In their first game of the women's series, the Black Sticks took an early lead through Katie Glynn before falling 2-1 to the Hockeyroos who replied with penalty stroke and penalty corner goals - all scored in the first half.
Led by veteran men's goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex, the defence continually denied the Australians.
Blair Hopping, Dean Couzins and Brad Shaw combined well at the back for New Zealand who kept out nine Australian penalty corners - six from regular play and three retakes.
The home team were without drag flick exponent Luke Doerner but New Zealand too were without a key player in Ryan Archibald.
"Not conceding was the most pleasing aspect," said McLeod. "But winning has also given us a huge psychological boost heading into the next two tests."
He was just as happy with his team's penalty conversion rate, with Andy Hayward showing there is life after Hayden Shaw in converting two-from-two with superb drag flicks.
Those strikes in the 57th and 63rd minutes followed Hugo Inglis' first half opener - a stunning reverse stick effort after robbing a defender outside the circle.
Hockey NZ chief executive Hilary Poole welcomed the famous victory, saying "we will take any little inch we can but one swallow doesn't make a summer.
"Shane is an excellent strategist but hockey is about winning tournaments, not one game."
On that count, the Black Sticks still have plenty to do.
The win was a huge turnaround from the results of the last three meetings, won 4-2, 6-2 and 9-1 by the Australians. In those previous 47 transtasman clashes - with Australia winning 41 (five were drawn) - New Zealand scored just 65 goals while Australia netted 190.
As McLeod reflected on a job well done, Australian coach Ric Charlesworth said he was disappointed in his side's inability to finish in the circle but there was no need to panic or make radical changes.
"When a side scores 100 per cent of their penalty corners they are going to be tough to beat," said Charlesworth, who returned to his native Australia to coach the national side after a stint as New Zealand Cricket's high performance manager.
"We had our chances and unfortunately could not finish.
"Today we had players whose skill level wasn't quite up to it and we made some errors at the back."
The second tests will be played today and the third games tomorrow.
