The linear as well as the nonlinear propagation of dust-acoustic waves (DAWs) in non-ideal dusty plasmas comprising of electrons, ions and dust grains has been studied by self-consistently including the grain charge variations. The non-ideal effects are incorporated through the van der Waals equation of state for the dust fluid, while the charge fluctuation effects come in through the current balance equation. The real frequency and the damping rate for the linear DAWs are investigated and the reductive perturbation approach has been used to derive a K-dV-like equation governing the nonlinear evolution of the DAWs. The combined effects of the non-ideal contributions and the grain charge fluctuations in the linear as well as the nonlinear regimes of wave propagation are discussed. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.