Abstract
The phonologies of Australia can now be investigated with new tools for large-scale phonological typology. Here we draw on an empirical dataset covering the reported phonemic inventories of nearly four hundred Australian language varieties. Variation is observed in terms of major genealogical groupings of languages, comparing the variation among them and within them. Five topics are selected based on their importance to our understanding of continental phonological diversity in Australia, and their potential to shed new light within the space available. They are: the main parameters of variation in Australian segment inventories; less frequent, additional consonant types; infrequent absences from consonant inventories; diversity among systems with two series of stops; vowel systems.