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Australia's Kookaburras are closing in on securing a place in the men's hockey competition at the Tokyo Olympics after beating New Zealand 4-0 in Rockhampton.

The Kookaburras are on track to qualify for Tokyo 2020 after a clinical 4-0 victory against New Zealand in the opening match of the Oceania Cup in Rockhampton.

Tom Craig, Tim Brand, Blake Govers and Flynn Ogilvie were all on target as the Kookaburras flexed their muscles on Thursday to take a 1-0 lead in a best-of-three series which offers a spot at next year's Olympics.

In the Kookaburras' most important series of the year, the home side were in control from the fifth minute when Craig blasted a reverse stick shot past Richard Joyce.

Australia doubled their lead seven minutes later when Brand stuck out a stick to get a cheeky deflection from a precise back stick shot from Aran Zalewski.

A high tempo, high press strategy from the Kookaburras continued in the second quarter which regularly pegged the Black Sticks inside their own half.

Govers put the contest beyond doubt in the 36th minute via a penalty corner and Ogilvie completed the scoring with a tap in soon after.

"It's a good start to the series. To score two goals in the first quarter was a dream start for us," said Kookaburras coach Colin Batch.

"It took us a while to get the third one, New Zealand fought hard and we know there is still a lot of hockey in front of us to secure the series."

"We talked about possessing the ball, particularly in the heat, and I think it worked out for us this time. It doesn't always work out but on this occasion it did."

Despite the comfortable margin, Batch said there would be complacency when the trans-Tasman rivals met again on Saturday.

"It's not an overconfidence but we have a good belief in what we can do out there, so we're heading into game two with a lot of confidence and hopefully we can have another victory," he said.