Mitchell Starc made a late-career bid for all-rounder status when he scored a half-century and grabbed two wickets under the Gabba floodlights to push Australia to the brink of victory at the close of day three of the second Ashes test on Saturday.

Tailender Starc made 77 in a sparkling 141-ball knock to help Australia to a 177-run lead before working his magic with the pink ball as England staggered to 134 for six at stumps, still 43 runs short of making Australia bat again.

Ben Stokes and Will Jacks were both four not out, tasked with restoring a shred of dignity to an England side who were ineffective with the ball and foolhardy with the bat.

England have had many lows on Australian soil since their last test win in Sydney 15 years ago but day three at the Gabba may rival them for infamy.

They started the day with genuine hope of at least containing Australia, who had a 44-run lead with four wickets in hand.

They finished it demoralised, with Australia putting 511 on the board before scything through their batting order like a knife through warm butter.

Stokes's team are now staring at a 2-0 series deficit that should prove impossible to turn around.

Only one team in the history of test cricket has ever come back from 2-0 down to win a series -- Don Bradman's Australia in the 1936/37 Ashes.

NIGHT-SESSION COLLAPSE

Michael Neser and Scott Boland joined Starc with two wickets apiece as England lost 6-89 in a calamitous night session in front of a crowd of 35,574.

The collapse came after openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett had raced out of the gates with an unbroken 45-run partnership in six overs to the dinner break.

"Great fun. We thought the ball was going to come alive in the night session and we just wanted to put as many balls as we could in the right areas. We bowled pretty well," said Boland, who bowled Duckett (15) and had Harry Brook (15) caught behind.

Neser missed a tough caught-and-bowled chance to remove Duckett but got the next two to dismiss Crawley (44) and Ollie Pope (26), both batters falling with loose drives.

Joe Root (15) was also culpable, driving away from the body to send a nick flying to wicketkeeper Alex Carey off the bowling of Starc, who later had Jamie Smith caught behind for four.

Starc now has 18 wickets in two tests of the series.

Earlier, though, it was all about the big left-arm quick's batting.

TAILEND PARTNERSHIPS

He grabbed his 11th test fifty and fifth against England to go with his six first-innings wickets.

Starc smashed 13 fours and combined with tailender Boland (21 not out) in a record 75-run partnership for the ninth wicket at the Gabba.

When Starc finally holed out with a miscued slog, Brendan Doggett (13) and Boland soaked up another seven overs before Doggett mercifully nicked the spin of all-rounder Jacks to wrap up the innings.

Australia put on 133 for the day after resuming on 378 for six, denying England any chance of batting during safer daylight hours.

Carey, dropped twice on day two, ended up scoring 63, one of five half-centuries in Australia's first innings.

Seamer Brydon Carse finished with 4-152 for England, but conceded more than five runs an over. Stokes was nearly as expensive for this three wickets.

As to England's shot selection, coach Marcus Trescothick was left to shield England's batters in post-match interviews.

"We get it right sometimes and when we do we dominate opposition," he said.

"And when we don’t.... we play bad shots and that gets highlighted. It is what it is. You’ve got to have some way of trying to play the game."