ABRS was founded in 1973 from the recommendations of a 1972 Senate Select Committee report on Wildlife Conservation.
The main aim of the Interim Council was to stimulate the study of taxonomy, distribution and ecology of Australia's biological resources via research grants, and for assessing the long term national requirements for taxonomic studies and maintenance of national collections of biological specimens.
[2] A core aim of the ABRS is to provide funding to support research on taxonomy and systematics for Australia's biota.
The first grants offered by ABRS were to support the collection and scientific description of Australian plants and animals.
Other output includes The Banksia Atlas and the "Platypus" database package for taxonomists.