It seems Charles Sturt, Thomas Mitchell and other early European explorers tramping the scorching deserts of Australia in search of an inland sea were a few thousand years too early.

According to maps published by National Geographic, Australia will one day get an inland sea if global warming continues and melts the world’s ice caps and glaciers, lifting sea levels by about 70 metres.

The US-based organisation said it would take about 5000 years for all the ice to melt, although impacts will hit coastal communities much sooner – and having an inland sea won’t be much consolation to Australians.

Neville Nicholls, a climate expert at Monash University whose work has included research on Australia’s shrinking snow season, said scientists have known for decades the upper end of sea-level rises from melting the cryosphere would be about 70 metres.