Victorian Earthquake

Crawford is closely monitoring the impact of Wednesday's earthquake in Victoria and our teams are ready to respond. Our thoughts are centred around the well-being of those people who live and operate businesses in the affected areas. Visit our services page to learn more about our claims adjusting offerings.

See below for the most recent updates.

Additional Contacts

Mark Mellor
National Catastrophe Manager & Head of Business Services - Queensland
M: +61 437 070 629
T: +61 7 3230 4400
E: mark.mellor@crawco.com.au

Craig McLeod
Head of Specialty
M: +61 419 738 409
T: +61 2 8218 9544
E: craig.mcleod@crawco.com.au

Scott Shepherd
Head of Property
M: +61 2 8202 7456
E: scott.shepherd@crawco.com.au

Tim Jarman
President, Asia-Pacific
M: +61 429 138 857
T: +61 2 8022 7401
E: tim.jarman@crawco.com.au

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Updates

Sep 23, 2021

On Wednesday 22 September 2021, Victoria experienced its most intense earthquake since European settlement measuring 5.9M on the Richter scale. It was centred on a remote and lightly populated area of the Great Dividing Range 130km ENE of Melbourne. The closest towns are Mansfield, Heyfield, and Maffra, together with the ski resort at Mount Buller. Several aftershocks followed throughout the day. Whilst there were reports of the quake being felt in Adelaide, Hobart and Newcastle, the remote location and depth of the quake resulted in minimal physical damage to property.

At present, most of the claims reported relate to damage to residential property in Melbourne and the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, including several in New South Wales. Typical damage is surface cracking to internal walls however there have been some reports of more significant cracking to external structures and partial collapses.

We have enacted our Catastrophe Plan and are responding with a dedicated intelligent triage team talking to your customers and routing claims appropriately.

With five regional branches, each with the capacity to respond and a dedicated team of building consultants, engineers and quantity surveyors, we are well placed to assist clients and their customers in our purpose to restore and enhance lives, businesses and communities in the affected areas.

Crawford’s Contractor Connection team of dedicated restorers and builders are already attending to emergency make safes as required.

All employees are observing current COVID-19 related Government restrictions in order to respond quickly and in the safest possible manner. Where possible claims will be assessed virtually using Crawford’s suite of digital assessment tools.

The government shutdown of the construction industry may delay repair. To the extent that the period of interruption is extended by this, business interruption losses may be recoverable. It is therefore critical to secure a clear chronology of events and consider the losses stemming from each. Crawford Forensic Accounting Service specialists are available to assist Insurers and loss adjusters to deal with these challenges.