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 three hundred thousand lexical entries from over two hundred and fifty language varieties, which enables us to understand continent-level phonological variation in significantly more detail than previously. Variation is observed in terms of major genealogical groupings of languages, comparing the variation among them and within them. Three 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 principle characteristics and parameters of variation in consonant phonotactics; vowel phonotactics, specifically statistical harmony between vowels in adjacent syllables; and issues of analysis at the intersection of segment inventories and phonotactics, namely contour segments such as prestopped nasals.