The following lists the top 25 (end of year) charting albums on the Australian Album Charts, for the year of 1981. These were the best charting albums in Australia for 1981. The source for this year is the Kent Music Report, known from 1987 onwards as the Australian Music Report.
| Title | Artist | Highest pos. reached | weeks at No. 1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Double Fantasy | 1 | 10 (pkd #1 in 1980 & 81) | ||
| 2. | Sirocco | 1 | 6 | ||
| 3. | Back in Black | 1 | 1 | ||
| 4. | Bad Habits | 1 | 2 | ||
| 5. | Making Movies | 6 | |||
| 6. | Icehouse | 4 | |||
| 7. | Face Value | 2 | |||
| 8. | Hotter Than July | 3 | |||
| 9. | Christopher Cross | 6 | |||
| 10. | Corroboree | 1 | 3 | ||
| 11. | Zenyatta Mondatta | 1 | 1 | ||
| 12. | Tattoo You | 1 | 11 | ||
| 13. | Greatest Hits | 1 | 4 | ||
| 14. | The Jazz Singer | 10 | |||
| 15. | Arc of a Diver | 5 | |||
| 16. | The Beatles Ballads | 1 | 7 | ||
| 17. | Bella Donna | 1 | 1 | ||
| 18. | Time | 3 | |||
| 19. | Stars on 45 Long Play Album | 1 | 2 | ||
| 20. | Devo Live (Mini LP) | 2 | |||
| 21. | Long Distance Voyager | 7 | |||
| 22. | Swingshift | 1 | 2 | ||
| 23. | Kings of the Wild Frontier | 2 | |||
| 24. | Chemistry | 3 | |||
| 25. | Vienna | 4 |
These charts are calculated by David Kent of the Kent Music Report and they are based on the number of weeks and position the records reach within the top 100 albums for each week.