Sea no Evil, Hear no Evil – Community Engagement on Adaptation to Sea Level Change H Stevens 1 , Neil Dufty 2 , Stuart Waters 3 , Greg Giles 1 1 Lake Macquarie City Council, Lake Macquarie, NSW 2 Molino Stewart Pty Ltd, Parramatta, NSW 3 Tywfords Pty Ltd, Wollongong, NSW. A change in mean sea levels will require new ways to estimate flood risk, and ways to mitigate this risk. This paper looks at the process of developing Adaptation Plans, which are suburb specific studies on the risks and options for potential sea level rise, and the key component of successful adaptation planning, community engagement. Many coastal decision makers are actively assessing options to manage coastal flood risk that incorporates rising sea levels. These adaptation options are broadly grouped into three categories - protect, accommodate or retreat and each option has its costs and benefits. The mix of options chosen largely depends on the attitudes and perspectives of the community at risk - without their support, decisions within a democratic political system are unlikely to be successful. This paper reports the findings of a large survey and series of workshops of ‘at risk’ residents within Lake Macquarie Local Government Area. The survey helped gauge their preferences for management options and decision-making considerations. Following on from this survey is the current work on community engagement as part of developing Adaptation Plans. This engagement is using an innovative collaborative approach to engaging the community on sea level rise and adaptation that focuses on building the capacity of Council and the community to work together to find a solution that sticks. The usefulness of this research is to increase understanding on the key concerns of community to coastal adaptation, and more effective collaborative engagement on a topic that is often controversial. As a result, this work aims to develop management strategies that are more appealing to those at risk and the wider community.