The Australian Neuroscience Society was founded in 1971 as an informal collection of interested Australian neuroscientists. It held annual meetings with a central theme from 1972-1980. At the 1979 “Neurotoxins” meeting at Flinders, it was decided to form a proper society. At the 1980 Canberra meeting, a formal society was created with a council, which met for the first time on Thursday 7th February 1980. At the tenth annual meeting held at Flinders University in January 1981, the constitution of the Society was accepted and the Society became incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory during that year. Annual meetings have been held since 1980 and the ASM is now one of the largest annual biomedical conferences held in the Australasian region.