I’M advised that many local properties change hands in the months of December and January each year.

Assuming this is the case, new buyers will be looking to purchase insurance for their property at this time of the year.

It makes good management sense to compare insurance policies each year as premiums rise and policy conditions change.

We are all aware of changing climate conditions, which have seen floods and fires becoming more numerous,
Due to this, actuaries are active in assessing those risks in order to protect the insurers’ viability and economic position.

These risks are often related to the location of affected properties, categorised by postcode.

Local discussion suggests that many and probably most insurance policy premiums have risen by 20 to 25 percent this year in our area.

When checking online insurance comparison sites and providing our local postcode of 2324, you regularly get a response that “we are not able to provide you with a quote due to the high probability of flood inundation in your area”.

Interesting but frustrating, isn’t it?

So, I thought I would check out this dangerous postcode to ascertain the risks.

Very quickly I was able to find some 23 locations carrying the 2324 postcode.

It stretches from south of Raymond Terrace to well north of the Myall Coast and from the coast to well west of Seaham, including inland areas towards Maitland.

Having owned property in the 2324 postcode area for some 23 years, I am yet to experience inundation by flooding.

I would be most interested in hearing from so-called “old timers”, who have been living in this postcode for 50 years or more, in order to find out how many times “in our lifetime” this area has been severely flooded.

If sections of this large expanse of the Mid Coast of NSW have regularly been under water or suffered from riverine or ocean flooding on a regular basis, I am yet to hear about it.

I would also be interested in any accounts from district historians of any serious flooding in our area from early reports by the AA Company, who pioneered our location in 1824 – nearly 200 years ago.

The game seems to be that someone needs to pay in advance for this perceived future flooding tragedy.

The easiest way is for your annual premium for property insurance to bear that brunt.

By John BLACKBOURN