Coastal freshwater floodplains are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As a socio-ecological system, this has ramifications for people utilising floodplain resources. Determining acceptable management strategies can be contentious. In considering adaptive management strategies to cope with future environmental change (e.g. salt water intrusion from sea level rise), examining responses to environmental change from the past and present can shed light on how stakeholders perceive environmental change, as well as their capacity to respond. The East Alligator River floodplains in the Northern Territory, provide a case study to examine this. Aboriginal land owners across this floodplain region retain a strong connection to floodplain country and the freshwater resources it provides. This research employed semi-directed interviews, on-country visits and biographic mapping of customary resource use activities to consider Indigenous responses to past and contemporary environmental changes, including invasive weeds, feral animals and to fire regimes. This research outlines the contemporary alternative narratives of ‘acceptable’ uses of floodplain country. These are managing floodplain country for customary resource use, for livelihoods derived from the cattle industry, for conservation and for tourism. The degrees to which these narratives compete or converge are discussed as are the effects of their respective management strategies on customary harvesting. This research presents a framework for understanding the influences on people’s perceptions of environmental change, and the drivers influencing their capacity to respond. This is the first step in considering future adaptive strategies, both in the floodplain country of the Northern Territory and in any vulnerable freshwater socio-ecological system.