For the past five years the University of Queensland has, through its various workshops, been preaching to Australia that there was a potentially hazardous situation from earthquakes for urban Australia. A few people outside The University accepted this, but largely the warnings fell on deaf ears._x000D_
The 1989 Newcastle earthquake changed that per- ception. The most important lessons to emerge from Newcastle were (i)the realization that in continental areas small earthquakes cause widespread damage: (ii)the local geology of an area is of great importance in the damage done by an earthquake._x000D_
These two factors clearly indicate that, in the future, we must take far greater account of the "Urban Geology" of an area. This paper discusses the need for urban geology and its impact on seismic risk and compares that with the traditional methods of assessing seismic risk.