Hamilton, 27, the 2008 world champion, clocked a fastest time of one minute and 24.922 seconds around the Albert Park track, beating Button by just one-tenth of a second.
In a thrilling finish to qualifying, Frenchman Romain Grosjean took third place for Lotus on his first appearance in Melbourne, pushing seven-time champion Michael Schumacher of Mercedes down to fourth.
That meant the Red Bull pairing of home hero Australian Mark Webber and defending double champion German Sebastian Vettel qualified fifth and sixth for the 58-lap race.
Schumacher's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was seventh ahead of Pastor Maldonado of Williams, Nico Hulkenberg of Force India and Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who marked his Melbourne debut by placing a creditable 10th for Toro Rosso.
But it was a near-disastrous day for Ferrari who failed to place a driver in the top 10 starting positions.
Two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso spun out at turn one in the second session and left his car beached in the gravel trap, while his team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa could not improve on 16th place.
It was also a bad day for returning 2007 champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who failed to progress from the first part of qualifying in his Lotus and will start from 18th on the grid.
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