The Wallabies failed to learn from past mistakes and were hung, drawn and quartered 49-28 by New Zealand on Saturday night to fall to their worst home loss in seven years.

Australia were their own worst enemies at Etihad Stadium to lose any realistic hope of regaining the Bledisloe Cup but nothing can be taken away from the outstanding All Blacks who all but sealed the Tri-Nations title half-way through the competition with the seven-try rout.

After the excitement of the vibrant 30-13 win over South Africa, the Wallabies, desperate for a consistent back-to-back performances, once again returned to earth with an almighty thud.

It was their biggest loss on home soil since suffering a 50-21 defeat to NZ in 2003, capping their worst trans-Tasman losing streak in 63 years.

All Blacks maestro Dan Carter finished with 19 points and skipper Richie McCaw was a stand-out in their scintillating display to guide his team to their eighth straight trans-Tasman Test win - their best run since 1947.

Whereas five of Australia's previous seven losses came after they leading at halftime, they were blown away in a 15-minute period in the first half when the visitors turned on three tries.

They once again fell into bad habits and paid the price.

Restarts were not claimed, kicks failed to find touch and crucial tackles weren't made.

Everything had looked good early as the home side tested the world's top team with their fast-paced continuity game.

Matt Giteau opened their account with a fourth-minute penalty following his own 70m line-break, but the Wallabies allowed Carter to square the scores from the kick-off.

Even worse was to follow in a crazy start.

Winger Drew Mitchell charged down Carter to score in the right corner, but the All Blacks' five-eighth immediately made amends by charging down an off-key Berrick Barnes to score himself.

Carter's ensuing conversion put the visitors in the lead 10-8, and they widened the margin to seven after Jerome Kaino forced a ruck turnover off Mitchell to spark a slick counterattack which ended with Mils Muliaina crossing from a desperate Cory Jane chip.

While the Wallabies were able to grow their score through penalty goals, the more clinical All Blacks did it through tries.

Making it more galling for Robbie Deans, NZ's third five-pointer, to McCaw who swooped on loose ruck ball, came while they were down to 14 men with prop Owen Franks sin-binned for a shoulder charge.

It was a blow that gave NZ a 22-11 lead and seemed to break the Wallabies back.

Mitchell then copped the first of his two yellow cards and while he was off Jane pushed off a flimsy attempted tackle by Richard Brown to cross in the corner for a bonus point and a 32-14 half-time lead.

The bonus-point win lifts the All Blacks to 15 points from three games to have a firm grip on the Tri-Nations trophy.

Australia (4) must win next week's return clash in Christchurch to stay alive while defending champions South Africa (0) are out of what looks a one-horse race.

Wallabies skipper Rocky Elsom, among the best of a badly-beaten team, rued a lack of precision and physicality in front of a 51,409 Melbourne crowd.

"The scoreline was a pretty fair judgement," Elsom said.

"We were off the pace tonight."

Elsom and Adam Ashley-Cooper, knocked-out in making a heavy tackle on Joe Rokocoko in the first half, crossed for second half tries but the result was never in doubt.

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