Tremors were felt from Bundaberg, where CBD buildings were evacuated, to Tweed Heads in northern New South Wales.

Sandy Macarone's Strathpine house was swaying as items on the table bounced, while Chermside's Amy MacDonald felt "waves of shaking" that cracked her garage floor.

There was also minor damage to the inside walls of an apartment building in Nambour on the Sunshine Coast hinterland, according to Nine News.

But no reports of major damage were received by police, Geoscience Australia or the Fraser Coast Council, closest to the quake's epicentre 30 kilometres below the surface.

In Rainbow Beach, the closest town to the source of the tremors, Plantation Resort at Rainbow manager Camille Nash said the ground was "definitely shaking".

"I was sitting down in my office and I could feel it in my office," she said.

"It probably would have gone for 30 seconds or more."

Fairfax journalist Ben Grubb's father Mick described the sensation as "like you were standing on jelly".

Once the shudders subsided, it didn't take long for people to start looking for the funny side of the shakes.

"I was sitting on the loo and the next minute I could hear the rumble ... my husband sings out, 'God love, lucky you didn't let that one go," a caller told 4BC Radio.

Australia sits in the middle of a tectonic plate, making it less likely to experience severe earthquakes than cities such as Tokyo and Los Angeles, which sit on major fault lines.

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate said Queensland was one of the country's least seismically active states.

Thursday's quake was the sixth strongest to hit the state since records began, according to GA data.

"Earthquakes of this magnitude do occur but fortunately they're not particularly frequent," Mr Bathgate said.

A magnitude 3.9 aftershock hit a few minutes after the original quake and Geoscience Australia warned more tremors were possible.

Two of Queensland's largest quakes hit in 1918 off the coast of Gladstone, measuring 5.7 and 6.0 on the Richter scale.

An earthquake five years earlier struck Charters Towers at a magnitude of 5.7.

The state's only significant tremors in recent memory took place in Eidsvold earlier this year (5.1) and near Bowen in 2011 (5.3).

The Eidsvold quake was the third largest with an epicentre on the Queensland mainland itself, a GA spokesman said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was in Mackay on Thursday morning, said she received a "shock" from the news.

"I was absolutely shocked like most Queenslanders to hear that we had an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 out off the coast of Queensland and thankfully, everyone is OK, but it came as a surprise to me, as I think it came as a surprise to most other Queenslanders," she said.

"At this stage, no reports of damage but people have said they have felt some of the aftershocks."

Police Minister Jo-Anne Miller said residents with any concerns of structural damage should call the State Emergency Service.

"Certainly it's unusual for Queensland to have an earthquake but we are on top of it and our emergency services personnel including police, fire, emergency services, they are ready and prepared to respond immediately," she said.

Trains were running at reduced speeds on the Caboolture and Sunshine Coast lines on Thursday as technicians checked the tracks were safe.

A QR spokesman said speeds would hopefully return to normal by 3pm.

- With Natalie Bochenski and Amy Remeikis