diff --git a/.github/trigger_files/beam_PostCommit_Java_Avro_Versions.json b/.github/trigger_files/beam_PostCommit_Java_Avro_Versions.json
deleted file mode 100644
index a03c067d2c4e..000000000000
--- a/.github/trigger_files/beam_PostCommit_Java_Avro_Versions.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-    "comment": "Modify this file in a trivial way to cause this test suite to run"
-}
diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 60dab0e2352c..170d8d08da74 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -62,6 +62,8 @@
 ## I/Os
 
 * Support for X source added (Java/Python) ([#X](https://github.com/apache/beam/issues/X)).
+* Upgraded Avro version to 1.11.3, kafka-avro-serializer and kafka-schema-registry-client versions to 7.6.0 (Java) ([#30638](https://github.com/apache/beam/pull/30638)).
+  The newer Avro package is known to have breaking changes. If you are affected, you can keep pinned to older Avro versions which are also tested with Beam.
 
 ## New Features / Improvements
 
diff --git a/sdks/java/extensions/avro/build.gradle b/sdks/java/extensions/avro/build.gradle
index 6bf1dfc3f8eb..8ff0612a0eab 100644
--- a/sdks/java/extensions/avro/build.gradle
+++ b/sdks/java/extensions/avro/build.gradle
@@ -35,10 +35,11 @@ avro {
 
 description = "Apache Beam :: SDKs :: Java :: Extensions :: Avro"
 
+// additional avro version (other than library.java.avro) to be tested
 def avroVersions = [
+    '182' : "1.8.2",
     '192' : "1.9.2",
     '1102': "1.10.2",
-    '1111': "1.11.1",
 ]
 
 avroVersions.each { k, v ->
@@ -85,6 +86,7 @@ dependencies {
     "avroVersion$k" library.java.slf4j_jdk14
     "avroVersion$k" "org.tukaani:xz:1.9" // marked as optional in avro
     "avroVersion$k" library.java.zstd_jni // marked as optional in avro
+    "avroVersion$k" "org.apache.avro:avro:$v:tests"
     "avroVersion${k}Generate" "org.apache.avro:avro-tools:$v"
   }
 }