This paper is an examination of the current status of the education of adults in Australia and of a new paradigm of Australian adult continuing education with an emphasis of an open learning institution. It thus makes no claim to reflect Australian adult continuing education in any comprehensive sense. Australia, like many countries, has the commitment to giving adult education high priority as a tool of achieving social, cultural, technological, and structural change, and of improving the prospects for future economic development. Australian adult and continuing education, since 1990s, has emphasized the principle of openness more strongly in order to achieve the above mentioned purposes and to response to the wide diversity of background and needs amongst those being trained and educated. The open learning is, thus, being raised as a new paradigm of adult and continuing education in Australia. This paper begins with a brief description of historical background of Australian adult and continuing education. This follows the examination of the current status of adult continuing education. This paper then proposes the open learning as a new paradigm of Australian adult education in terms of admission, and type and method of learning. Lastly, the implications of the new trend of Australian ACE for Korean adult and continuing education are also discussed.