Integrated assessments of climate change vulnerability have become popular over the past decade. However, most are localised in scale, and few take a systematic approach to the incorporation of socio-economic characteristics and trends. The authors explore the concept of socio-economic vulnerability in various agricultural sectors within seven natural resource management regions on the east coast of Australia. The authors propose an approach that accepts resource dependency as a proxy for sensitivity and consists of multiple lines of evidence to develop commentaries to assist natural resource planners and managers when responding to climate change threats. Specifically, the authors suggest five socio-economic data sets (ie. % of labour force employed in agriculture; socio-economic disadvantage; economic diversity; remoteness; and age), which are being used to indicate sub-regional areas that may be more vulnerable to climate change impacts. The project is part of a larger initiative (East Coast Cluster) consisting of six research partners (the University of Queensland, the University of the Sunshine Coast, Griffith University, the CSIRO, the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, and the Queensland Herbarium) funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Resource Management Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Grants Program.