ABRS was founded in 1973 from the recommendations of a 1972 Senate Select Committee report on Wildlife Conservation. Its purpose is to collate from the many libraries, museums and other collections the taxonomy of Australia's estimated 2 million species of flora and fauna, including aquaticspecies. These represent almost 20% of the earth's biodiversity, 80% of which are unique to Australia. ABRS has undertaken active funding for taxonomic research of Australia's biodiversity and is internationally recognised for its extensive data bases and publications.