Queensland
Head office is on Edward Street, so this is the book we know best. Queensland is the only state where a single insurer has to price cyclone, riverine flood, storm tide and hail on the same book.
What actually happens in Queensland
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Cyclone, north of Rockhampton
North of roughly the Tropic of Capricorn you are in wind region C, and from around Cooktown north, region D. Building standard, tie-down requirements, shutters and the 48 hour named-cyclone waiting period all follow from that line, and so does a large part of the premium.
What to do about it -
Riverine flood, and the Brisbane River
The 2011 and 2022 events reshaped how the south east is priced. Brisbane City Council flood awareness mapping is good and public, but the number that prices your house is your floor level against the modelled surface, not whether you sit inside the overlay.
What to do about it -
The south east hail belt
Ipswich, Springfield, Logan and the western suburbs of Brisbane sit under the most reliable severe hail corridor in the country. Boxing Day supercells are a Queensland institution and they total more vehicles in an afternoon than a year of collisions.
What to do about it -
Bushfire, and not only in the south
Queensland bushfire risk is often underestimated because the state is thought of as wet. The Darling Downs, the Granite Belt, the Sunshine Coast hinterland and central Queensland grazing country all carry real BAL exposure, and 2019 proved it.
What to do about it -
Drought and reactive soils
On the Downs and through the central west, a long dry followed by a wet season moves footings enough to crack brickwork and shear plumbing. Sudden movement can be covered. Gradual movement never is, in any Australian policy.
What to do about it -
Farm exposure at scale
Cropping through the Downs and the Goondiwindi district, cattle through the central and northern grazing country, and cane in the wet tropics. Each carries a different fire, flood and machinery profile, and the pack is priced per section for that reason.
What to do about it
The QLD rules that change the price
Insurance is a state business dressed up as a national one. Two identical houses in two states carry different taxes, different compulsory schemes and different building standards.
- Compulsory Third Party
- Bundled into your registration. You do not buy a separate policy. When you register or renew with Transport and Main Roads you nominate one of the licensed CTP insurers, and the premium is collected with the registration fee. The rate is set within a band by the Motor Accident Insurance Commission, so the difference between insurers is small.
- What CTP does not do
- It covers injury to people where the driver of the vehicle is at fault. It does not cover any vehicle damage at all, not yours and not the other driver. That is what comprehensive or third party property is for, and it is the single most common misunderstanding on our phones.
- Stamp duty on general insurance
- 9 per cent. Applied to the premium after GST, so a $1,000 base premium becomes $1,100 with GST and $1,199 with duty. It goes to Queensland Revenue Office, not to us.
- Emergency services funding
- Queensland funds fire and emergency services through the Emergency Management Levy, which is collected on council rates rather than on your insurance premium. Your Wattle premium does not carry an emergency services component.
What you actually pay
Base premium, then GST at ten per cent, then stamp duty on the total. All three are itemised in dollars on a Wattle certificate, and the quote screen shows them separately before you buy anything.
Price it for QLDCover we write here
How we read QLD by region
Hazard is a property-level question, and these regional notes are the starting point rather than the answer. Your address gets rated on its own.
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Brisbane and the south east
Flood is the dominant driver in the river suburbs and the creek catchments, hail everywhere west of the river, and storm across the lot. A Queenslander on original stumps with a clear undercroft usually prices better than a slab-on-ground house on the same street.
Brisbane 4000 · Springfield Lakes 4300 · Albion 4010 · Yeronga 4104 · Redbank Plains 4301
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Far north and the wet tropics
Wind region C and D, named cyclone waiting period, and a building stock that divides sharply between pre-1982 and post-1982 construction. A verified tie-down upgrade plus compliant shutters is the largest single premium reduction we write anywhere in Australia.
Cairns North 4870 · Townsville 4810 · Innisfail 4860 · Port Douglas 4877
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The Downs and the Granite Belt
Reactive clay, real bushfire exposure, hail on the escarpment, and a farm book that behaves nothing like the coastal one. Toowoomba in particular carries flash flood risk that the topography makes non-obvious.
Toowoomba 4350 · Warwick 4370 · Stanthorpe 4380 · Goondiwindi 4390
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Central Queensland and the coast
The Tropic of Capricorn runs just north of Rockhampton, which means two houses forty minutes apart can sit in different wind regions and carry different cyclone terms. We will tell you which side of it you are on before you buy.
Rockhampton 4700 · Yeppoon 4703 · Gladstone 4680 · Mackay 4740
Queensland questions
Does my Queensland registration include any cover for my own car?
No. The CTP premium collected with your Queensland registration covers injury to people where the driver is at fault. It does nothing for vehicle damage. If a hailstorm writes off your car, or you reverse into a bollard, or somebody steals it, CTP is irrelevant. You need comprehensive for your own vehicle, or at minimum third party property for damage you do to somebody else.
Where exactly does cyclone cover change?
The practical dividing line is the Tropic of Capricorn, which passes just north of Rockhampton, and the wind region maps in the building standard follow it approximately. North of it you are in wind region C, and from around Cooktown north, region D. What changes is the construction standard your house should have been built to, whether shutters are expected, the tie-down requirements, and the 48 hour named-cyclone waiting period. We rate by address rather than by a line on a map, so ring us if you are near it.
Is my Brisbane suburb flooded if it is in the overlay?
No, and that is worth being precise about. The overlay is a planning line derived from a modelled event. What prices your property is your floor level and ground level against the modelled flood surface at your address, and the depth and velocity of water there. Two houses on the same street can sit either side of that. Brisbane City Council publishes property-level flood awareness reports, and our own risk report goes further and tells you what mitigation would move the number.
Is there an emergency services levy on my Queensland premium?
No. Queensland funds fire and emergency services through the Emergency Management Levy collected on council rates, not through insurance premiums. This is different from New South Wales, where the Emergency Services Levy is embedded in what insurers charge, and it is one of the reasons an identical house costs different amounts to insure either side of the border.
Tax rates, scheme mechanics and hazard descriptions on this page are written for a demonstration site and should not be relied on. Check the current position with your state revenue office and read the PDS and TMD.
A QLD address, rated on its own
Send us the street address and we send back six pages on what it is exposed to and what would change the price. Free, whether or not you buy.