As climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters resilience is becoming more and more important. While the need for an intergovernmental approach to adapt to climate change impacts and achieve disaster resilience is widely acknowledged, higher levels of government often delegate the responsibility to local governments without much guidance or support. This paper examines local level barriers to climate change adaptation policies and resilience practice in Queensland, Australia through policy review and a survey of Queensland local governments on how they coordinate their planning activities at different levels. Specifically, the survey asks the respondents the severity of the risks natural disasters and climate change pose to their local governments, the actions they are undertaking to deal with them, the barriers they encounter as well as the mechanisms they use for intergovernmental coordination. The results will help identify the weaknesses of the current planning system in responding to the challenges of disaster resilience and climate change adaptation and the opportunities for improving the ways we plan and coordinate planning to improve resilience in advance of disasters so as to help speed up recovery when they occur.