It's an arresting time to be here.

Five centuries ago this place was key to the start of

the industrial revolution.

It was the first city in the world to harness the power of

coal for industrial purposes.

In recent decades, however, Newcastle has struggled to

find a way to make an earner in the industrialised world

and the financial crisis is hitting hard.

You'll remember Newcastle was in the news late last year . . . those queues of Geordies waiting in the cold to pull money out of Northern Rock.

The run on the bank only ceased when the British

Government took it into public ownership.

Northern Rock's rise from a local mutual society to a

leading European financial institution has been hailed in

north-east England as an example of local entrepren

eurship leading this depressed region into a new

golden age.

For decades, Newcastle and the north-east in general

struggled to find a way to generate enduring, good

quality jobs, as there were in the good old days when the region hosted some of the world's most famous indus

trial companies: Vickers, the armaments manufacturer;

the brewer Scottish and Northern; and the ship

builders Swan Hunter and McNultys.

Later additions were also world famous: Black and

Decker, Electrolux and the car maker Nissan, a little to

the south in Sunderland, on Wearside, as they say.

Yet nearly all these firms - Nissan the notable exception

- are gone or gutted.

Likewise, the electronics firms that were seen as the

region's salvation in the last decade firms such as

Siemens and Atmel, employing 1200 and 600 workers re

spectively have shut up shop.

Now 1700 of Northern Rocks 6000 workers in Newcastle have lost their jobs.

Informed locals say the number of retrenchments

could rise to 3000.

This is not pretty stuff in the region with Britain's worst

unemployment rates.

There is serious talk of deep recession in the air.

The global economic crisis is already hitting places such

as Newcastle with major job losses.

So far Australia seems immune.

But for how long?

Phillip O'Neill is professor and Urban Research Centre

director for the University of

Western Sydney.