The Black Caps had a disastrous setback before the match even started when captain Daniel Vettori was ruled out of the final with a hamstring injury, carried over from Saturday's semi-final against Pakistan.
In Vettori, New Zealand lost not only a shrewd leader, but their number six batsman and one of the best spinners in the world, with his place taken by Jeetan Patel, making his first appearance in the tournament.
Vettori was the fourth casualty of an injury-plagued campaign for the Kiwis, but they had no excuse for a poor batting performance in which they posted only 200-9 after winning the toss and batting first.
Destructive opener Brendon McCullum suffered with the extra weight of captaincy on his shoulders, and was out for a 14-ball duck to give Australia an early breakthrough.
None of the New Zealand batsmen got going after that, with Aaron Redmond (26) and an on-form Martin Guptill (40) throwing away good starts.
There was a minor recovery from 94-5 thanks to Neil Broom and James Franklin, but when Broom was dismissed for 37 in a farcical run out and Franklin was bowled by a Brett Lee yorker for 33, the chances of a decent total were over.
The tailenders dragged the Kiwis up to 200 from the final ball of the innings.
Peter Siddle (1-30) was the major threat early on and Nathan Hauritz bowled brilliantly for his 3-37. Lee chipped in with two important wickets.
After Australia finished their overs a full 20 minutes late and the semi-final's flying termites returned for another delay, the players finally took the field with the news that Callum Ferguson would still bat for Australia having sustained a nasty knee injury in the field.
But it was New Zealand who did the early damage: when the tournament's leading run scorer Ricky Ponting was trapped LBW, Australia were 6-2.
Desperate rebuilding followed, with Shane Bond (1-34) and Kyle Mills keeping the Australians under constant pressure with brilliant pace bowling. At one point, only two runs were scored in five overs and Mills conceded just nine from his seven-over spell.
But Shane Watson and Cameron White survived the onslaught, and went on to put together a match-winning partnership. White was dropped by McCullum to complete the stand-in captain's miserable day, and went on to score 62 in a stand of 128.
Only the superb Mills (3-27) threatened, and when Watson (105*) hit two sixes to reach his second successive century and win the match for Australia with four and a half overs to spare, it was a deserved victory.
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