Byron Bay caught up in Australia’s costliest flood of all time

On the main drag of Jonson Street and right across town, locals knew Byron Bay had copped it hard in the 2022 flood. How hard is only now becoming clear.

When Byron Bay became an inland lake it captured national attention - now it’s official that the tourist hotspot was part of the nation’s costliest ever flood.

Locally, the pictures were of Byron’s main street going under as water lapped into businesses.

The bigger rear-mirror view of that disaster has now come to light, underscoring the sheer devastation visited on the district by days of pounding rain in February and March.

The Insurance Council of Australia has now confirmed that the floods which wracked Northern NSW and South East Queensland was Australia’s worst in recorded history in terms of the damage dollar value.

The total figure is estimated at $3.346 billion. Worryingly, more rain is on the way this week.

Downtown Byron Bay became a waterworld as hundreds of millimetres lashed the town.

To give that some context, the costliest storm event of all time was the 1995 East Sydney hailstorm with a normalised loss value of $5.6b.

For those with longer memories, the 1974 Brisbane floods had a normalised loss value of $3.16b.

Since the Black Summer of 2019/20 there have been 764,996 claims recorded from 12 declared catastrophes. This has resulted in insurers recording $12.13b in claims costs over the past two years.

The town centre was awash.

The sheer size of the devastation at Byron Bay - and across the Northern Rivers and into the densely populated South East Queensland catchment - means the majority of householders and business owners are still waiting for things to be made good by their insurers.

As of late April, insurers had received 196,761 claims across Northern NSW and South East Queensland.

Vehicles and roads in Dryden Street, Byron Bay, were impacted.

Of these, 22,409 have been finalised and $580 million has been paid to policyholders.

The average claim cost is $17,000.

Just over 60 per cent of personal claims have been made for building, 12 per cent for motor and 27 per cent for contents.

Ben Webber opened the Byron Bay Red Devils Rugby League clubhouse to flood evacuees as an emergency shelter.

And that’s not the end of it for Byron, or for nearby towns like Ballina, Woodburn, Coraki and Lismore - as claims continued to be assessed by insurance companies.

The inevitable lag in getting through the massive number of claims has led to frustration on the ground, as homeowners wait for the green light to start arranging for repairs and/or replacement.

Cleaning after flood water hit Byron Bay.

To address community concern, Byron residents are invited to dial in to an online forum with insurance industry representatives on Thursday - and put their questions.

The digital ‘town hall’ meeting will be hosted by the Insurance Council of Australia, which represents all the major general insurers.

This will be a chance for policy holders to get up-to-date information on the claims process, complaints avenues and other useful information.

Andrew Hall: “We understand that there are sometimes delays and the industry is working through the current challenges.”

There will be presentations from the Australian Financial Complaints Association and Legal Aid, followed by a virtual Q&A where community members can ask questions.

The Insurance Council will next week announce dates and locations for in-person community forums to be held throughout Northern NSW.

Bookings are essential for the virtual town hall - go to insurancecouncil.com.au/onlinetownhall

The flood brought massive disruption to the main shopping district.

“These online events are important for communities and individual policy holders to understanding the ins and outs of the claims process,” Insurance Council chief executive officer Andrew Hall said.

“We understand that there are sometimes delays and the industry is working through the current challenges.

“We hope this online event will provide policy holders with a clear picture as to the processes in place to support those affected as soon as possible.”