Climate change is adversely affecting the health of Australians which is consistently finding itself unprepared for its consequences. Worldwide, there is growing interest in adaptation within health disciplines, yet substantial adaptation gaps exist and may widen as climate change increases. This paper focuses my PhD titled ‘Building Climate Change Adaptive Capacity into the Environmental Health Profession in Australia’. The project is examining preventative public health in moving away from medical models and the shortfalls adopting traditional linear approaches to address complex climatic-related health risks. Integrating adaptation with a preventative disaster risk reduction approach, could be an opportunity for this profession.