The Australian National Herbarium arose from the amalgamation over the years of several herbaria managed by the Commonwealth Government. These included several CSIRO herbaria, the Forest Research Institute Eucalypt Collection, the Forest Research Institute's Atherton Rainforest Collection, and the Australian National Botanic Gardens Herbarium. The CSIRO's core collection, previously known as 'Herbarium Australiense', was renamed 'Australian National Herbarium' in 1984.

The Australian National Herbarium, as part of the Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, maintains comprehensive databases for plant names in Australia. In the Botanical Information section, users can can search for plants by genus, species or family. The Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is an online resource that provides immediate access to the wealth of plant specimen data held by Australian herbaria.