Australian netball coach Lisa Alexander is a hard woman to impress.

So when she says the Diamonds are "getting there" ahead of their hotly-anticipated showdown with New Zealand later this month, take it as a ringing endorsement.

The Diamonds, the current world champions, proved their credentials with a 31-goal victory over world No.3 England at Canberra's AIS Arena on Wednesday.

Winning 67-36, it was the Diamonds' third highest score ever recorded against the English.

But Alexander was clinical about the victory, arguing her Diamonds had slowed down in the final quarter.

"What we set out to do was to improve our team behaviours tonight, and I think we achieved probably 70 per cent of that which was probably a 60 per cent improvement," she said.

"In the last quarter we let it out a bit, they got 12 goals - I would've liked it below 10.

"I'm hard to please sometimes."

Australia, led by stand-in captain Catherine Cox, led from the outset on the night, racing away to a 34-15 lead with Kim Green at centre and Laura Geitz as goalkeeper doing outstanding work.

Alexander, who substituted heavily during the match, admits she has some tough choices ahead of the three-Test series against the Kiwis, which begins in Perth on October 23.

"They're getting there now, yes.

"It's just a coach's dream to be able to do this," she said, praising the work of newcomers Rebecca Bulley and Amy Steel, who played her first match for Australia.

"The Diamonds that I have to put on - pardon the pun - it's just wonderful."

Captain Natalie Von Bertouch is out of the series with a foot injury, but Green said Wednesday's match was proof the Diamonds have a lot of depth.

"It showed tonight that we can put any combination out there and it works," Green said.

"So yeah I'm very confident we can get through to New Zealand matches and contest."

But echoing the words of her coach, she said Australia still have areas to work on before they meet the Kiwis.

"We won by 30 (tonight), but it's still not good enough.

"We will have to push those barriers."

The Diamonds host England in Sydney on Sunday for the third and final Test with a week's break before the Kiwi Tests.