This study, one of six case studies to support a 'First Pass" National Climate Change Coastal Vulnerability Assessment (NCVA, Federal Department of Climate Change), examines sea level rise and associated flood vulnerabilities for the local government areas of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Wyong in New South Wales. Sea level rise predictions were drawn from the maximum "A1F1" scenarios for 2030 and 2070, produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The brief, 5 month, study undertook biophysical and social-ecological modelling of both the present landscape and three projected future landscapes for the study area; investigated a wide range of social characteristics drawn from the 2006 Census; surveyed the attitudes of the local population to assist in the social analysis; and analysed some key underlying concepts, such as the costs and benefits of adaptation to climate change. These activities constituted a three-pronged approach to consideration of vulnerability: ecological, through predicting landscape change and its resulting biophysical consequences; economic, through examining impacts on built capital and its need for adaptation; and social, as measured in characteristics of the local community that indicate community sensitivity to change and adaptive capacity. A focus of the study was to trial an approach for spatial representation of 'layered' 3-D vulnerability surfaces as a means for policy makers to rapidly appraise 'places' where multiple vulnerabilities (social, economic, environmental) might 'stack up' and thereby require closer examination and adaptive strategies towards increased resilience.