The Australian Hymn Book (ISBN 1-86371-150-3) was published in 1977, and was the culmination of almost ten years' work by an ecumenical committee, chaired by A. Harold Wood, intent on producing a new, contemporary and inclusive hymn book that could be used in worship by the varied Christian congregations across Australia.
The new hymn book was taken up widely, especially with the union of the Congregational, the Methodist and most of the Presbyterian parishes that created the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977.
The hymn book contains indexes to first lines, tunes, composers, authors, subjects, scripture and the religious calendar.
A companion book, Songs of the People of God, by Wesley Milgate, was released in 1982, and contains notes on the sources and history of each tune and hymn text, along with short biographies of all authors and composers.
After a survey conducted in 1990, it was decided that a new edition of the Australian Hymn Book was needed.