Under the beating West Midlands sun, Holly Hunt and Tess Howard fired the hosts into a 2-0 lead within four minutes of each other in the second quarter at the University of Birmingham Hockey and Squash Centre.

Hunt's opener sparked jubilant scenes among the near-capacity crowd of 6,000 as she took advantage of a rare lapse in concentration from the Australian defence.

She received the ball in acres of space and executed a shot you would likely see on the golf course to drive it beyond the reach of Aleisha Power.

Shortly after Hunt's third international goal, Howard deflected in a cross-goal drive from Flora Peel to double the score.

With 20 seconds remaining, Ambrosia Malone found a consolation goal for the four-time champions but it did not put a dampener on the celebrations for the home crowd once the time ticked down.

"Bit lost for words," said England captain Hollie Pearne-Webb.

"It's the first time in history we've ever done this.

"I feel so lucky that it's in my career that we get a home Commonwealth Games.

"Pure relief and exhilaration.

"It was a bit of an up and down game.

"We played well first half, kind of stepped off a little bit the second half, absorbed a bit of pressure but we got there in the end."

The win marked the first time that England had beaten the Hockeyroos in eight games, a run stretching back to 2013.

England had lost in the finals of the Kuala Lumpur 1998, Manchester 2002 and Glasgow 2014 tournaments with the first and last of those defeats both coming to Australia while India won 20 years ago.