On top of cancellations, the bookings Ms Nimmo would expect in a typical summer are not being made. “Personally, we’ve tanked 250 grand so far," she said. Nicole McDonald, who runs Batemans Bay Accommodation, reported similar cancellation rates and said she had lost $40,000 of personal income. “They’re scared to come. They don’t want to have a morbid feeling of ‘oh, look at the burnt beach'.” But claiming the losses on insurance is difficult. “I suppose a business like mine is uninsurable against business interruption cover,” Ms McDonald said.

“There has to be physical loss of access to my premises. If my tiny little office burnt down, then sure. But I don’t own the properties I manage.” Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Ms McDonald's husband Brett, who is an insurance broker, confirmed that interruption insurance was unlikely to cover a property manager. "The people who have a right to claim on those properties are the owners," he said. "The only way that a business like Nicole's will be able to get there is if the landlords are able to make a claim under their landlord holiday policies."

Interruption insurance covers business owners if their normal work is disrupted, for example, if their premises are destroyed or inaccessible. Ms McDonald has so far been unable to claim insurance. In Eden, Ms Nimmo has similar problems. “[The insurer will cover] actual bookings that have cancelled. Nothing in the future. Nothing that would’ve come through in the last month if everything had been OK,” she said. “What we were trying to do is to get them to take an average of the last two years' income. They’re not doing that either.”

Australia's Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell said her organisation was concerned about businesses indirectly affected by the fires. Loading “If businesses have been burnt or are fire-damaged, the insurers are being very proactive and reasonable," Ms Carnell said. “For the 100,000 plus businesses that haven’t been burnt … the feedback we’re getting is that trying to claim business disruption insurance for those businesses has been problematic.” Insurers say managers are normally covered if a rental property they run has been directly hit by fire.

A spokesman for business insurer Vero said that if property managers had its business interruption policies “they would generally be covered for their lost income, being commission, if those third party properties they manage have been damaged by bushfires”. But claiming for bookings that might have been made had the fires not hit would be more difficult. Alliance Australia chief corporate affairs officer Nicholas Scofield said: “Insurance is designed to cover actual losses suffered. “We are not aware of any insurance product that covers for loss of the potential to let rental properties." Mr Scofield said managers could claim if their own office had been damaged.

Financial Legal Help NSW casework director Alexandra Kelly said getting adequate business cover could be tricky. “[Business insurance] is not covered by the general insurance code of practice. They can have nonstandard terms or terms that are different to what you’d get in a standard term policy. “Some policies, depending on how they’re worded, might not cover you. It can be quite bespoke to your business. “Or they may take a while to figure out you’ve suffered a loss. You end up in these absurd periods where you may have to wait a while to figure out if you have a claim.” Wingecarribee Shire mayor Duncan Gair on Sunday said the Highlands were open for business after the 21,200-hectare Morton blaze had burned towns including Bundanoon and Wingello two weeks ago.