Western Australia’s south-west is reeling from one of its most significant storm events in recent years, as a rare and powerful low-pressure system — centred around 980 hectopascals, a depth that the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says occurs “only once every few years on average” — continues to tear through the state. The storm is expected to track east into South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales before the week is out.
The human and property toll is already substantial. The State Emergency Service (SES) has fielded nearly 700 requests for assistance across the WA Day long weekend, while Western Power data shows at least 30,000 customers have been hit by outages, according to ABC News.
The peak gust recorded so far — 135 km/h at Cape Naturaliste at 5:33pm Sunday — gives some measure of the violence involved. The BOM also recorded gusts of 117 km/h at Cape Leeuwin and 109 km/h at Busselton, where 51 mm of rain also fell in 24 hours.
The insured loss landscape is already taking shape. Reports from across Perth’s metropolitan area and the South West have described downed power lines, roof tiles ripped from homes and fences torn apart across multiple suburbs. The kind of domestic property damage that generates high-frequency, high-volume claims for home and contents insurers.
Flooding has forced the partial closure of Stirling Highway in North Fremantle and Riverside Drive in Perth’s CBD, with water over roads creating hazardous conditions for commuters. According to reports, two people narrowly escaped injury when a tree fell onto their car on a major South West highway. Fremantle’s WA Day festival has been cancelled due to forecast strong winds, adding event-cancellation exposure to an already broad claims picture.
For insurance brokers, the coastal dimension of this event could warrant particular attention. The BOM has issued coastal hazard warnings stretching from Northampton to Esperance, with offshore waves exceeding eight metres recorded. Abnormally high tides — compounding the storm surge — have already inundated low-lying coastal areas, and warnings remain current for Geraldton to Albany, including Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury, Margaret River and Esperance.
Marine warnings remain active through Tuesday. A Gale Warning is current Monday for the Albany Coast, Esperance Coast and Eucla Coast, with Strong Wind Warnings in force for Perth Local Waters, the Bunbury Geographe Coast and surrounding zones, according to the BOM’s 7:01am Monday bulletin.
Coastal flooding in low-lying areas between Jurien Bay and Israelite Bay is a particular concern, raising the question of flood sub-limits and coastal erosion exclusions in home policies — issues that brokers advising clients in these corridors should be actively reviewing. A second round of damaging to destructive winds — potentially up to 130 km/h — is expected to persist through Monday evening south-west of a line from Lancelin to Albany. Isolated tornadoes remain possible south of Bunbury, and severe thunderstorms are forecast south of Perth on Monday. From Tuesday, the low tracks into South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, with damaging winds expected near Adelaide, the Otways, the Central Ranges and potentially southern NSW. So the claims corridor could widen significantly as the system moves east.
