Australia is considered to be a region of low-to-moderate seismicity, but experiences a substantially higher level of seismic activity than other active intra-plate regions around the world. Because of the low earthquake return period that is typically used in design, coupled with the low amount of reinforcement detailing that is required by current standards, it is anticipated that many of the reinforced concrete structures that are abundant throughout the Australian building stock have very limited ductility.  Moreover, it has only been in the past couple of decades that structural engineers have been required to consider the forces that are associated with a low return-period earthquake event, thus making the older building stock particularly vulnerable to seismic loading.

This paper aims to provide the latest research and modelling that can be incorporated in the seismic assessment of a structure in Australia. Two aspects are discussed that are necessary for the calculation of assessing a structure: the seismic demand and a building's capacity. The seismic demand for any location in Australia is primarily dependant on the models used for the earthquake recurrence, attenuation and the site response. A structure's capacity can be found using a displacement-based assessment, where the building can be modelled as an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom structure. Some of the assumptions and parameters involved in the modelling processes for seismic demand and a building’s capacity are scrutinised for their validity in places of low-to-moderate seismic regions, such as Australia.  Potential vulnerabilities within the building stock of Australia, primarily associated with reinforced concrete wall and core buildings, are discussed.