Windstorms cause most of the damage to housing in Australia. Population growth is exposing more people and buildings to risks from these wind hazards. Houses and components are currently designed and built to standards aligned with the Building Code of Australia. Regulatory measures including building inspections are meant to ensure acceptable quality of construction. Inspections and post windstorm damage surveys have consistently shown that contemporary houses (post 1980) perform better than older houses (pre 1980) in cyclone and non cyclone areas. However, errors in design and construction found during recent surveys, reduce the resilience of contemporary housing. Geoscience Australia is developing a software tool for assessing the vulnerability of housing, using empirical models, expert opinion, and engineering methods. These models could be used to assess vulnerability of a range of house types and also recommend adaptation measure to account for increases in the intensity of windstorms in Australia.

The extensive electricity transmission network of Queensland is managed by Powerlink and has a significant exposure to both thunderstorms and tropical cyclones. In coastal North Queensland tropical cyclones (TC) dominate the severe wind hazard environment whereas in South East Queensland both storm types contribute significantly. Some parts of Powerlink’s network have high concentrations of older tower assets such as in the Gladstone region which supply electricity for the smelting and refining of aluminium. Other parts provide vital transmission links with limited redundancy between regions of generation in the south to large communities to the north, such as in far-North Queensland. These assets have been developed over many years, to design standards that have progressively changed, and some have been exposed to corrosive environments that are characteristic of the warm and humid coastal tropics. As a consequence of these factors, some assets within the system are particularly vulnerable to severe wind.