List of ambassadors of Australia to Mongolia

The Ambassador of Australia to Mongolia is an officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of the Embassy of the Commonwealth of Australia to Mongolia. The Ambassador resides in Ulaanbaatar.^[1] In 2008, Australia moved its diplomatic accreditation to Mongolia from Beijing to Seoul.^[2] Australia's first resident Ambassador to Mongolia, John Langtry, was appointed in December 2015.^[1] Australia appointed an Honorary Consul in Ulaanbaatar in 2007, and in 2011 an office of Austrade opened in Ulaanbaatar.^[3] That office was upgraded to an Australian Consulate-General which opened on 30 March 2012.^[4]

Ambassador of Australia to Mongolia
Incumbent Leo Zeng since 9 April 2025
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Style	His Excellency
Reports to	Minister for Foreign Affairs
Nominator	Prime Minister of Australia
Appointer	Governor General of Australia
Inaugural holder	Lawrence John Lawrey (resident in Moscow)
Formation	5 June 1962

List of officeholders

Heads of mission

Ordinal	Officeholder	Residency	Term start date	Term end date	Time in office	Notes
1	Lawrence John Lawrey	Moscow, Soviet Union	12 June 1972 (1972-06-12)	April 1974 (1974-04)	1 year, 9 months	[5]
2	James Plimsoll		23 April 1974 (1974-04-23)	4 August 1977 (1977-08-04)	3 years, 103 days	[6]
3	Murray Bourchier		4 August 1977 (1977-08-04)	August 1980 (1980-08)	2 years, 11 months
4	David Wyke Evans		1 March 1981 (1981-03-01)	March 1984 (1984-03)	3 years	[7]
5	Ted Pocock		21 March 1984 (1984-03-21)	September 1987 (1987-09)	3 years, 5 months
6	Robin Ashwin		28 September 1987 (1987-09-28)	May 1991 (1991-05)	3 years, 7 months	[8]
7	Cavan Hogue		29 May 1991 (1991-05-29)	26 December 1991 (1991-12-26)	211 days	[9]
8	Michael Lightowler	Beijing, China	1991 (1991)	1996 (1996)	4–5 years	[10]
9	Ric Smith		1996 (1996)	2000 (2000)	3–4 years	[11]
10	David Irvine		2000 (2000)	2003 (2003)	2–3 years	[12]
11	Alan Thomas		2003 (2003)	2007 (2007)	3–4 years	[13]
12	Geoff Raby		2007 (2007)	August 2008 (2008-08)	0–1 years	[14]
13	Peter Brock Rowe	Seoul, South Korea	August 2008 (2008-08)	February 2009 (2009-02)	6 months
14	Sam Gerovich		March 2009 (2009-03)	16 March 2013 (2013-03-16)	4 years	[15]
15	Bill Paterson		16 March 2013 (2013-03-16)	December 2015 (2015-12)	2 years, 8 months	[16][17]
16	John Langtry	Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia	December 2015 (2015-12)	January 2019 (2019-01)	3 years, 1 month	[1][18]
17	Dave Vosen		January 2019 (2019-01)	August 2021 (2021-08)	2 years, 7 months	[19]
(n/a)	Neil Sanderson (Chargé d’affaires)		August 2021 (2021-08)	6 July 2022 (2022-07-06)	11 months
18	Katie Smith		6 July 2022 (2022-07-06)	incumbent	3 years, 29 days	[20]

Consul-General and Trade Commissioners

Name	Start of term	End of term	References
Jargalant Elbegsaikhan (Honorary Consul)	June 2007	April 2011
David Lawson	April 2011	February 2013
Tony Burchill	February 2013	May 2015
Brendan Coyne	May 2015	December 2015

See also

• Foreign relations of Australia
• Foreign relations of Mongolia