The following lists the top 40 (end of decade) charting singles on the Australian Singles Charts, for the 1980s. These were the best charting singles in Australia for the 1980s. The source for this decade is the Kent Music Report, known from 1987 onwards as the Australian Music Report.
[1] These charts were calculated by David Kent of the Kent Music Report / Australian Music Report and they are based on the number of weeks and position the records reached within the top 100 singles for each week.
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the official Australian music chart in June 1988, succeeding the Kent Music Report, which had been Australia's national music sales charts since 1974.
"Don't Pay the Ferryman" is a song by Irish artist Chris de Burgh. It was released in September 1982 as the lead single from his album The Getaway.
"Move Closer" is a song by American singer-songwriter Phyllis Nelson that topped the UK Singles Chart in April 1985.
"He's Gonna Step on You Again" is a song originally performed by John Kongos, co-written by Kongos and Christos Demetriou, and first released in 1971 by Fly Records. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 May 1971 and spent 14 weeks there, peaking at No. 4. Covers of the song have been chart successes several times, including for Happy Mondays in 1990.