For the time being, the state of New South Wales has experienced no significant property losses despite firefighters battling 140 bushfires, says the ICA.

Spokesman Campbell Fuller says insurers expect more claims this week as policyholders return to their homes.

Insurers are proactively contacting policyholders and the assessment of damage has started in some areas deemed safe, but “many areas remain under threat,” says Fuller.

Fuller says Tuesday's bushfire risk was one of the highest since 2009's Black Saturday, which caused more than AU$1 billion in insured losses. Thousands of homes were destroyed, more than 170 people died and 500 were injured.

Catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide says the fires were worsened by windy, dry and hot conditions. Record-setting temperatures have soared above 100 degrees.

Tomas Girnius, senior scientist at AIR, says “The most destructive of the multiple bushfires to ravage Tasmania over the last several days devastated the township of Dunalley on the Tasman Peninsula. In Dunalley, about 30 percent of the buildings were destroyed. Other villages near Dunalley also lost between 30 percent and 40 percent of residences to the fires. Bushfires burned 40 percent of structures in the community of Connellys Marsh, and several homes in the Murdunna region north of Port Arthur were also destroyed.”