Fishes are the largest and most diverse group of vertebrate animals, with an estimated 25,000 extant species (Nelson 1994), about equal to the number of all other vertebrates combined. In Australia, they are found in almost all aquatic habitats. The purpose of this work is to deliver an authoritative list of fish names and a brief summary of ecological, distributional and bibliographic information for use by other fish taxonomists, fishery personnel, government agencies, etc.