Surfers at Cronulla Beach saw the light travelling across the sky from east to west lasting about five seconds at around 5.30am before it split into three sections and disintegrated leaving a vapour trail.

''I knew it wasn't a shooting star. It was heaps bigger and much closer. It looked like a ball-shooter [fireworks],'' one surfer said. ''If you were by yourself you might think about a UFO, but there were three other blokes there.''

An Airservices Australia spokeswoman said no reports were received about any unusual activity.

However a Sydney Observatory blog reported a similar sighting more than 500 kilometres north at Woolgoolga, NSW.

Astromer with The Australian National University (ANU) Rob McNaught said the bright light was likely to be a meteor, probably smaller than a cricket ball entering the earth's atmosphere.

''Meteors hit the earth faster in the morning than in the evening,'' Mr McNaught said. ''Very bright meteors are rarely seen higher 80 kilometres from the earth and are almost always above 20 kilometres.

''Meteors typically have fractures from other collision events. It's like it's doing a belly flop into the earth's atmosphere and falls apart.''

Did you see the light?

To report a sighting go to: http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/blog/

Or to see footage of meteors around the world go to: fireball.meteorite.free.fr/1992_10_09/Video/video_peekskill.html