The Terebellidae is divided into 3 subfamilies: Polycirrinae, Thelepodinae and Terebellinae. All are well represented in Australia, and most genera occur in Australia. The Polycirrinae are represented in Australia by 5 genera and 27 species, the Thelepodinae by 11 genera and 22 species, and the Terebellinae by 25 genera and 51 species. It is difficult to compare this high diversity with similar areas elsewhere as comparable data do not exist. Virtually all of the records of the Terebellidae in the checklist of Day & Hutchings (1979) were found to be misidentifications (Hutchings & Glasby, 1995) of undescribed endemic Australian species. However, additional undescribed species certainly occur in deeper waters off the coast, although even this material should still be identifiable to genus.

The Australian terebellid fauna is well known as a result of a large body of taxonomic work by Hutchings, and Hutchings & Glasby (see references). The Australian terebellids exhibit a variety of distribution patterns: from species present throughout Australia such as Nicolea amnis, to species with very restricted distributions such as Terebella maculata. Currently only 2 species, Hauchiella tribullata and Amaeana trilobata are still credited with cosmopolitan distributions after critical revision (Hutchings & Glasby, 1991). Virtually all of the records of the Terebellidae in the checklist of Day & Hutchings (1979) were found to be misidentifications (Hutchings & Glasby, 1995) of undescribed endemic Australian species.