By Edward Carron

May 13 - (The Insurer) - Australia's vulnerability to shifting weather patterns has again been highlighted this week with a major dust storm engulfing Sydney in the aftermath of drought in South Australia.

Elsewhere, the Insurance Council of Australia has declared recent flooding in New South Wales as its latest "insurance catastrophe" after the claims tally from the event rose to close to 5,000.

Prior to these events, Australia already had an estimated A$1.5 billion in insured losses in 2025, according to the ICA.

These losses were attributable to around 126,000 claims related to two events in Queensland. Firstly, flooding hit northern parts of the state in February after heavy rain, which cost insurers around A$250 million.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred then affected southern parts of the state, causing around A$1.3 billion in claims.

Loss aggregator Perils released an industry loss estimate for Alfred of A$2.57 billion on April 23, more than A$1 billion higher than the most recent ICA total.

A significant portion of claims for both events were residential, with the North Queensland floods having a larger share from motor.

Australian insurer QBE said in a recent trading update that it has had roughly $420 million of net catastrophe claims in the first four month of 2025, driven by “LA wildfires, flooding in Queensland, cyclone Alfred, and a series of convective storm events in North America.”

The insurer disclosed in its 2024 results that it expects USD$200 million of net losses from the Los Angeles wildfires, the latest trading update said that this figure “remains consistent,” meaning that almost half of its cat losses so far in 2025 are from the blazes.

The trading update, published on May 9, also said that the company’s cat loss allowance for the first half of 2025 is A$549 million and A$611 for the second.

Fellow large Australian insurer Suncorp published data on May 8 for its natural hazard losses for 10-month period leading to April 30, showing a total of A$1.12 billion, 54% from large events.

Of those large events, that resulted in over A$10 million of claims, eight were in the first four months of 2025, resulting in A$376 million of losses for the company.

Suncorp had an A$85 million impact from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, just 6.2% of the total claims for the event reported by the ICA.

Earlier this week IAG said it had received around 2,500 claims from the most recent Queensland event, but reiterated that it has a comprehensive reinsurance program in place.

The insurer said it benefits from quota share reinsurance that covers 32.5% of all losses and catastrophe cover that provides cover for 67.5% of all losses above A$500 million up to A$10 billion.