He told the ABC: “Anyone who’s thinking that we may be able to adapt to this, I beg you to think again because the scale at which you’d have to build sea walls or any of these coastal defence barriers is so massive as to beggar belief.”

Despite having already lost two houses at Old Bar to the disappearing coast, and the homeowners’ plight being mentioned in Federal parliament, the Greater Taree area is only briefly singled out for individual attention in the new report.

More emphasis is placed on the larger population centres with Lake Macquarie, Wyong, Gosford, Wollongong, Shoalhaven and Gosford named as the greatest at risk in New South Wales, collectively representing more than 50 per cent of residential buildings at risk in the State.

In Lake Macquarie’s case, between 5100 and 6800 buildings may be affected by sea level rise and storm tide inundation by 2100, with the upper range representing around 10 per cent of its current residential buildings.

The new report shows Great Lakes at most risk in NSW after the six mentioned above, followed by Rockdale (bordering Botany Bay) and Shellharbour.

A substantial 18 to 20 per cent of Great Lakes’ existing buildings could potentially be affected by 2100 (under upper range estimates).

Greater Taree was 14th most critical local government area in NSW - just after the Tweed - while Port Macquarie-Hastings was at the lowest end of the ‘most affected’ table with several hundred houses in the danger zone.

The report singles out Old Bar as being a ‘hot spot’ area likely to emerge over time.

“During 2009, Old Bar, near Taree, has experienced erosion of beach front properties leading to appeals for government assistance,” it says.

It details other NSW areas including Manly where the pier inside Sydney Harbour was destroyed in storms in 1974, and Collaroy Beach in Sydney’s northern suburbs where “inappropriate coastal development over the last 100 years” has resulted in an ongoing history of erosion and property damage.

“Many affected properties in the area are now fronted by sea walls with the council also buying back at-risk properties,” it says.

While it takes into account not only sea level rise but also storm tide allowances (1 in 100 year events), the report warns that storm tide estimates for NSW are likely to be under-estimates as they do not include a wave setup component.

It also does not take into account existing coastal protection such as seawalls, or riverine flooding associated with intense rainfall events, as experienced several times this year along the Mid and North Coast of NSW.

The report is expected to be refined in the future, when more detailed analysis may change the relative order of local government areas and the magnitude and timing of projected impacts.

What it does provide for the present, however, is a wake-up call to councils like Greater Taree and Great Lakes that they must declare climate change and sea level rise as a priority issue.

Other coastal councils, such as the Sydney Coastal Councils Group, Wyong, Gosford and Lake Macquarie, have taken the matter very seriously, realising that to wait for a finite answer will be too late.