Day and Hutchings (1979) record 9 opheliid species in 5 genera from Australian waters. A further 2 species of Ophelia and 2 species in a sixth genus, Lobochesis, have since been added to the Australian fauna by Hutchings & Murray (1984). The interactive key documents 19 Australian species in 7 genera, based in particular on southeastern Australian material from subtidal sediments in inshore bays (Port Phillip, Western Port, and Jervis Bays) and the continental shelf of eastern Bass Strait. Also included are a number of species collected from intertidal mud flats in Port Hedland, northwestern Western Australia.

A major unresolved problem with the taxonomy of Australian Opheliidae is the number of "cosmopolitan species" requiring reassessment. Such taxa as Armandia intermedia, Polyophthalmus pictus and Travisia forbesi (all with type localities in the Northern Hemisphere) have been reported from Australia and other localities around the world. In the absence of rigorous taxonomic review of these taxa, cosmopolitan species names are not used here and Australian species are instead identified with code numbers. In the genera Armandia and Travisia several Australian species are recognised here, and it is likely that earlier records of Armandia intermedia and Travisia forbesihave confused several species. Global revisions are required for at least some of these taxa before names can be given to Australian material.