With over half a million people, the Gold Coast is currently the sixth largest city in Australia and one of the most rapidly developing urban areas in the country. Unfortunately, it is also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and has been hard hit by storms, flooding, heatwaves, and droughts in recent years. These kinds of impacts were forecast by both national and international risk assessments. Policies and plans designed to improve resilience through an ordered process of climate change adaptation are much needed, but recent political history has seen major inconsistencies and reversals at all three levels of government. These have corresponded to changes of government at national, state and local elections. This paper analyses the roller-coaster that constitutes the governance of climate change adaptation at the city and regional level for the Gold Coast. In so doing it covers the relevant changes in national policies as well as shifts in state, regional, and local planning.