Against the run of play the Iraqi's opened the scoring on 11 minutes through Mohammad Nasir but Parma midfielder Mark Bresciano levelled matters with a superbly taken free-kick on 23 minutes.
Ahmad Elrich scored what proved to be the winner for Frank Farina's side in the 73rd minute, just one minute after his introduction from the subs bench.
Australia: Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Tony Popovic, Craig Moore, Stan Lazaridis (Tony Vidmar, 45), Josip Skoko, Mark Bresciano (Mile Sterjovski, 63), Tim Cahill (Jason Culina, 72), Scott Chipperfield (Jon McKain, 63), Brett Emerton (Ahmad Elrich, 72), John Aloisi.
Iraq: Sarmad Rasheed, Haiedar Hassan, Nashat Akram, Hawar Mohamed, Yasser Raad, Haidar Abdul Ameer, Mahdi Kareem (Safwan Hamad, 87), Wisam Zaki, Mohammad Nasir (Ali Jabir, 81), Haitman Kaahum, Ahmad Assad.
The Socceroos now move on to Stan's home City, Perth, for the second and final game in the Series against Indonesia at the Subiaco Oval on Tuesday, 29th March with proceeds form the game going to the tsunami benefit appeal.