World Notes AUSTRALIA

For 15 long seconds the ground shook. Buildings crumbled, cars were flattened, at least ten people were killed, and some 120 were injured. The first major earthquake to hit an Australian city struck the New South Wales port of Newcastle, 100 miles north of Sydney, at 10:28 a.m. last Thursday. Said one resident: "It felt like there was someone under my bedroom floor who lifted the house."

Australians were caught off guard by the quake's intensity, though it measured only 5.5 on the Richter scale, vs. 7.1 for the tremor that rocked San Francisco Oct. 17. The principal damage occurred in the heart of the city of 430,000, where the Newcastle Workers' Club collapsed, trapping staff members ) and morning bingo players. Emergency personnel were flown from Sydney to help with rescue efforts, but by week's end the city was still crippled. Preliminary estimates set the cost of the destruction at more than $1 billion.