Reinsurance broker Aon Benfield has estimated the damage from the floods in Queensland, Victoria and NSW could reach $20 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in Australian history.

In its monthly Cat Recap bulletin, which reviews natural disasters during January, the broker says that despite early damage estimates of $5.6 billion by the Federal Government, “the total cost of repairing and rebuilding could potentially push the overall economic losses between $10 and 20 billion”.

Quoting data from the Insurance Council of Australia, Aon Benfield says more than 38,460 claims worth an estimated $1.51 billion have been filed in Queensland, covering the flooding in Brisbane, the Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba.

In Victoria, an additional 4780 claims have been filed, with claims so far totalling $69 million, bringing total flood-related claims to more than 43,240.

Steve Jakubowski, President of Impact Forecasting – Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development centre – says the floods “have been absolutely devastating to Australia, not only at a personal level, where millions of people have been affected and thousands left homeless, but also at an economic level”.

“It is estimated that dozens of mines in Queensland have been hit by the floods, and will not be restored to full capacity for possibly several months. The assessment of this cost from a business interruption perspective will be an ongoing challenge for the reinsurance industry.”