[1] It was established in 1967 with the primary goal of furthering interest in and support for linguistics research and teaching in Australia.

[4] The current president of the ALS is Bill Palmer, the Secretary is James Bednall, and the Treasurer is Robert Mailhammer.

The Society also publishes proceedings from the annual ALS conference.

Conferences have been held every year since the inaugural meeting, at different Australian universities.

These include:[12] The Australian Linguistic Society has developed and endorsed policies relating to the linguistic rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; the ethical conduct of linguistic research, and the use of language analysis in relation to questions of national origin in refugee cases.