Australia is emerging as a significant producer and a major exporter of chickpeas. There is, however, little data on quality of Australian chickpea or on the use of chickpea in new food formulations for the western world. Physical properties, chemical composition and nutritional qualities of four major commercially traded desi varieties, two kabuli varieties and some new releases collected from the important growing sites of Australia were evaluated over four harvests to study effect of location, season and genotype. The composition of these varieties were compared with advanced breeding lines grown in experimental plots over two seasons. Proximate composition of desi dhal (dry, dehusked split cotyledon) was measured and compared to whole seed.