The following lists the top 25 (end of year) charting albums on the Australian Album Charts, for the year of 1986. These were the best charting albums in Australia for 1986. 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. | Whitney Houston | 1 | 11 | ||
| 2. | Brothers in Arms | 1 | 34 (pkd #1 in 1985 & 86) | ||
| 3. | For the Working Class Man | 1 | 7 | ||
| 4. | Scarecrow | 2 | |||
| 5. | Revenge | 2 | |||
| 6. | Rock a Little | 5 | |||
| 7. | The Dream of the Blue Turtles | 1 | 3 | ||
| 8. | Invisible Touch | 3 | |||
| 9. | Kev's Back | 8 | |||
| 10. | True Blue | 1 | 2 | ||
| 11. | The Bridge | 2 | |||
| 12. | Cocker | 9 | |||
| 13. | The Cars Greatest Hits | 3 | |||
| 14. | Listen Like Thieves | 1 | 2 (pkd #1 in 1985) | ||
| 15. | Fine Young Cannibals | 2 | |||
| 16. | Picture Book | 6 | |||
| 17. | Little Creatures | 2 | |||
| 18. | Promise | 9 | |||
| 19. | Top Gun | Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | 3 | ||
| 20. | Feargal Sharkey | 7 | |||
| 21. | 5150 | 5 | |||
| 22. | Graceland | 1 | 5 (pkd #1 in 1986 & 87) | ||
| 23. | Dirty Work | 2 | |||
| 24. | Dancing on the Ceiling | 2 | |||
| 25. | True Colours | 1 | 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.