diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/41-fix-vault-addr.yml b/changelogs/fragments/41-fix-vault-addr.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..220342550
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/41-fix-vault-addr.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+bugfixes:
+  - hashi_vault - restore use of ``VAULT_ADDR`` environment variable as a low preference env var (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.hashi_vault/pull/61).
diff --git a/plugins/lookup/hashi_vault.py b/plugins/lookup/hashi_vault.py
index c852c8555..3dcbd3d0a 100644
--- a/plugins/lookup/hashi_vault.py
+++ b/plugins/lookup/hashi_vault.py
@@ -84,13 +84,13 @@
       description:
         - URL to the Vault service.
         - If not specified by any other means, the value of the C(VAULT_ADDR) environment variable will be used.
+        - If C(VAULT_ADDR) is also not defined then a default of C(http://127.0.0.1:8200) will be used.
       env:
         - name: ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_ADDR
           version_added: '0.2.0'
       ini:
         - section: lookup_hashi_vault
           key: url
-      default: 'http://127.0.0.1:8200'
     username:
       description: Authentication user name.
     password:
@@ -640,8 +640,19 @@ def process_options(self):
         # proxies (dict or str)
         self.process_option_proxies()
 
+        # apply additional defaults
+        self.apply_additional_defaults(url='http://127.0.0.1:8200')
+
     # begin options processing methods
 
+    # this is a temporary method
+    # https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.hashi_vault/pull/61
+    # low preference env vars will be updated to take defaults into account
+    def apply_additional_defaults(self, **kwargs):
+        for k, v in kwargs.items():
+            if self.get_option(k) is None:
+                self.set_option(k, v)
+
     def set_default_option_env(self, option, var):
         '''sets an option to the value of an env var if None'''
         if self.get_option(option) is None:
diff --git a/tests/unit/plugins/lookup/test_hashi_vault.py b/tests/unit/plugins/lookup/test_hashi_vault.py
index 1e2e3ed56..2e2ea8e76 100644
--- a/tests/unit/plugins/lookup/test_hashi_vault.py
+++ b/tests/unit/plugins/lookup/test_hashi_vault.py
@@ -5,18 +5,52 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
+import os
 import pytest
 
+from ansible.errors import AnsibleError
+
+from ansible.plugins.loader import lookup_loader
+
+from ansible.module_utils.six.moves.urllib.parse import urlparse
+
+from ansible_collections.community.hashi_vault.tests.unit.compat import mock
+
 from ansible_collections.community.hashi_vault.plugins.lookup.hashi_vault import LookupModule  # , HashiVault
 from ansible_collections.community.hashi_vault.plugins.lookup.__init__ import HashiVaultLookupBase
 
+from requests.exceptions import ConnectionError
+
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def hashi_vault_lookup_module():
-    return LookupModule()
+    return lookup_loader.get('community.hashi_vault.hashi_vault')
 
 
 class TestHashiVaultLookup(object):
 
     def test_is_hashi_vault_lookup_base(self, hashi_vault_lookup_module):
         assert issubclass(type(hashi_vault_lookup_module), HashiVaultLookupBase)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        'envpatch,expected',
+        [
+            ({}, 'http://127.0.0.1:8200'),
+            ({'VAULT_ADDR': 'http://vault:0'}, 'http://vault:0'),
+            ({'ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_ADDR': 'https://vaultalt'}, 'https://vaultalt'),
+            ({'VAULT_ADDR': 'https://vaultlow:8443', 'ANSIBLE_HASHI_VAULT_ADDR': 'http://vaulthigh:8200'}, 'http://vaulthigh:8200'),
+        ],
+    )
+    def test_vault_addr_low_pref(self, hashi_vault_lookup_module, envpatch, expected):
+        url = urlparse(expected)
+        host = url.hostname
+        port = url.port if url.port is not None else {'http': 80, 'https': 443}[url.scheme]
+
+        with mock.patch.dict(os.environ, envpatch):
+            with pytest.raises(ConnectionError) as e:
+                hashi_vault_lookup_module.run(['secret/fake'], token='fake')
+
+        s_err = str(e.value)
+
+        assert str(host) in s_err, "host '%s' not found in exception: %r" % (host, str(e.value))
+        assert str(port) in s_err, "port '%i' not found in exception: %r" % (port, str(e.value))