The position has the rank and status of an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and formerly held non-resident accreditation for Switzerland (1993–2022) and Liechtenstein (1999–2022), until the establishment of a resident Australian Embassy in Berne on 22 November 2022.

[2] This situation continued, including also holding office as Consul-General in the city from 16 January 1972, until the post was scaled down on 15 September 1976 and the Berlin mission was closed on 30 April 1987.

[8][9] In 1986 the Trade Commission moved its operations from the embassy in Bonn to a new office and consulate-general in the city of Frankfurt am Main, the German financial capital.

[12] On 22 December 1972, Australia and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) formally established diplomatic relations, coming at a time of a more pragmatic Australian foreign policy under the direction of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Foreign Minister Don Willesee, with Whitlam noting: "Apart from facilitating trade in both directions, Australian recognition of East Germany would, when agreement is reached, make people in Europe more aware that there is a new government in Australia which is not concentrating on South-East Asia and the Pacific to the exclusion of our highly important relations with Europe.

[14] In September 1974, however, it was announced by foreign minister Willesee that an Australian Embassy would be established in East Germany, which was achieved in March 1975, with the first resident ambassador, Malcolm Morris, presenting his credentials on 10 December 1975.

[15][16][17] Budget cuts to the Department of Foreign Affairs by the government of Bob Hawke prompted the closure of the GDR Embassy on 19 December 1986, with non-resident accreditation returning to the Ambassador resident in Warsaw until the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, when a Consulate-General was opened in the unified city of Berlin.