The experience of applying planned retreat policies in communities facing inundation threat from rising sea levels has proved problematic in Australia with Byron Bay a well-known example. We developed a tool for local government to evaluate the cost of different policy approaches, namely retreat, defend or accommodate. Over 2013-204 we tested this tool in four coastal settlements in South Australia in partnership with the relevant local council. The work involved digital flood modelling, site survey, archival research and community engagement. What we learned was unexpected. Even when it is clear that a community is under threat, protection is not necessarily the main concern of residents and retreat is the least popular option. Accommodation of flooding however, finds favour with both residents and council as it often proves to be the least cost solution. As a result we recommend councils invest time in developing policy which seeks to address public safety and emergency management and differentiate policy responses between new development within existing zoned communities and new sub divisions. We argue that planning policy can often accommodate the increasing threat of inundation in the medium term (up to 2050) and government should use this time to gradually shift liability concerns and land owner attitudes so that retreat will be an autonomous response in the latter part of the century. Furthermore, presenting dire warnings of catastrophic sea level rise in 2100 is counterproductive. Careful handling of time factors may be the key to successful adaptation to rising sea levels in many cases.