Males are noticeably larger than females. Their heads, backs, bellies, and tails are blackish with green metallic highlights. There is a narrow white neck band separating the black head from the brown breast. The female's breast feathers are a rich chestnut, the male's are a paler cinnamon. The colorful wings have black primaries, metallic green secondaries, chestnut tertials, and white upper and under wing coverts.
Females have rings of white feathers around the eye and the base of the bill.
Juvenile birds are duller overall in coloration with some white or grey tips on body feathers. Both sexes produce a strange assortment of goose-like honks, grunts, and whistles. The female's vocalizations are higher in pitch. The Australian Shelduck is restricted to two widely separated eastern and western populations in Australia. The larger eastern population is centered in the province of Victoria, extending north into New South Wales and south onto the island of Tasmania.