Hunter suburbs at risk of rising sea levels

BY JARROD MELMETH and JESSICA ROUSE

Newcastle has been featured as a high risk zone on a new map by Coastal Risk Australia, showing sea level rise patterns over the next 100 years.

The new map incorporates research from the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and shows if the sea level rises by just 2.7 metres by 2100 many of the Hunter's coastal towns will be under water including much of Carrington.

The worst case scenario for 2100 in previous maps now looks to be three times worse.

The interactive map also shows that along with Carrington, Wickham, Koorangang, Fletcher, Shortland and Hexham are among the worst effected by rising sea levels.

Greens MP Justin Field says, the new data must be taken seriously by the NSW Government.

"We've got a budget coming out next month from the Berejiklian government and we need more money put towards climate mitigation. We need a phase out strategy for coal and I know that is sometimes a difficult conversation to have in the Hunter community and unless we want to see the communities under water in the next fifty to one hundred years. We need to take that seriously."

The rising sea levels are set to completely change the landscape of coastal communities, and in places like Carrington there's billions of dollars of public and private infrastructure at risk.

Not only that, MP Justin Field says the housing market will also be affected as the weather patterns change.

"This is already happening, we saw last year major storm events impact the coastline and saw houses washed into the ocean. I know that property prices are still high along the coastline but I think insurance companies are starting to look at this data and ask whether or not these properties are insurable and when you see those questions asked you'll see those prices start to fall," said Justin Field.