Metrical structure in simplex word forms shows little variation across the continent. Nearly all languages have a primary stress aligned with the left edge of the word or the root. Most departures from this pattern involve the standard factor of non-initial long vowels; initial onsetless syllables can also affect the location of stress. However, there is one factor that is not attested elsewhere: heterorganicity versus homorganicity of codas. Australian languages also typically evince a characteristic pattern whereby morphemes that are polysyllabic behave as prosodic domains and attract initial metrical prominence, regardless of distance from the edge of the word. Such patterns have proven problematic to model in most approaches to the morphology–phonology interface. We also discuss the evidence for stress from instrumental studies and phonological patterns, the evidence for stress as opposed to metrical feet, and the proposed analyses in terms of intonational phrasing as opposed to lexical prominence.