The Beef Shorthorn has a history tracing back nearly 300 years. The breed has played a dominant role in the development of the beef industry in Australia from the early days of settlement. The origins of the breed can be traced to the Tees River Valley in northern England, where the Teeswater breed evolved from a cross with a Dutch dairy type. Teeswaters were big framed, heavy horned and attained great weight at five to six years. They were highly valued as beef cattle.

The Council of the Society resolved to set up the Australian Shorthorn Herd Book in September 1972.  The first volume of the Herd Book was published in 1974, together with Volume 25 of the Beef Shorthorn Herd Book.  The regulations pertaining to the new herd book were published at that time.  They were very simple, and were heavily weighted towards giving breeders an opportunity to register inspected cattle of suitable shorthorn type.  There was no provision for "breeding up" through the new herd book into the Beef Shorthorn Herd Book.  There was only one way of doing that - through the appendix register in the Beef Shorthorn Herd Book.

The Australian Shorthorn Herd Book, established by the Beef Shorthorn Society in 1974 to enable the broadening of the gene pool of registered Shorthorn cattle in Australia, to facilitate flexibility in breeding programs, and to enable reliable tracing of cattle previously excluded from Shorthorn herd books, was the first herd book dedicated to Australian Shorthorns.  Today, it remains the only herd book so dedicated.