The Australian Pelican occurs in large expanses of Australia, Papua New Guinea and several Pacific Islands. Australian Pelicans have also been seen in the nearby country of New Zealand. The Australian Pelicans occurs primarily in large expanses of open water without dense aquatic vegetation.
There are a vast variety of habitats that can support the lives and wellbeing of Australian Pelicans with these including large lakes, reservoirs, billabongs and rivers, as well as estuaries, swamps, temporarily flooded areas in arid zones, drainage channels in farmland and coastal lagoons. Unlike many other animals the surrounding environment is unimportant which means that it can be forest, grassland, desert, estuarine mudflats, an ornamental city park, or industrial wasteland, provided only that there is open water able to support a sufficient supply of food. The Australian Pelican prefers to be in areas where the disturbance is relatively low whilst breeding so they therefore retreat to areas such as roost in mudflats, sandbars, beaches, reefs, jetties and piles.