This paper asks a straightforward question: how do community adaptation plans reflect the public’s concerns about vulnerability to climate change and its impacts? Literature on both climate vulnerability and a capabilities approach is used to frame different conceptions of climate-induced vulnerability. We then compare a discourse analysis of conceptions of vulnerability in local and regional media, stakeholder communications, and government literature with the text of actual climate change adaptation plans in Australia. The research reveals a disconnect between the discourses of community groups and the language of council adaptation plans; community groups express a particular concern for the vulnerability of basic capabilities, while councils adopt a language more focused on risk management. We argue that this disconnect is due, in part, to a lack of community engagement and participation in the development of adaptation plans, which has led to councils excluding the diversity and widely varying concerns of community groups in the development of adaptation policies.