Craig Turton wasn’t expecting to capture a plummeting meteor when he ventured to a quiet dam north of Brisbane with his cameras on Saturday night.

Did I just see a big #meteor in #Brisbane.. or the moon reflecting in my rearview mirror? — Jessamy Ross (@JessamyRoss) June 22, 2019

Anyone else see that meteor fly over Brisbane around 10pm? @7NewsBrisbane — Tristan Vorias (@TristanVorias7) June 22, 2019

Saw a meteor over brisbane's sky tonight, looked crazy cool — Manisaning (@Manisanning) June 22, 2019

The photographer had planned to use the clear, crisp evening to take landscapes of the stars reflecting off North Pine Dam. But, during a 15-second exposure facing the south-west, he saw a great flash.

“I saw it come right down in the sky, so I just hoped while the exposure was going that I actually captured it,” he said.

The meteor as seen over North Pine Dam in south-east Queensland. Photograph: Craig Turton/AAP

“I got the bottom two-thirds of the meteor in the picture … it was the right place, right time.”

Thousands of south-east Queenslanders saw or heard the meteor, which struck just after 10pm.

People on social media reported seeing the flash, or feeling their homes rumble or shake from its impact, particularly north and west of Brisbane.

The meteor is likely due to the “Taurid Swarm”, a cloud of debris left over from a massive comet that is thought to have been responsible for cataclysmic collisions in the past, such as the notorious Tunguska event in Russia.

Two thousand square kilometres of Siberian forest was flattened by a suspected meteor during that incident in June 1908.

The Earth passes close to the Taurid Swarm twice a year, with increased meteor activity in June/July and October.

But the Earth is currently the closest it has been to the swarm since 1975, with astronomers using the opportunity to study the debris cloud for any potential objects that could be a risk to the Earth in the future.