What is an appropriate gift for your boss in Australia?
Short answerGroup gifts only. Keep individual contributions under $50 total value. Stick to consumable, generic items. Skip the gift entirely if the power dynamic is awkward.
The honest answer: most workplaces would be better off skipping individual gifts to bosses entirely. They create perceived favouritism, awkward power dynamics, and pressure on coworkers who can't or don't want to participate.
If a gift is happening, make it a group gift. The whole team contributes equally and the gift comes from the team. This removes the individual transactional vibe and keeps it warm rather than weird.
Stick to consumable, generic, and brand-neutral. A quality coffee selection, a good bottle of wine (if you know they drink), a curated food hamper from a quality source, or a gift card to a coffee shop near the office. The total budget for a team gift to a boss usually sits at $50–150 — well under personal-relationship gift territory.
Don't give: anything personal (clothing, fragrance, anything for their home), anything overly extravagant, anything that implies a private relationship outside work, or anything that could be misread by HR or a third party.
If you genuinely have a friendly, established relationship with your boss outside the workplace, a small individual gift (book, plant, single nice consumable) at a peer-level price is fine. The test: would you still give it if you were both at a different company?