England will be looking for quick wickets and Australia to consolidate from its stumps score of 188-4 in reply to the tourists' first innings of 291, on day three of the fifth Ashes Test.
With 20 overs lost to rain in a pair of 70-minute delays - one on each of the first two days - play will resume 30 minutes early on the third morning at 10am AEDT, but a further shower is forecast for early on Thursday.
Mike Hussey was unbeaten on 37 at the close as he builds towards another half-century in the series, and Andrew Symonds 22 not out, with the hosts still trailing by 103 runs.
The heavens opened moments after Michael Clarke's dismissal for 11, the local the second to fall after the tea break after captain Ricky Ponting was run out by a direct hit from Jimmy Anderson for 45.
Steve Harmison dismissed Clarke and has figures of 2-34 from 16 overs, having also sent Matthew Hayden (33) on his way just before tea, while Anderson (1-55 from 17) made the first breakthrough when he had Justin Langer (26) caught behind.
Earlier, skipper Andrew Flintoff scored 47 of the 57 runs added by his team on the second morning on the way to a fighting 89 that included 11 fours and a six, playing a lone hand as the tourists suffered a collapse of 6-46.
Playing in his final Test, Glenn McGrath was the pick of the bowlers with 3-67 from 29 overs, just ahead of Stuart Clark (3-62 from 24) and Brett Lee (3-75 from 22), while Shane Warne (1-69 from 22.4) grabbed his 1000th international scalp to end the innings.
Langer was the early aggressor as he set about trying to atone for three dropped catches at third slip in the England innings but after smashing four fours he was caught down the leg side.
His dismissal sparked Hayden, then four not out, with the Queenslander and Ponting scoring at more than four runs per over at one point with nine boundaries between them as they added 66 before Hayden edged Harmison to second slip.
Ponting set off for a quick single to mid-on off Monty Panesar but his drive was too firm and he couldn't beat home Anderson's throw, as confirmed by the third umpire, and 118-3 became 155-4 when Clarke wafted at Harmison and was caught behind.
Having taken to the England attack before the rain delay that came just on an hour after tea, Hussey was far more circumspect in the final mini session of the day, while Symonds was, until the final over from Panesar, again a measure of concentration following his maiden Test century in Melbourne.
After dropping Andrew Strauss on day one, Langer also put down Paul Collingwood and Panesar at third slip, but neither proved costly as McGrath claimed the first wicket of the day in the sixth over by having Collingwood (27) caught behind.
That ended his 78-run fifth-wicket stand with Flintoff at 245-5, and when Lee chimed in with two wickets in as many balls by having Chris Read (two) caught behind and Sajid Mahmood (0) caught in the gully it was 258-7.
Flintoff didn't have to play a shot to the hat-trick ball in the next over though, and he dominated the scoring and the strike in his 51-minute, 24-run partnership with Harmison (two) before Clark trapped him in front.
Flintoff's stay finally ended when he charged Clark and edged behind for Adam Gilchrist to take his fifth catch of the innings, before Warne joined Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan in reaching the four-figure milestone when he trapped Panesar (0) lbw.
