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Mountain pressure Bushfire insurance challenges for alpine resort properties remain unresolved WEEKEND snowfalls may have heightened expectations for a great snow season ahead, but it has done little to allay insurance concerns that some fear threatens the future viability of many clubs, apartments and businesses at our alpine resorts of Mt Buller and Mt Stirling. More than six months ago Victorian Snowsports Association president Dave Clark raised industry concerns over many major insurers having decided not to offer cover to alpine properties, following the 2019/20 bushfire season. Since then the situation has only got worse, according to Chris Hollier of the Mt Buller Ratepayers Association (MBRA), who has been responsible for heading up the ‘building insurance project’ for the last few years. “Many underwriters have ceased to insure alpine properties,” said Mr Hollier. “On the back of this, premium rates increased on average two to four times. “In addition, some of the remaining underwriters ceased to cover bushfires, even though they massively increased premiums.
READY FOR EARLY OPENING Lindsey Caddey from Ski Patrol was all smiles last week in deep snow preparing the run ready for the early opening on Saturday. PHOTO: Rhylla Morgan
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“The MBRA ran a building insurance questionnaire over 12 months ago; we had over 133 responses. “These respondents had a combined requirement for $760m of building insurance. “The information on this questionnaire led to us to estimating that 50 per cent of properties are now not fully insured for bushfire cover. “This highlights a material market failure. “It’s worth noting that there has never been a building lost to a bushfire at Mt Buller. “There’s also been a massive increase in Mt Buller’s capacity to fight bushfires, with a new dam and many more snow guns plus doubling of available firefighting aircraft.” Mr Hollier said these concerns have been raised with the State Government via the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), who said they would refer concerns onto the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA) and their broker, along with many state and federal MPs. But two years on and nothing has happened with it. ■ Continued page 3
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