The Seismology Research Centre (SRC) was established in 1976, and since 2002 has been a division of Environmental Systems and Services (ES&S). Its work is primarily concerned with the measurement and analysis of vibrations, particularly those due to earthquakes.

The SRC has been developing digital seismographs and drum recorders and seismic data analysis software for over 30 years. The SRC operates a network of over 100 seismographs and accelerographs in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania. Most of the instruments are operated for owners of large dams, power stations or other large infrastructure, with the SRC providing routine operation, maintenance, analysis of data, and preparation of routine reports.

Some of the seismographs in our network send earthquake data to the SRC in real time (shown in the map at left). This allows the SRC to provide its most important service - an earthquake alarm service to notify clients of damage scenario and response information very soon after moderate or large earthquakes. An automatic paging system is used to alert staff immediately after such earthquakes are recorded. Reports are rapidly generated and provided to authorities by telephone, fax, email or other means. The reports contain information about the earthquake, descriptions of the likely effects on the authority's assets, and a list of tasks to be undertaken.

The SRC also produces earthquake hazard estimates for many major engineering projects, especially large dams, power stations and mines in Australia and overseas. These include ground motion recurrence statistics and calculation of synthetic accelerograms. Methods used consider geology and geophysics as well as seismology, and consider source zone influences on earthquake hazard.