Introduction: Rates of smoking among Aboriginal people are at least twice that of the general population. The NSW SmokeCheck Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tobacco Prevention Project aims to train Aboriginal Health Workers (AHW) and other health workers who work with Aboriginal communities around NSW to deliver a brief intervention for smoking cessation. Methods: AHWs and other health practitioners were recruited from sites across urban and regional NSW. Using a quasi-experimental design, sites were allocated to an intervention or waiting list control group based on project logistics. Intervention group participants attended a one-day workshop during which they received training in the SmokeCheck smoking cessation brief intervention. Control group participants received training 6 months from baseline. All participants completed individual baseline surveys that measured knowledge, confidence and behaviours regarding smoking cessation. Here we report on baseline findings. Results: A total of 250 participants were recruited from across NSW. Of this sample, 60.9% identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Over half were AHWs, and 79.6% all worked regularly with Aboriginal clients. Approximately 23% of the sample smoked daily, with AHWs smoking almost double the rate of non-Aboriginal health practitioners. Yet, 87% saw giving smoking cessation advice as part of their role and 23% had undertaken some form of smoking cessation training, while, Indigenous participants and AHWs indicated that they were less confident to provide this advice than non-Aboriginal practitioners. Conclusions: All health practitioners have a role to play in providing opportunistic smoking cessation advice to Aboriginal clients. However additional support is needed for programs that build the capacity of health practitioners to reduce the high smoking prevalence in Aboriginal communities. This is particularly so for AHW's who fulfil critical roles in front line service provision to Aboriginal communities.