Australia Weather News

The Bega Valley Shire Council is caught in a perfect storm of insurers and governments avoiding claims to repair storm damage to a heritage wharf.

The east coast low in June that caused the largest-ever waves to be recorded off the New South Wales coast is regarded by insurers as a "normal ocean event" which would make a claim ineligible.

The heritage wharf at Tathra was damaged by massive waves that lifted the deck from its pylons.

A record breaking 17.7 metre wave was recorded by a weather buoy off Eden.

Principal engineer at the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, Ed Couriel, later estimated that the wave would have reached 20 metres when it reached the shore.

The storm damage to the Bega Valley shire was declared a natural disaster, triggering financial assistance through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).

However, Bega Valley Shire Council staff have found that the NDRRA does not cover damage to the wharf.

Bega Valley Shire Council mayor Michael Britten said that the council's only option was to try and convince their insurer, Statewide Mutual, to accept that the storm was more extreme than a normal storm event.

"I find it hard to understand where it's a disaster of significance declared by the Premier that you would see this is a normal ocean event," he said.

Councillor Britten said that extreme weather events are predicted to increase and that this case is the beginning of insurance companies avoiding pay-outs by defining these events as normal.

"From what we're seeing with the weather this could be the tip of the iceberg, for this shire especially, [being] close to the ocean."

Councillor Britten, who is on the committee of the Australian Coastal Councils Association, said that climate change is resulting in an increase of intense coastal storms.

Further complicating the problem is that the Tathra Wharf is a heritage-listed state asset on Crown Lands.

The council manages the wharf as a trustee on behalf of the Crown Lands division of the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Council staff report that the department has advised that the wharf is "solely a council responsibility and ... should be covered by council's insurance".

Councillor Britten raised the possibility that the council may need to end its responsibility as a trustee.

"If [council] is not going to be assisted in any way with these assets that we are trustee for, council may have to review the position of whether it wishes to remain trustee or hand those assets back to the government, because they are owned by the state government."

Member for Bega Andrew Constance said he wants to hear an explanation from the insurance company if coverage is declined.

"I think this is a very unacceptable situation," he said.

He said that if the insurance company doesn't cover the repair costs then "obviously we need to pursue taxpayer funds to step in".

"I will do everything I can to pursue taxpayer-funded avenues to repair the wharf."

Meanwhile, councillor Britten said the council will begin repair work at its own expense as the wharf is an essential asset for the local tourism industry.

He said if they wait for an outcome of negotiations with insurers and government "then Christmas will be come and gone... and the tourism benefit of the wharf would be lost for the summer season".

The repair costs are currently estimated at around $500,000.

Councillor Britten said that the council will take the disaster funding issue to the next Local Government NSW conference in October to propose an urgent review of the NDRRA policy.