The collection was established to preserve a perspective on Australian literary heritage, including a selection of books children in New South Wales had grown up reading since white settlement.
The AORA patron was Dr Maurice Saxby AM, a world-renowned authority on Australian Children's Literature.
[3] Aora can trace its history back to the 1960s when Dr Margaret Trask AM, a lecturer in children's literature, saved discarded books from public libraries to be a historical resource collection for her students.
This collection was returned to Sydney public libraries in 1992 and a group of former children's librarians maintained the collection as it expanded with donations from the New South Wales Department of Education offices at Ryde, bibliographer Dr Kerry White, Penguin publishing, authors, public library deleted materials and individual donors.
In 2008 ownership of the collection was handed over to a community volunteer committee in partnership with Department of Education and Training, New South Wales.