Thirty-five years after the devastating Newcastle earthquake, former Lord Mayor John McNaughton reflects on the disaster and highlights the importance of learning from past tragedies.
Thirty-five years after Australia's deadliest earthquake, one of the key figures in the response to the disaster warns that lessons remain to be learnt. At 10.27am on Thursday, December 28, 1989, the 5.6-magnitude earthquake rippled through the New South Wales city of Newcastle . Despite lasting just six seconds, the impact reduced buildings to rubble, felled power lines and left 13 people dead and 162 injured.
John McNaughton, 87, who was the city's lord mayor at the time, says there were about 400,000 people in the Newcastle region and they could still probably recall they were on the notorious day.'I felt the earthquake and went ashore to buy some groceries and the whole town was shocked that a quake had struck.Knowing he was urgently needed in central Newcastle and with his car parked kilometres away, McNaughton was driven in a police paddy wagon, with his son riding in the rear, to the city. Newcastle was left devastated after it was hit by an earthquake on December 28, 1989. When he arrived, he soon learned recovery operations were centred on the collapsed Newcastle Workers Club, where nine people died and other survivors were trapped beneath the rubble. When the quake struck, the club was being prepared for a rock concert, expected to be attended by about 2000 fans later in the day. McNaughton says one of the hardest decisions during the catastrophe was to withdraw rescue crews from the site due to the instability of the damaged building.With survivors crying for help under the rubble, the police commander made the hard decision to pull out search and rescue squads while machinery was moved in to reinforce the wall.An injured person is pulled from the wrecked Newcastle Workers Club after the earthquak
EARTHQUAKE NEWCASTLE DISASTER RESPONSE RECOVERY
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