Social resilience concepts have potential application in supporting climate adaption across the tropics. Adaptation planning approaches, however, have often not been guided by clear social resilience concepts and indicators. This research aims to field trial an emergent framework for understanding and applying social resilience at the regional scale. We piloted the framework's application in partnership with state and local governments and key community sectors in four subregions of Tropical North Queensland (TNQ); an Australian region facing climate risks typical of the wider tropical world. As a pilot, the TNQ region has pan-tropical relevance as its subregional communities exhibit resilience characteristics typical across tropical countries. Specific attributes, indicators and an index for social resilience were co-developed with subregional communities and this informed the emergence of consequent strategies to improve resilience across the wider TNQ region. The approach's potential application in other vulnerable regions across the tropical world was then considered.