| Post: | Ambassador of Australia to Iraq |
| Insignia: | Coat of Arms of Australia.svg |
| Insigniasize: | 120px |
| Department: | Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade |
| Reports To: | Minister for Foreign Affairs |
| Incumbent: | Paula Ganly |
| Incumbentsince: | 16 December 2020 |
| Residence: | Baghdad |
| Nominator: | Prime Minister of Australia |
| Style: | His/Her Excellency |
| Appointer: | Governor General of Australia |
| Inaugural: | Pierre Hutton (resident in Beirut) |
| Website: | Australian Embassy, Iraq |
The ambassador of Australia to Iraq is an officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of the Embassy of the Commonwealth of Australia to the Republic of Iraq in Baghdad. The position has the rank and status of an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and is currently held by Paula Ganly since December 2020.
Iraq and Australia have enjoyed official diplomatic relations since the Australian government of Gough Whitlam recognised the Iraqi Republic in 1973. Contacts between Australia and Iraq however were much earlier, dating back to British Mandatory Iraq and the British Protectorate Kingdom of Iraq from 1935.[1]
On 2 December 1973, Foreign Minister Don Willesee announced that Iraq and Australia would establish diplomatic relations with the Australian Ambassador in Beirut to be accredited to Iraq.[2] A resident Ambassador was not appointed until 1976, with Neil Truscott becoming the first resident Ambassador in early 1977.[3] With the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait starting the First Gulf War in August 1990, relations between the two countries became severely strained and diplomatic relations were severed in January 1991 with the withdrawal of Ambassador Peter Lloyd immediately prior to Operation Desert Storm.[4] Relations remained severed until the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of the Australian Mission in Baghdad on 3 May 2003, immediately following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This was upgraded to an embassy 29 June 2004 following the transfer of sovereign authority to the Iraqi Interim Government.
| Ordinal | Officeholder | Title | Residency | Term start date | Term end date | Time in office | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambassador of Australia to Iraq | Beirut, Lebanon | 1974 | 1975 | years | ||||
| 1975 | years | |||||||
| n/a | J. M. Starey | Chargé d'affaires | Baghdad | October 1976 | 1977 | align=right | years | |
| Ambassador of Australia to Iraq | 1977 | 1979 | align=right | years | [5] | |||
| J. M. Starey | 1979 | 1981 | align=right | years | ||||
| A. L. Vincent | 1981 | 1983 | align=right | years | ||||
| Miles Kupa | 1983 | 1986 | align=right | years | ||||
| 1986 | 1989 | align=right | years | |||||
| Peter Lloyd | 1989 | January 1991 | align=right | years | ||||
| Relations suspended | ||||||||
| Neil Mules | Head of Mission | Baghdad | [6] [7] | |||||
| Ambassador of Australia to Iraq | ||||||||
| Howard Brown | October 2004 | August 2006 | [8] | |||||
| August 2006 | August 2008 | [9] | ||||||
| Robert Tyson | August 2008 | August 2011 | [10] | |||||
| Lyndall Sachs | August 2011 | [11] [12] | ||||||
| Christopher Langman | align=right | [13] [14] | ||||||
| align=right | [15] | |||||||
| Paula Ganly | incumbent | [16] |