Insurance Impact of Cyclone Alfred
Global insurance and reinsurance broker Aon has estimated that Cyclone Alfred’s economic and insured loss impacts will reach at least into the hundreds of millions of AUD, although it’s stressed that it’s too early to determine the ultimate financial impact and its implications on the local re/insurance market.
Insurance Council of Australia’s Response
On March 9th, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared Cyclone Alfred an insurance catastrophe. As of March 11th, 2025, the ICA had already received over 22,000 claims from policyholders across southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Claims Breakdown
A breakdown of the claims shows that the ICA received 1,725 claims from New South Wales, with home claims at 1,546, 113 from motor, and 76 in commercial.
Queensland claims stand at 20,665, with home contributing 18,914, motor adding 1,069 and commercial standing at 682.
This takes total claims so far to 22,400, of which 20,460 are in home, 1,182 in motor and 758 in commercial.
Impact of Cyclone Alfred
Cyclone Alfred made landfall near Brisbane at around 23:30 AEST on March 7th, 2025, and is the seventh named storm in the Australian cyclone season to impact southeast Queensland and New South Wales North Coast, notably the densely populated area of Brisbane, with a high potential to cause significant damage due to high winds, flooding, and storm surge.
The cyclone caused significant damage and disruption in both Queensland and New South Wales, and over 20,300 properties faced storm surge risk, while over 450,000 properties lost power in Queensland. It’s been described as the largest disaster-related outage in the state’s history. There was at least one death, dozens injured, and several people are missing.
Financial Implications
“Although it is too early to determine the eventual financial impact and its implications on the local re/insurance market, the preliminary numbers show a significant burden on the insurance sector. However, economic and insured loss impacts are expected to reach at least into the hundreds of millions AUD,” reports Aon.
