Dozens of bushfires usher in spring, summer period of high fire risk in Australia

Just two weeks into Australia’s spring, bushfires have prompted a caution from the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) for homeowners to help stem related losses later by preparing now for a spring and summer of high fire risk.

Firefighters across New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland continued to battle dozens of bushfires sparked by hot and windy weather on Sept. 10, ICA noted in a statement last week. Homes, outbuildings and vehicles have already been destroyed by fire, council CEO Rob Whelan notes in the statement.

In NSW, firefighters had been mobilized to tackle more than 60 bushfires, there were bushfire alerts in Victoria and in Queensland, and the fire and rescue service had warned that much of the state faced a severe fire risk over the coming days.

Whelan reports that the severe fire conditions being experienced in NSW and Queensland have been caused by a combination of above average temperatures, strong wind and a dry winter.

“The ICA anticipates the bushfire risk will remain high throughout spring and summer in all states,” he notes. “Large swathes of Australia now have abundant fuel loads. This has been caused by lengthy wet seasons since 2010, which triggered rapid growth of grass and bushland, followed by a warm and dry autumn and winter this year,” Whelan explains.

Property owners are encouraged to take every opportunity to lower their risk, which may involve such practical measures as the following:

• moving woodpiles or flammable materials away from the property;
• cutting back grass, shrubs and trees around the property, and clearing dry leaves from gutters;
• reviewing the home and contents insurance policy to ensure it is up to date, and to determine what the policy covers and excludes; and
• checking that vehicles are insured.

In early February, the ICA reported that general insurance companies had received more than 65,000 claims, with insurance losses conservatively estimated at $674 million, from four catastrophes in three states that summer.

Floods and storm damage in Queensland and NSW accounted for the lion’s share of claims and costs, the latter combining for about $573 million. As for bushfires, those in Tasmanian had resulted in 1,900 claims for approximately $89 million in insured losses and those in NSW had resulted in approximately 1,500 claims and $12 million in insured losses.

In late June, the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities released a whitepaper that projected the cost from natural disasters in Australia would almost quadruple by 2050. The whitepaper projects that nat cat costs will rise from the current $6.3 billion annually to approximately $23 billion a year in 2050 as population density increases and the severity and frequency of storms, floods, cyclones and bushfires grow.

Among other things, the whitepaper recommends appointing a national resilience advisor to co-ordinate and prioritize activity across all levels of government, and establish a business and community advisory group to leverage knowledge and expertise to support the advisor; committing to long-term annual consolidated funding, which would consolidate current mitigation spend and centralize new spending, for pre-disaster resilience; and identifying and prioritizing pre-disaster investment activities that deliver a positive net impact on future budget outlays.