Australians are being urged to sit up and take notice of a Pacific nation on its doorstep that is literally sinking.
Tiny Tuvalu, made up of nine low-lying reef islands and coral atolls and located 1,050 kilometres north of Fiji, is the nation hardest hit by rising tides and climate change.
At an exhibition launched at Melbourne's Immigration Museum on Monday, environment expert Rob Gell told AAP it's virtually a "foregone conclusion" Tuvalu will be uninhabitable within the next 50 years.
The exhibition explores the impact of climate change on Tuvalu and its people.
Gell, a geographer and president of Greening Australia, said the exhibition was a "start" in the education of Australians about the plight of the people of Tuvalu.
"It must be a dreadful situation to be in, where the history of your forefathers stands to be lost," Gell said.
The population of Tuvalu is just 12,000, with 3,000 living in New Zealand.
It is the smallest nation in the world after Monaco, the Vatican, and neighbouring Nauru. King tides, hurricane winds and rain, and high seas are becoming increasingly frequent in Tuvalu.
Tuvaluan Tito Tapungao, who has lived in Australia for 32 years, said the country's economy, culture and environment are all suffering.
"At the moment, there's a lot of erosion. I lived there, I grew up there, and I know ... there is a lot of erosion on both sides.
The islands are getting narrower," he said.
"To me, we did nothing, our life is very simple and this has just happened to us. It's frightening and what can we do?"
Gell and Tapungao urged the Australian government to do more to help Tuvaluans, including increasing aid and taking on more "environmental refugees".
