Olyroos Coach Aurelio Vidmar was reasonably happy with the draw held in the Qatari capital Doha on Saturday.
"You get to this stage and all the big teams are in there anyway so I’m pretty pleased with the draw," Vidmar said.
"We’ve got a lot to make up for missing out last time. We had UAE in our final group four years ago so that’s also a nice one to hopefully get one back on them.
"We’ll start to scout the opposition. Physically, we’re going to work out a plan in the next few weeks on how to best prepare the team for January.
"In October, we’ll have another strong hit out with two games against South Korea which will be very important in the lead up to January.
"We have to qualify, very simple."
Australia begins its campaign against United Arab Emirates on 14 January at the Grand Hamad Stadium, before taking on Vietnam at the same venue on 17 January, with its final group match against Jordan on 20 January at Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium.
Sixteen nations have qualified for the tournament, with the top three progressing to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games Football tournament.
The Olyroos will next play two international matches against Korea Republic on 9 and 12 October at the Hwaseong Sports Complex Stadium and Icheon Sports Complex Stadium respectively.
AFC U-23 Championship Doha 2016
Group A: Qatar, Syria, Iran, China PR
Group B: Saudi Arabia, Japan, DPR Korea, Thailand
Group C: Iraq, Korea Republic, Uzbekistan, Yemen
Group D: Jordan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam
