England will be looking to stave off the first Ashes whitewash since 1920/21 when the fourth Test starts at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day.
Only 15.4 overs were possible before lunch on day one of the fourth Ashes Test, with England losing Alastair Cook for 11 as they moved slowly to 36-1.
But with Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath retiring from Test cricket at the end of the series, Australia will be fully focused on a clean sweep.
Rain delayed the start by 30 minutes and the tourists found the going tough under heavy cloud cover in Melbourne.
Warne, playing on his home ground, needs just one more wicket to become the first man to take 700 in Tests.
Cook was caught behind off Brett Lee and the showers returned 15 minutes before the scheduled lunch break.
A world record crowd of 100,000 is expected on the opening day.
Chris Read replaced struggling Geraint Jones as England's wicket-keeper, while the Aussies - 3-0 up - were unchanged.
Andrew Flintoff won the toss and opted to bat but it looked a good one to lose as Glenn McGrath found plenty of seam movement at the MCG.
All tickets have been sold for Boxing Day to surpass the 90,800 for the second day of the fifth Test against the West Indies at the MCG in February 1961.
The veteran seamer, who earlier this week announced his intention to quit after the World Cup, reeled off three successive maidens to help limit England to only two runs in their first six overs.
And Warne, who can expect an emotional send-off in his 144th Test, is keen on another humiliation of England.
Lee found the edge of Andrew Strauss' bat but the ball failed to carry to Ricky Ponting at second slip.
"As far as I'm concerned we've got two Test matches to play and I just want to finish the series on a high," Warne said.
Cook threw off the shackles briefly with a fine cover drive off McGrath for the first boundary of the morning in the 10th over.
There are a lot of lads who want to prove they can win a Test match in Australia Andrew Flintoff
But he was back in the pavilion shortly after when the ball caught the toe of his bat as he attempted to leave a delivery from Lee.
"I think if we can win 5-0 that would be a fantastic achievement for a great team."
Ian Bell could have joined him almost immediately but Michael Clarke missed with his throw from cover as the newly-arrived batsman attempted a risky single.
With team departures dominating headlines ahead of the Melbourne Test and the Ashes already regained, Australia captain Ricky Ponting has warned his side against complacency.
With the outfield slowed by the earlier downpours, Strauss was denied boundaries from several good drives off the pacemen.
"The pressure's off now, (England) have got nothing to lose in this series, they can come out and not think too much about the results of the games," said Ponting.
However, he and his team-mates will be happy to have limited the damage when it could have been far worse in testing conditions.
"Sides can be really dangerous in this sort of situation, I think, as we've found before.
"We have to make sure we don't give them that opportunity to play the sort of cricket they want to play."
Australia, who should be unchanged for the fourth Test, took just 15 days to seize the urn off England and the much-anticipated series has been a huge let-down.
The home side have only been dismissed twice in six innings and the sorry England performance has left coach Duncan Fletcher under intense pressure going into the final two games.
One casualty in Melbourne is likely to be wicket-keeper Geraint Jones, who registered a pair of ducks in Perth and has scored only 63 runs at 10.50 in the series.
Read should take the wicket-keeper's gloves from Geraint Jones
Nottinghamshire's Chris Read is expected to be behind the stumps, while Middlesex all-rounder Jamie Dalrymple could replace Saj Mahmood with a view to strengthen the batting.
"I don't feel that great at the moment, coming off a pair in Perth - my first ducks in Test cricket," Jones told the Herald Sun.
"Obviously I'll be disappointed (if I'm dropped). You never like being left out of the side.
"But I'll give him (Read) my support because that's something he's given me when I've been playing."
Flintoff says the ankle problem that has stopped him bowling long spells so far in the series has been eased by pain-killing injections,
And he is determined his side will bounce back, especially with a large proportion of the crowd expected to be England fans.
"It hurts a lot, but we have to get over losing the Ashes and we've got two big Test matches still to play," he said.
"There are a lot of lads who want to prove they can win a Test match in Australia and prove they can play against Australia.
"As well as playing for ourselves and the country we want to play for the supporters who have made the trip."
Meanwhile, England seamer Matthew Hoggard admitted another Australia win could have deep psychological repercussions.
"We have got to prove to the guys on the tour, to ourselves, that we can beat Australia," Hoggard said.
"We have shown glimpses of what we can do, we have had some good performances, some good individual performances over three games.
"We need to not get mentally scarred, saying Australia are unbeatable, because it's going to be a different story in 2009, and different personnel."
With attendances of more than 95,000 likely over the opening three days, the record of 350,354 - set in the third Test of the 1936/37 Ashes series - is set to fall.
However, with showers forecast for the first day followed by overcast conditions, a new record - and an Australian whitewash - could be under threat.
Australia (from): R Ponting (captain), J Langer, M Hayden, M Hussey, M Clarke, A Symonds, A Gilchrist, S Warne, B Lee, S Clark, G McGrath, M Johnson.
England (from): A Flintoff (captain), A Strauss, A Cook, I Bell, P Collingwood, K Pietersen, G Jones, C Read, M Hoggard, S Mahmood, S Harmison, M Panesar.
