Australia's favourite beaches are at risk of disappearing into the sea as global warming drives sea levels ever higher, prompting a betting agency to start offering odds on which strips are likely to vanish first.
Palm Cove in far north Queensland is 4-to-1 favourite to be the first to go, with Noosa and Byron Bay beach not far behind with odds at $7.50, according to online bookmaker Sportsbet.
Surfer's Paradise is also high on the list of beaches most likely to disappear, with odds at $11, while other surfing spots at Manly and Bondi in Sydney and Bells Beach on the Victorian coast are attracting odds at $21. 
Melbourne's bayside beaches at Brighton and St Kilda round out the list at $26 and $34, respectively.
"We'll keep the market open and running but hopefully it'll never happen," Will Byrne, a spokesman for Sportsbet said.
Mr Byrne said the company decided to start taking bets on beaches after US space agency NASA recently released data showing sea levels were rising faster than previously reported because of global warming.
"We want to highlight [sea level rise] as a major issue for us," Mr Byrne said. "It's coming quicker than we thought."
OMG project
According to NASA, seas are rising at a rate of 3.2 millimetres a year, according to its OMG project - Oceans Melting Greenland - which tracks how fast major ice sheets are melting.
John Church, a CSIRO researcher and a globally recognised expert on sea-level change, said Australia faced major challenges from climate change particularly as more of the population gravitates to the coast.
"Sea-level rise is a critically important issue that will impact on beaches around the world, especially sandy beaches," Dr Church said. 
Individuals, communities and councils all needed to take account of the risks even if the rise would likely be a gradual one, he said.
Sea levels will be about one metre higher by the end of the century, according to the higher end of current projections, after rising about 20 centimetres in the past 130 years. The increase is caused in part by melting glaciers and ice sheets but also the thermal expansion of the oceans and temperatures rise.
The melting of Greenland's ice sheet alone could lift global sea levels by seven metres over centuries, Dr Church said, adding that the threshold of irreversible melting for the sheet could be crossed this century without urgent efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Byrne said the odds for Australian beaches were based on the latest research and took into account the potential impact of cyclones or other storms combining with rising sea levels. Tropical regions were considered more at risk.
The company routinely takes bets on more mundane weather events such as rain. It also collects bets on events such as astroid hits and alien invasions.
"These are how the world ends - but we can never pay them out," he said.
Beached out
Sportsbet's odds on the first beach to disappear:
$4.00     Palm Cove (QLD)
$5.00     Whitehaven (QLD)
$6.00     Mindil Beach (NT)
$7.50     Noosa (QLD)
$7.50     Byron Bay Beach (NSW)
$11        Surfer's Paradise (QLD)
$11        Burleigh Heads (QLD)
$16        Wineglass Bay (TAS)
$16        Glenelg (SA)
$17        Scarborough Beach (WA)
$19        Palm Beach (NSW)
$21        Manly (NSW)
$21        Bondi (NSW)
$21        Bells Beach (VIC)
$26        Brighton Beach (VIC)
$34        St Kilda (VIC)