The most devastating earthquake in the Hunter Valley was the Newcastle earthquake of  28 December 1989,10:27 am which killed 12 people, injured over 160, and cost over $800 million in damages. The earthquake measured 5.6 on the Richter scale.  The University has over 300 photographs relating to this earthquake. They show some of the damage in Newcastle and Hamilton and at the Callaghan campus of the University.