Australia Eastern flood losses reaches record breaking AU$3.99b

The loss numbers cover property and motor hull lines of business. 

Zurich-based firm PERILS revealed in its initial industry estimate that Australia suffered an AU$3.9b ($2.9b) loss during the Eastern Australia floods which occurred from 23 February to 8 March 2022.

The loss number covers property and motor hull lines of business.

From 23 February to 8 March 2022, the east coast of Australia experienced an extended period of heavy rainfall resulting in major river and surface water flooding. This was due initially to a monsoon trough that developed in the South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales regions. 

According to Darryl Pidcock, head of PERILS Asia Pacific, the event is the largest flood loss on record for the Australian insurance industry, exceeding the record of Brisbane floods in 2011.

“Given the complexity of the weather systems, the application of event definition clauses for reinsurance purposes will vary across the market. Such clauses can include meteorological conditions and/or loss aggregation periods, such as the 168-hours clause, which means that there is no common market standard applied to the losses. Given these factors, the losses from this event have been reported by PERILS as one single insurance event,” Pidcock said.

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