When Anna Baker's flood insurance premium jumped $13,000 in one year, she questioned if she should still be in business.
With extreme weather in Queensland costing insurers an estimated $800 million more than they collected in premiums in 2022, no doubt they thought the same.
Despite Charleville, west of Brisbane, being protected by a levee, only one company in Australia was willing to cover Ms Baker's electrical store for flood.
She is not alone, and community leaders are worried about what it means the next time disaster strikes.
Naming their price
Each year, Ms Baker uses a broker to source the best possible insurance deal, and for the past 18 years that has cost between $8,000 and $12,000 per annum.
This year she was told only one insurance company in the country was willing to insure her for flood damage, but she would have to pay almost $25,000.
"If you've only got one [option] they can name the price," Ms Baker said.
"If it keeps going like this, [Charleville is] going to keep losing businesses down the street, and I'll be one of them."
In the Murweh Shire, Mayor Shaun Radnedge said ratepayers had reported "alarming" premium increases, in some cases as much as 300 per cent over five years.
"What a lot of people are doing, especially with the cost-of-living prices and food, [they're] choosing not to insure now," he said.
Cr Radnedge is also the Deputy Chair of the South West Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils (ROCs) which represents six outback shires experiencing the same issue.
"Within South West ROC there's a lot of flood mitigation that's been put in across those major towns Roma, St. George, Charleville and Cunnamulla" Cr Radnedge said.
"We're asking the question has that mitigation, that infrastructure put in by government and Council, been taken into account?"
"Is it based on a postcode, case-by-case or is it just one blanket over the whole federal seat of Maranoa?"
Risky business a national issue
Cr Radnedge has raised his concerns with the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), the national body that represents the industry.
Chief executive Andrew Hall said the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority estimated premiums had risen by nine per cent nationally.
"Since 2019, there's been about $13 billion of extra claims generated," he said.
He said extreme weather events such as bushfires and floods, as well as rising building costs, supply chain interruptions and the global cost of reinsurance — the insurance that insurance companies take out — all added to the pressure on the industry.
"In states like Queensland in 2022 the gap between the amount of premium collected, which was $2.7 billion across the state matched up against what was paid out in claims, which was $3.5 billion," he said.
Mr Hall said the council would investigate cases raised by the councils, but that in general, people living in risk-prone areas faced higher premiums.
"We need to think very carefully about how homes are built [and] where they're built," he said.
"So that we can avoid repeating the mistakes we've made over nearly 100 years of development in this country."
But while towns like Charleville have a history of flooding, many have since spent millions investing in flood levees and other mitigation to protect homes and businesses.
Levees can't hold back rising costs
In 2012, Ms Baker said the Charleville levee proved its worth, saving the community of more than 3,000 people from disaster.
"So why is our flood insurance so dear?" Ms Baker said.
"Why is the council building this massive levee bank if we still have to pay this massive insurance bill?"
While she awaits the outcome of the ICA review, Ms Baker said she was unsure about the future.
"If it goes up next year, [I'll] probably have to axe the flood insurance and take that gamble," she said.
"If I'm paying $25,000 over four years, that's $100,000.
"And then ... if we get flood, I might never come back? I don't know."
