test warning, some users denied that was the case.
The BOM later said in a statement there was “no tsunami threat to Australia”.
“The Bureau of Meteorology issued test verification posts on the BOM App between 11AM-12PM AEST on Wednesday 25 September as part of the transition to the new tsunami early warning system software,” the spokesperson said.
“The Bureau acknowledges and apologises for any confusion that this test may have caused.”
It said the warnings were cancelled immediately after they were issued.
“Testing is important to help the Bureau and partners prepare and plan for real tsunami threats,” it said.
“The Bureau is part of the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre and this is operated 24 hours a day to detect, monitor, verify and warn of any tsunami threats to the coastline of Australia and its offshore territories.”
