A new approach is presented for the analysis of transient waves propagating in anisotropic composite laminates. The wavelet transform (WT) using the Gabor wavelet is applied to the time-frequency analysis of dispersive flexural waves. It is shown that the peaks of the magnitude of WT in time-frequency domain is related to the arrival times of group velocity. Experiments are performed using a lead break as the simulated fracture source on the surface of quasi-isotropic and unidirectional laminates. For predictions of the dispersion of the flexural mode, Mindlin plate theory is shown to give good agreement with the experimental results. Based on the frequency-dependent arrival times and angular dependence of group velocities of flexural waves, the problem of source location in anisotropic laminates is considered and the results are given.