Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
U.S. Storms, Global Floods, Bushfires Cause Economic Damages of $3B-Plus in January
Feb 11 2020 // U.S. storms, Australian bushfires and hailstorms, and floods in various countries across the globe caused more than $3 billion in economic damages during January, according to Aon’s Global Catastrophe Recap report,...
Insured Property Losses from Australia’s Townsville Floods in 2019 Hit A$1.24B: PERILS
Feb 11 2020 // PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has disclosed its fourth and final property loss estimate for the flood event which hit northern Queensland,...
Australian Insurers Declare Catastrophe for Losses from East Coast Flooding
Feb 10 2020 // The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared a catastrophe for property losses caused by storms and flooding along the east coast since February 5. Insurers said they have received 10,000 claims with the value of...
Roundup: Nations Stepping Up Scrutiny of Vessels, Trains Shipping from China
Feb 5 2020 // Vessels and trains coming from China are in focus as nations take steps to halt the spread of a deadly coronavirus that originated in the world’s second-biggest economy. Here’s a roundup of some of the latest...
UK and EU Commence Sparring Over Post-Brexit Trade Rules
Feb 3 2020 // The European Union and Britain clashed over a post-Brexit trade deal on Monday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisting he need not sign up to the bloc’s rules and Brussels warning of tariffs and quotas unless he...
Australia’s Capital, Canberra, Faces Worst Bushfire Threat in 17 Years
Jan 29 2020 // Canberra, Australia’s capital that’s surrounded by bush, is facing its worst wildfire threat in 17 years as a blaze sparked by a military helicopter approaches the city amid heatwave conditions. Residents in...
Australian Insurers Should Be Able to Withstand Mounting Bushfire Claims: AM Best
Jan 27 2020 // Australian insurers are well-capitalized and should be able to withstand losses from the 2019/2020 bushfire season, aided by strong capital positions and support from reinsurance partners, said AM Best. The ratings agency...
Insured Losses from Australia’s Hailstorms Hit US$352.5 Million
Jan 24 2020 // The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared a catastrophe for damage caused by hailstorms that struck eastern Melbourne, the Australian Capital Territory and parts of New South Wales on Sunday and Monday (Jan....
As Insurers Pull Back from Australia’s Bushfire Zones, They Could Become Uninhabitable
Jan 24 2020 // Australian wildfires that have razed thousands of homes and blackened an area about the size of England may also create the nation’s first climate refugees. That’s the view of Michael Mann, distinguished...
Natural Catastrophe Losses in 2019 Down 18% from Annual Average: Willis Re Report
Jan 23 2020 // Insured losses from major natural catastrophes in 2019 totaled roughly $53.0 billion, about 18% lower than the annual average since 2011, according to a report from Willis Re. This figure compares with Aon’s recently...
Bushfire-Ravaged Australians Face Choice in Era of Climate Change: Rebuild or Leave?
Jan 23 2020 // It took two years for Nigel Allison to build his mud-brick house on a sleepy southeastern tip of Australia, and just hours for it to be gutted by fire. The cherished three-bedroom home built in 1986 was one of several...
Willis Re Names Green as Head of Int’l Casualty Reinsurance, Philipsz as Australia CEO
Jan 21 2020 // Willis Re, the reinsurance broking business of Willis Towers Watson, announced the appointment of Cameron Green as head of its International Casualty Reinsurance practice as well as chair of Willis Re Australia. In this...
Australia Begins Clean Up From Bushfires with Insurance Claims Continuing to Rise
Jan 21 2020 // The New South Wales and Victorian state governments will coordinate the clean-up of insured and uninsured residential and commercial properties destroyed in the deadly wildfires. Under the plan, the states will appoint...
Severe Storms Expected to Bring Relief, New Risks to Bushfire-Stricken Australia
Jan 15 2020 // Severe storms are expected to bring some relief in the coming days from huge bushfires scorching Australia but the heavy downpours could also carry the risk of landslides and water pollution, officials said on...
Climate Scientists Warn that Australia’s Bushfires Could Become the New Normal
Jan 14 2020 // Bushfires ravaging Australia have provided a foretaste of the kinds of conditions that could become normal unless the world moves rapidly to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases driving global warming, scientists have...
Australia’s Bushfires Could Surpass 2009’s Costly Season; Analysts, Insurers Comment
Jan 10 2020 // Australia’s bushfire season has months to run and could easily surpass the most costly fire season, 2009’s Black Saturday fires in Victoria, which had a price tag of an estimated A$4.4 billion (US$3 billion),...
Australians Evacuate Their Homes as Soaring Temperatures, Winds Fan Bushfires
Jan 10 2020 // Australia urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes on Friday and prepared military backup as authorities said the next few hours could be “very, very challenging” even as rain poured...
Insurance Industry Calls for Action to Mitigate Climate Risk as Australia Bushfires Widen
Jan 8 2020 // As the devastation from Australia’s bushfires widens, the insurance industry is calling for concerted action to mitigate the impact of climate change. Months of out-of-control fires have burnt an area more than five...
Update: Australia’s Firefighters Take Advantage of Cooler Weather to Help Quell Wildfires
Jan 7 2020 // Firefighters are taking advantage of cooler weather to quell southeastern Australia’s wildfires that have killed at least 24 people and prompted stirring messages from stars at the Golden Globes. Some 130 blazes...
Australia Sees No End to Unprecedented Wildfire Crisis
Jan 6 2020 // Exhausted firefighters welcomed cooler weather and patchy rain in blaze-ravaged southeastern Australia Monday after a calamitous few days, even as authorities warn of a return to dangerous conditions later this week. With...
