The first editor (though not fully acknowledged) was author and schoolteacher Mary Agnes Finn.
[3][4] In the mid-twentieth century, it regularly provided information on Catholic missions to Aboriginal Australia,[5] and a series of articles on "non-Catholic churches" by Dr Leslie Rumble[6][7] The journal was renamed Annals Australia in the 1960s and Annals Australasia in the 1980s.
It contained material on Catholic issues of a generally conservative focus, intended to appeal to students and teachers.
Annals closed with the issue of December 2019, on the death of Paul Stenhouse.
[10][11] A Papua New Guinea version of Annals was published from 1986, edited by Fr Adrian Meaney MSC.