The conservation status of the Australian dragonfly fauna was evaluated against the 1996 IUCN Red List categories. Each species was assigned to one of six categories as follows: one species as Critically Endangered, 12 species as Endangered, 24 species as Vulnerable, 39 species as Near Threatened, 84 species as Data Deficient and the remaining 154 species as Least Concern. This highlights three major conservation concerns: (1) the high proportion of species which satisfy the IUCN guidelines as being of conservation concern, (2) the large number of priority species and (3) the lack of available information on which to adequately evaluate the status of many species. The unique Australian dragonfly fauna, with its high proportion of endemics, Gondwanan species and species with unusual biological characteristics is rightly deserving of formal protection.