The first bookstore was opened in 110½ Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Mackenzie Angus (1855–1901) in 1884; it initially sold only secondhand books.

[10] In 2008 the largest Angus & Robertson bookstore was located at 168-174 Pitt Street Mall (in the ground floor level of the Imperial Arcade), Sydney.

[11][12] George Robertson encouraged book collector David Scott Mitchell to convert to collecting in the then-neglected field of Australian literature.

As a publisher, Angus & Robertson has played a substantial role in shaping Australian literature by publishing, to huge sales, works by popular Australian authors such as Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson, C. J. Dennis, Norman Lindsay, Frank Clune, Ion Idriess, Will H. Ogilvie, Colin Simpson, Arthur Upfield, Frank Dalby Davison, E. V. Timms, and children's writers Dorothy Wall and May Gibbs.

[47] Cornstalk Publishing was established in 1924,[48] "primarily for modest and usually abridged reprints, such as the Gumnut Reader series" by May Gibbs,[49][50] and ceased in 1929.

[56] Subject areas of the publications included local histories,[57] Christian apologetics,[58] memoirs,[59] bushcraft,[60] and travel.

[64][65][66] The imprint was revived by Angus and Robertson in the 1980s[67] and 1990s,[68] publishing reprints including Annie Rentoul's The Lady of the Blue Beads[69] and The Muddle-Headed Wombat on Clean-Up Day by Ruth Park.

[citation needed] About 1895 or 1896, George Robertson started The Sydney Book Club (SBC), based on the principles of a lending library.

Eric Russell, an editor at Angus & Robertson (and local historian), was a consistent supporter of, and committee member of, the BCSA.

[75] In 1970, entrepreneur Gordon Barton, via his IPEC transport company, bought the William Collins shares, and in 1971 made a takeover offer, and soon had control.

[76] Many of the old staff resigned, and a long period of rapid change followed, in which mass-market books became increasingly preferred, instead of high-brow and educational literature.

Richard Walsh was managing director and publisher for 14 years (1972 to 1986), and he overhauled and modernised the antiquated and ossified business environment.

In 1981, Ipec Holdings sold Angus & Robinson Publishing, including its very valuable backlist, to News Limited.

Thus in 1989, Angus & Robertson Publishing was part of the merger of William Collins and Harper & Row to form HarperCollins.

When Gordon & Gotch was taken over by Herald & Weekly Times the business was sold to music retailer Brashs, who also bought Terry Herbert's Queensland-based Bookworld.

[81] After failing to find a buyer, stores were closed or sold to operators like Collins Booksellers (who were cited as more knowledgeable as franchisee-owners rather than the inattentive private equity) as part of an agreement with creditors, and the A&R and Borders websites were sold to media conglomerate Pearson, which owns Penguin Books, and operations were moved from Sydney to Melbourne.

[83] In August 2007, A & R Whitcoulls Group's commercial manager, Charlie Rimmer, demanded payments ranging between $2,500 and $20,000 from smaller distributors and publishers to make up for reduced profitability compared to other suppliers.

[84] In response to the situation, Dave Fenlon, Chief Operating Officer at Angus & Robertson, responded by claiming that the whole situation is blown up out of proportion and that A&R is simply negotiating a new business agreement with selected suppliers deemed to not be meeting their obligations to the company and that Angus & Robertson is committed to selling Australian published books from a large range of Australian publishers, large and small.