Reece Walsh scored two tries and saved two more as the Kangaroos belted England 26-6 in front of a record crowd at Wembley Stadium in London.
Angus Crichton also scored twice as the Aussies comfortably dealt with an England team that showed mere glimpses of what they hoped to be capable of.
Daryl Clark scored a late consolation to send some of the 60,812 crowd, a record for an Ashes Test in England, home with at least some positivity the hosts could turn around their woeful recent record against Australia.
But in truth England showed nothing that would unduly worry the Aussies in the upcoming two Tests in Liverpool and Leeds.
[Summary]England came into this Ashes series full of hope that after a 22-year absence, they could shock the Aussies on home soil — and had made plenty of comments to that effect in the build up.
But the only surprise for the home supporters would have been an insipid display from England's forwards, who appeared to show little inclination for the fight.
Seemingly all it took was one admittedly monstrous shot from Tino Fa'asuamaleaui in the opening minute to still the home side's desire to meet Australia's aggression with any meaningful response.
"I know what these players are capable of, but we didn't give ourselves a chance to win," England coach Shaun Wane said.
"It hurts a lot, we didn't put our best show on today."
He added that the team were "a bit apprehensive" during the match, which he said the coaches would have to look at.
Instead of meeting fire with fire as promised, the English forwards were armed only with water pistols to quench the fiery running of the Kangaroos' powerful forwards, who didn't really need to get out for second gear to show their superiority.
Only a late scuffle between Herbie Farnworth and Fa'asuamaleaui gave any indication that England had the heart to really test the Aussies.
"We just weren't good enough," England lock Morgan Knowles told the BBC.
"We will take confidence from the fact we still created opportunities. There are positives, but the overriding feeling is disappointment. We need to be a lot better.
"We didn't give our best account of ourselves — really disappointing."
Walsh was superb, denying England two first-half tries with his daring defence, racing out of the line to pick the pockets of Jack Welsby and Jake Wardle when both had two-on-one chances.
Had either of those moves worked out, England could well have gone into the break celebrating a lead.
"I'm probably happier with the two tries I stopped [than the two I scored]," Walsh told the BBC.
"I think that goes a long way to getting the result tonight."
Those were not the only chances that England had, with Australia struggling to find cohesion in a first half dominated by slow play the balls and errors.
The visitors even enjoyed a huge slice of luck with the opening try, finished with aplomb by Walsh, who swan dived to the Wembley turf after being set free by Kotoni Staggs.
The Kangaroos moved the ball to the right side, with Hudson Young seemingly tripping Mikey Lewis in midfield, and then Mark Nawaqanitawase throwing a blatant forward pass that was missed by the officials.
That helped Australia to an 8-0 half time lead, but after the break it was all Kangaroos, led by the superlative Walsh.
Just two minutes after the restart Walsh picked up the ball inside his own 10 and raced all the way to the England 30 with a sublime burst of pace, sidestepping no fewer than five England defenders to create the initial space.
He passed inside to Josh Addo-Carr. with the impressive Farnworth's last-gasp tackle the only thing stopping what would have been a highlight reel try for the ages.
The Broncos fullback was named player of the match, amassing 236 metres with two line breaks on his Test debut.
"He is a great asset of ours," Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters told the BBC.
"It is good seeing him playing in the Australian colours."
Crichton also had two tries, the first a simple left-foot step that removed England's defence from the equation, although fullback Welsby will have questions to answer, stationed motionless on the try line with a front row seat as good and effective as those fans sitting in the front row behind him.
The Roosters' forward's second came after a delightful link up between Tom Dearden, Nathan Cleary and Cam Munster, all of whom underlined their class throughout.
Walsh completed the scoring as a result of another perfect link up between the star halves, with Gehamat Shibasaki providing the final pass.
Despite the impressive scoreline, the Kangaroos were not the polished article. What will concern England is, they didn't need to be.
"We've been a bit lucky tonight," Munster told the BBC.
"It could have been a different scoreline at half-time. We need to get better and they're going to get better.
"They're very strong and they get into that grinding game of footy. We took our opportunities tonight but I'm sure England will do the same next week."
The second Test will take place in Liverpool at Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, before the final Test is played at Headingley — both of which are sold out.
If England want to take the series to a decider, they will have to hope that their improvement is better than the Kangaroos'.
Look back on how all the action unfolded at Wembley in our live blog.
[blog]
