Victoria
Victoria runs the cleanest compulsory motor scheme in the country and charges the highest insurance stamp duty on the mainland. Both facts show up on your paperwork, and neither is ours.
What actually happens in Victoria
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The Dandenongs and the peri-urban ranges
Steep, forested, heavily settled and hard to evacuate. This is the geometry that produced Black Saturday in 2009, and the building standards, the BAL bands and the pricing all still reflect what that day taught the country.
What to do about it -
Gippsland and the high country
Long-duration campaign fires rather than single-day events, which changes both the exposure and the claim: smoke damage over weeks, stock and fencing losses across large holdings, and access that stays closed long after the front has gone.
What to do about it -
The Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon valleys
Slow riverine flooding across northern Victoria, which in October 2022 put water through Rochester, Shepparton and Echuca. Slow rise means more time to move things and more chance to mitigate, and it means depth and duration rather than velocity drive the claim.
What to do about it -
Wind events and storm
Victoria produces fewer severe hail days than the eastern seaboard and more damaging wind events. The June 2021 storms brought down trees across the ranges on a scale that emptied the state supply of arborists for months.
What to do about it -
Reactive clay and ground movement
Melbourne western and northern growth corridors sit on highly reactive clay. A long dry followed by a wet winter moves footings enough to crack brickwork and shear plumbing. Sudden movement can be covered. Gradual movement is not, in any Australian policy.
What to do about it -
A large and tightly regulated rental market
Victorian residential tenancy law and bond lodgement with the RTBA set what a tenant damage or rent default claim needs. Minimum rental standards also mean some maintenance an owner might defer is not optional here.
What to do about it
The VIC 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
- The TAC charge, collected with registration. Victoria has a single scheme run by the Transport Accident Commission, so there is no shopping around and no separate certificate. The TAC charge is collected with your VicRoads registration, and the amount depends on the vehicle and the risk zone it is garaged in rather than on your driving record.
- What CTP does not do
- The TAC scheme is no-fault: it pays for treatment, rehabilitation and income support for people injured in a transport accident regardless of who caused it, which is broader than the at-fault schemes in most other states. It covers no vehicle damage at all. Comprehensive, third party fire and theft, or third party property is still your responsibility.
- Stamp duty on general insurance
- 10 per cent. The highest general insurance duty rate on the mainland, applied after GST and collected by the State Revenue Office. A $1,000 base premium becomes $1,100 with GST and $1,210 with duty.
- Emergency services funding
- Victoria does not put an emergency services levy on insurance premiums. Fire and emergency services are funded through a property-based levy collected on council rates, which replaced the old insurance-based levy after the 2009 Royal Commission. Your Wattle premium carries no 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 VICCover we write here
How we read VIC 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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Melbourne, inner and middle suburbs
Storm and wind dominate, with localised flash flooding in the older piped creek catchments. A large share of the book is landlord cover on established housing, where the fit-out and the loss of rent matter more than the structure.
Coburg 3058 · Footscray 3011 · Preston 3072 · Box Hill 3128
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The Dandenongs and the outer east
High BAL bands, difficult access, and mature trees within falling distance of almost everything. Crown-thinning and a genuine five metre non-combustible zone move the premium more here than any other action, and both are achievable without a builder.
Warburton 3799 · Olinda 3788 · Belgrave 3160 · Healesville 3777
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Northern Victoria and the Goulburn valley
Irrigated agriculture, riverine flood on a slow rise, and a farm pack profile built around machinery, fodder and fencing rather than around cyclone. Raised switchboards are the highest-value single action in the flood towns.
Rochester 3561 · Shepparton 3630 · Echuca 3564 · Kyabram 3620
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The west, Gippsland and the regional centres
Reactive soils through the west, campaign fire exposure through Gippsland, and a housing stock old enough that code uplift is a serious component of any rebuild figure. Check your sum insured against a current builder rate rather than an indexed one.
Ballarat East 3350 · Traralgon 3844 · Bendigo 3550 · Warrnambool 3280
Victoria questions
Do I choose my CTP insurer in Victoria?
No. Victoria runs a single no-fault scheme through the Transport Accident Commission, so there is nothing to shop for and no separate certificate to keep. The TAC charge comes with your VicRoads registration and the amount depends on the vehicle and the risk zone it is garaged in. This is quite different from New South Wales, where you buy a Green Slip separately from a choice of approved insurers.
Why is my Victorian premium higher than the same house interstate?
Usually stamp duty. Victoria charges 10 per cent on general insurance, applied after GST, which is the highest rate on the mainland. On the other hand, Victoria does not put an emergency services levy on insurance premiums the way New South Wales does, funding those services through a property levy on council rates instead. Comparing across borders means comparing base premium to base premium rather than total to total, and our quote screen itemises all three components so you can.
Is Black Saturday still affecting how you price bushfire here?
Indirectly, yes, and mostly for good reasons. The 2009 Royal Commission changed Victorian building standards, planning controls and the way BAL is applied in bushfire-prone areas, and it moved emergency services funding off insurance premiums and onto council rates. What we price today is the current BAL band, the vegetation and the slope at your address, plus the mitigation you have actually done. Older housing built before those standards prices worse, which is exactly what the resilience programme is designed to change.
My brickwork has cracked after a dry summer. Is that covered?
It depends entirely on whether the movement was sudden or gradual, and on reactive clay in Melbourne growth corridors it is usually gradual. No Australian home policy covers gradual ground movement, subsidence or the slow settlement of footings, because general insurance responds to sudden and accidental events. Sudden movement, for instance from a burst water main under the slab, can be covered. If in doubt, lodge it and let an assessor look, and either way get a soil report before you spend money on underpinning.
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 VIC 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.