Picking the right ASX shares to fit a portfolio can be a tricky business. I tend to think that the best stocks are the businesses that we can foresee being around in a hundred years' time, and that have some kind of moat. This should ensure that investors continue to enjoy a decent return on their capital and grow wealth at a healthy clip. Today, let's talk about two Australian dividend giants that I think fit this bill nicely.
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2 Australian dividend giants that any ASX investor can buy
Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS)
First up is Telstra, the telco we all know and may or may not love. Telstra has been the dominant telecommunications provider in Australia for as long as anyone can remember. Over the years, this dominance has shifted from telephony services to providing mobile and fixed-line internet, with Telstra almost universally acknowledged as possessing the best mobile network in the country. Given the importance of these connections to modern life, both in the personal and professional sense, Telstra's dominance looks assured for the foreseeable future.
This essential nature offers investors inherent defensiveness as well. Demand for internet and mobile services tends to be resistant to the booms and busts of the economic cycle, as well as inflation. That protects Telstra's earnings base, and thus, the company's dividends.
Telstra has always been a dividend giant of the ASX, having funded fat payouts for decades. The telco has increased this dividend annually for the past four years, too. It doled out a total of 16 cents per share in 2021, but managed to pay a total of 19 cents per share in 2025. Today, Telstra offers a dividend yield of above 3.8%, which usually comes with full franking credits attached.
Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL)
Coles has only been on the ASX in its own right for a few years, having been spun out of Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) back in 2018. Since then, however, Coles has built out an impressive dividend track record. It has increased its annual payouts every single year since its ASX listing.
2020 saw this dividend giant pay a total of 57.5 cents per share. That annual total rose to 69 cents per share this year.
Like Telstra, Coles offers investors defensiveness in spades. After all, this is a consumer staples company that sells food and household essentials. Those are goods that we all need to buy consistently, regardless of what the economy or inflation is doing. Coles also owns the Liquorland bottle shop chain, which supplements that defensiveness.
Today, Coles shares are trading on a fully franked dividend yield of just under 3.2%.
