Politics & Society
Life for single-parent families in Australia is harsh
Australia’s weather-related disasters are getting costlier
The number of Australian homes damaged or destroyed by weather-related disasters is now the highest in ten years, shows the annual HILDA survey
Published 6 March 2025
As much of Australia watches Cyclone Alfred as it bears down on South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, many of those same communities who lived through the torrential rains and floods of late 2021 and early 2022 are still trying to recover from the disruption and devastation.
According to the Insurance Council of Australia, the floods were one of Australia’s costliest disasters with losses estimated at around $AU4.3 billion.
By comparison, when Cyclone Tracey tore through Darwin in 1974, the repair bill amounted to around $AU5.04 billion.
The annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey shows that, prior to 2022, it was quite rare for Australians to experience a weather-related disaster that damaged or destroyed their home.
Between 2009 and 2021, no more than three per cent of the population reported having the experience.
However, the 2022 HILDA Survey shows that 4.5 per cent of Australians had their homes damaged or destroyed in the previous 12 months – more than double the 1.3 per cent reported in 2021.
The HILDA Survey follows the lives of more than 17,000 Australians each year, over the course of their lifetime, and collects information on many aspects of life in Australia including household and family relationships, income and employment, health and education.
Since 2009, the survey has also asked respondents if ‘a weather-related disaster (like flood, bushfire or cyclone) damaged or destroyed their home.
Floods, floods and more floods
Dr Kyle Peyton, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic & Social Research, says a series of severe floods during the latter half of 2021 and the first half of 2022 caused the rise from 1.3 per cent to 4.5 per cent.
These included the 2021 Central Queensland Floods, the floods caused by Cyclone Seth, the Eastern Australia foods that affected Queensland and parts of New South Wales in February and March 2022.
Before 2022, the highest rates of weather-related damage and destruction happened between 2010 and 2012.
During this time, people living in Western Australia were impacted by storms, and a series of major natural disasters unfolded across Queensland between late 2010 and early 2011.
“The risk of experiencing a weather-related disaster is higher in some parts of the country than others and the types of disaster also varies,” explains Dr Peyton.
“While homes in Queensland and New South Wales have mostly been affected by floods, Victoria has been more affected by bushfires and Western Australia has been impacted by storms.”
Politics & Society
It’s getting easier to become a problem gambler in Australia
A trail of destruction
The HILDA Survey also highlights the 2016 bushfires that destroyed homes in Tasmania and the Hobart floods in 2018.
In Victoria, higher rates of weather-related property damage were due to bushfires between 2009 and 2012 and floods between 2010 and 2011.
In 2010, 32.5 per cent of Australians who experienced home damage due to weather-related disasters were in Victoria, while in 2011, about 61 per cent were in Queensland.
But, in 2022, nearly 63 per cent of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed lived in New South Wales.
Dr Linden Ashcroft, climate scientist at the University of Melbourne School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Services, says Australia’s location in the world makes it vulnerable to significant weather events that can impact communities.
Australia’s precarious position
Year-to-year patterns in the Indian and Pacific Oceans impact our weather systems – while climate change adds another layer of complexity and unpredictability.
“Our swings between drought and flood are some of the most extreme in the world, because we have the Pacific Ocean to one side with swinging pattern of La Nina and El Nino events and see-sawing sea surface temperatures,” says Dr Ashcroft.
“The Indian Ocean, with its similar see-sawing patterns, also affects Australia, either by making it harder for weather systems to bring rain, or by providing moisture to weather systems that then dump vast amounts of rain across the country.
“More locally, cities like Melbourne experience a heatwave one day and then a cold front will swing up from Antarctica.
“When these two features interact it can manifest in dramatic thunderstorms and rainfall.
"We are at the mercy of patterns that occur in the Indian and Pacific Oceans – more so than many other countries and continents.”
A ‘supercharged’ climate
Dr Ashcroft says the warming of the planet is ‘supercharging’ our climate, increasing the risk of more frequent serious weather-related events that may also become more intense.
This creates more damage to homes caught in the paths of floods, fires or storms.
“Research shows that our fire seasons are getting longer and we’re having more extreme fire days and that is likely to increase,” she says.
“There is also an increase in extreme rainfall – when we get a downpour, it rains more. Sea levels are rising because the ocean is getting warmer, so flooding from storm surges is also likely to increase.
"We are becoming more vulnerable as these weather-related events become more intense.”
The hidden costs of rebuilding or repairing
Dr Peyton says while the HILDA data cannot be used to forecast where and when future weather-related disasters might strike, it is an indispensable resource for studying the long-term impacts on those who must rebuild or repair homes damaged by fire or flood.
“What happens to home values in affected areas? Do people have enough insurance to fully compensate for their losses? Five years after a weather-related disaster occurs, is the household worse off economically? And how does it affect peoples’ mental health?” asks Dr Peyton.
Politics & Society
How is it that many men still aren’t pulling their weight at home?
“If your home is destroyed, you may have few or no resources to fall back on while dealing with insurance claims and searching for a place to live.
“Displacement can have a profound impact on individuals and families and recovery often takes a long time.”
Listening and learning
In the face of more weather-related disasters and the loss and damage of more homes, Dr Ashcroft says there are key steps Australian can take to minimise future harm.
“We know we can minimise future harm to our climate by not burning fossil fuels.
“Some temperature increase and some warming of the ocean will continue even if we stopped burning carbon today – but why supercharge that situation?” says Dr Ashcroft.
“Before colonisation there were droughts and floods in Australia that were bigger than any events on modern record. If an event like that happened today, on a planet more than a degree hotter than at any other time in human history, we’d need to be ready.
“So, we can learn a lot from the traditional custodians of the land and First Nations scientists and researchers who have been taking care of this country through those events for many generations.”
