Insurers will hold a new round of in‑person meetings with policyholders in North Queensland this month, as communities continue to manage claims and recovery following the 2025 North and Far North Tropical Low and Tropical Cyclone Koji in January 2026.
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and several member insurers plan to run a consultation session in Ingham on March 10 for customers affected by recent extreme weather events, including the North and Far North Tropical Low and Koji. The session is scheduled from 9:30am to 5pm at Hinchinbrook Shire Hall, 25 Lannercost Street, Ingham. Policyholders are required to register in advance, with bookings available via the ICA website.
According to the ICA, the session will allow customers to speak directly with insurer representatives about individual claims, including coverage questions, claim status, repair or rebuild arrangements, and any disputes or delays. Insurer staff are also expected to outline the claims process, internal dispute resolution pathways, and available external review options, as well as provide general information on documentation and recovery planning.
“North Queensland has faced its fair share of extreme weather over the past 12 months – from flooding in February last year through to Tropical Cyclone Koji more recently. Anyone who experienced damage from any of these events is encouraged to come along and meet directly with their insurer for one‑on‑one support. Insurers are committed to supporting impacted policyholders throughout their recovery,” ICA director of mitigation and extreme weather response Liam Walter said. The session will be used to address outstanding claim issues in person and to gather feedback on how policy wordings, risk mitigation measures, and customer communication are functioning in the current operating environment.
The Ingham consultation coincides with ongoing recovery activity funded under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), following the North and Far North Tropical Low that affected Queensland between Jan. 29 and Feb. 28, 2025. That event produced widespread flooding across multiple local government areas in North and Far North Queensland. The DRFA – a jointly funded mechanism between the Australian government and state and territory governments – was activated after the event met the definition of an eligible disaster. Under the framework, the Australian government provides financial assistance to help state governments manage disaster recovery costs.
Standard DRFA assistance has been made available to support recovery from the tropical low, including measures directed at community recovery and restoration of public assets. In addition, a jointly funded “exceptional circumstances” package has been introduced to support cleanup and recovery for regional industries, farmers, small businesses, and not‑for‑profit organisations in affected areas. The Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) is the lead recovery agency for the event. Its activities include preparing a business case for extraordinary assistance under the DRFA, coordinating with state functional recovery groups, and working with councils on event‑specific local recovery plans. Recovery and Resilience Officers are engaging with eligible councils, with plans to be finalised and endorsed at the local government level.
For residential policyholders, the Stronger Homes Grant Program has been established for flood‑affected homeowners in North and Far North Queensland and is intended to support works related to long‑term flood resilience. These grants operate alongside private insurance claims. This raises practical questions around how resilience works are sequenced with repairs, how grants interact with sums insured, and how upgrades are treated within coverage, underwriting, and pricing decisions. The Ingham consultations are expected to highlight case‑by‑case issues where DRFA assistance, resilience grants, and insurance settlements intersect, particularly where homeowners are considering rebuilds to different standards or at different locations.
Tropical Cyclone Koji developed from a tropical low in the northern Coral Sea on Jan. 7, 2026. The system intensified to category 2 status by Jan. 10, with storm‑force winds recorded at Willis Island, before weakening back to a tropical low shortly before landfall between Ayr and Bowen around 10am on Jan. 11. As Koji approached the coast south of Townsville, the strongest winds were reported further south, including at the Whitsunday Islands and Hardy Reef. Strong winds contributed to fallen trees and branches, localised structural damage, and power outages in parts of the Mackay and Whitsunday region, and some vessels broke moorings and were damaged.
Rainfall totals were high across several catchments. Sites in the Pioneer River catchment recorded more than 350 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am on Jan. 11, with Mt William recording 601 millimetres over 48 hours to 9am on Jan. 12. Major flooding occurred in the Pioneer catchment south of Mackay, and as ex‑Tropical Cyclone Koji tracked inland over several days, moderate to major flooding was observed in basins along its path toward the Northern Territory border.
Koji was the seventh tropical cyclone in the Australian region for the 2025-26 season, contributing to an additional round of catastrophe‑related claims for insurers with exposure in North and Far North Queensland. Within this setting, the ICA’s Ingham consultations represent one of the mechanisms being used to manage outstanding claims, multi‑event loss scenarios, and the interaction between private insurance, government relief measures, and resilience funding across the region.
