Australia's newspapers said the most-hyped series in generations was in danger of becoming another one-sided contest after England's woeful start to their Ashes defence.

"The nation that gave cricket Bodyline yesterday started the most anticipated Ashes series ever with a shock new tactic ... Shoddyline," Robert Craddock wrote in the Courier Mail.

"With millions of fans watching on television, and a sell-out crowd cheering and jeering him to the crease, loose-limbed fast bowler Steve Harmison loped in at the Gabba and bowled one of the worst balls seen in Test cricket in recent times."

The Australian newspaper's chief cricket writer Malcolm Conn also feared that England's disappointing performance was a worrying sign for anyone expecting a close series.

"It has taken Australia just one day to line up the knockout blow that may prove the Ashes loss was an aberration," Conn wrote.

"A Bradmanesque Ricky Ponting and belligerent Justin Langer have set up the summer against a timid and possibly terminal England."

John Huxley, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, urged Australians to exercise caution before writing off the English but agreed the signs were ominous.

"Of course, there must be no rush to judgement. This was, after all, only the first day of the first of five Tests," Huxley wrote.

"But such was Australia's command and England's incompetence -- with the exception of their inspirational and inevitably overworked captain Andrew Flintoff -- that the Ashes could be won back and lost before Christmas."