Climate change adaptation planning often prioritises technical solutions and physical risks, but community responses are also shaped by how people understand and relate to place. This paper examines how common “delay” narratives—such as viewing change as part of natural cycles—are reinforced by local place meanings in Great Barrier Reef communities. Drawing on small-group deliberations with 42 residents across six coastal communities (2024–2025), we identify four recurring patterns of delay discourse and show how they are embedded in everyday experiences, identities, and attachments to place. These dynamics can reduce the perceived urgency of adaptation, even where environmental change is already occurring.
We also find that structured deliberation can prompt reflection and challenge these narratives, particularly when participants draw on direct or professional experience of change. For managers, this suggests that adaptation planning will be more effective if it actively engages with local place meanings and directly addresses common delay narratives, using participatory approaches that connect evidence to people’s lived experience, and provide opportunities for genuine dialogue, reflection and re-prioritising.