Hundreds of people have been startled awake by an early morning earthquake many say sounded like a large train was blasting past them.

The 4.8 magnitude quake struck the small Wheatbelt of Wyalkatchem just after 2am on Wednesday, with tremors felt across WA’s southwest, including almost 200km away in Perth.

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“I was asleep and then my whole bed started shaking and rattling,” Wyalkatchem resident Lee Burges told 7NEWS.

“The windows were rattling and (there was) a big rumble.

“My dog started barking, I flew out of bed.”

Others from the town of 500 said the earthquake sounded like a large train and felt like a “boom”.

“It definitely got the whole house up in a minute,” Paige Dobson said.

“It passed pretty quick but it was pretty scary for everyone.”

There have been 130 earthquakes recorded in the area in the last 12 months and while this one was the strongest, no damage has been reported.

Close to 1000 people have reported feeling its impact, according to Geoscience Australia.

“Earthquakes of this magnitude, or bigger, occur maybe once every two years,” Curtin University Emeritus Professor and structural geologist Chris Elders said.

There has been seven aftershocks recorded so far, and the rumblings could last for days and even weeks.

Elders said the location was interesting, given Wyalkatchem is just an hour away from Meckering, where a 6.9 magnitude earthquake reduced many buildings in the town to rubble in 1968.

“(The Wyalkatchem quake) wasn’t that big so we wouldn’t expect this one really to cause any damage but I think it just gave a lot of people quite a surprise when they felt it in the middle of the night,” Elders said.

Cunderdin shire president Alison Harris said tremors are part of living in the Wheatbelt but added they remain “a bit triggering” for some.

“The town of Meckering was absolutely decimated back in 1968. So, it’s certainly something we live with, especially the older generations,” she told the ABC.