The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has scheduled on-the-ground consultation sessions in three regional Victorian communities, connecting policyholders affected by the January bushfires with insurer representatives for claims discussions and lodgements. On the same day, the Albanese and Allan governments committed a further $37 million toward the recovery effort, a portion of which is directed at residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged and who did not hold adequate insurance.
Appointments will be held in Euroa, Alexandra, and Harcourt across three consecutive days from May 26 to 28, 2026. At each location, policyholders can meet with representatives from multiple insurers to progress outstanding claims or submit new ones. ICA staff will also attend to walk attendees through claims processes and dispute resolution options.
Session details:
Liam Walter, ICA director of mitigation and extreme weather response, pointed to the claims volume as context for the continued industry presence. “The bushfires from earlier this year left widespread and catastrophic damage with more than 4,700 claims lodged to date. While insurers had a presence in impacted communities in the immediate aftermath of the fires, we acknowledge that the road to recovery is a long one and insurers remain committed to supporting impacted policyholders through that process. I encourage impacted policyholders to make an appointment to speak with their insurer,” Walter said.
The fires began on Jan. 5, 2026, and intensified through the following week under conditions that fire risk modeller Risk Frontiers described as the most dangerous since the 2019-20 Black Summer. Soil moisture across Victoria was at critically low levels after an extended dry run, and a heatwave pushed temperatures into the low-to-mid forties for multiple consecutive days. Wind gusts topped 100 kilometres per hour in parts of western Victoria, prompting catastrophic fire danger ratings and total fire bans across the state and into New South Wales.
Unlike the Black Summer, which was driven largely by forest canopy fires in drought-affected areas, the 2026 event was predominantly a grassfire crisis. The fuel loading – built up after several wet years – allowed fires to move at speeds of up to 25 kilometres per hour across open country. The most destructive day was Jan. 9, when wind-driven fires outpaced containment efforts and began generating pyrocumulus and pyrocumulonimbus activity, effectively producing fire-generated weather. A State of Disaster was declared across 18 local government areas. By Jan. 16, the fires had burned through more than 400,000 hectares, leaving approximately 900 structures damaged or destroyed. More than 300 of those were homes. Livestock losses exceeded 23,000 head of sheep and cattle. One person died.
Of the $37 million the federal and state governments announced on May 14, roughly $33 million is earmarked for temporary modular housing. Eligibility is limited to residents whose homes were destroyed or substantially damaged and who did not hold adequate insurance – a criterion that frames the expenditure as a direct response to coverage shortfalls within the affected population. The remainder of the package includes $4 million for legal services, to be distributed through Disaster Legal Help Victoria and other established legal centres.
Those services will cover insurance disputes alongside housing and general recovery matters for households, small businesses, and primary producers. The Rural Financial Counselling Service received a separate $880,000 allocation to take on additional financial and wellbeing counsellors to support farming operations working through post-fire debt and income disruption. The May 14 commitments bring cumulative recovery funding for the January 2026 fires, including Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements cost-sharing, to more than $420 million.
