The year 1904 is now regarded as the start of the sport of ice skating in Australia with the opening of the first artificial ice skating rink, the Glaciarium, at 91 Hindley Street, Adelaide, South Australia, on Tuesday, September 6th, 1904, as reported in the Adelaide Advertiser. This building is still in use today. After many uses and several changes over the years it is the current home of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and can be viewed on their website.

Prior to this date there was some activity regarding ice skating in Australia. This mainly involved developing the ways and means to create a sustainable ice surface. In the Nationals Archives of Australia there is correspondence and patent applications regarding this. The earliest dates back to 1866 regarding an invention for a roller and ice skate from Tasmania. This was followed in 1888 and 1896 with correspondence about inventions for ice skating surfaces. There has been some mention of an ice rink in Pitt Street, Sydney, New South Wales, in the 1880's but as yet no concrete evidence of it.

Mr. Dunbar Poole, a Scot, arrived in Adelaide around 1903 to find a group of like minded people interested in ice skating. They opened the rink in Hindley Street in a building formerly used as a cyclorama with the refrigeration being piped many metres from an ice works down the street. It lasted for a few years and was mentioned in the social pages of an Adelaide newspaper in September 1905. The evening described took the form of a gala fancy dress party with all the participants taking great care and attention to detail with their costumes, many being very topical of the day. A photograph believed to be taken on this occasion is held in the State Library of South Australia.

Later, when the Adelaide rink closed, the parts were taken to Melbourne where Mr. Newman Reid ran the now Melbourne Glaciarium for many years. It suffered a slight set back in 1917 when it was consumed by fire as was recorded by the newsreel of the day. When rebuilt it continued on until the mid 1950's, eventually closing in 1957.

Over the years there have been several Glaciaria, these being in Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, and two in Sydney. The original Glaciarium was an early artificial rink in London in the nineteenth century.

The National Ice Skating Association of Australia was founded in the year 1911. One of its objects of association was: "the furtherance of the art of skating with the view of attaining the highest proficiency amongst the skaters at the Glaciarium in Australia." Despite the wide-ranging objective, skating at the Sydney Glaciarium remained for years the province of the Sydney Ice Skating Club, established a few years later, and this was the figure skating organisation in New South Wales. The two bodies operated within their own States until 1930, when, following negotiations, their names were changed to National Ice Skating Association of Australia (Victoria) and National Ice Skating Association of Australia (New South Wales). On 12 June, 1931 a formal agreement was signed between the two State organisations to set up :The Council of the National Ice skating Association of Australia." The objects of the new Association were, amongst others: "to advise State Associations on all matters appertaining to standards and judging of figure skating on ice; to hold Australian Championships in figure skating in all its branches; to approve of the results of tests judged by state Judges."

The new Association did indeed establish Australian Championships, and these were conducted from 1931 onwards, alternatively in Victoria and New South Wales. In 1932, the Association became a member of the International Skating Union, the body controlling figure skating throughout the world. It was, in fact, one of the earliest members apart from the acknowledged European skating nations. No real steps were taken towards the object of approving tests, and each State continued to operate with its rules, differing in detail from the other, and made to suit local opinion and requirements.

During the 1939-45 war, there was little activity in figure skating, but in 1947 Australia was one of the remaining 13 members of the International Skating Union (ISU) to be represented at the first post-war Congress; the membership of many others having lapsed due to the changes in political boundaries following the war. In 1947, the first Australian competitor took part in a World Figure Skating Championship, and over the next twenty years, there was a steadily increasing number of Australians participating, in a small way, in international competitions, and a few in World Championships.

In the early 1960s, skating rinks were established in both Queensland and South Australia, and both States sought membership of the National Association. Up to this time, the National Association had functioned largely as an administrative body, meeting once a year, and directing its activities towards conducting National Championships, and to retaining international affiliation. It had not been, in any real sense, an independent body but, in 1970, it had become apparent that there was a great need for uniformity of rules to resolve existing differences in opinion and practice between States. Greater communication between States, and the exchange of officials, and competitors, made uniformity essential. As a result, a new agreement was entered into in 1970 between Victoria and New South Wales, the two original State members of the Association. First Queensland, and then South Australia became members, and a new and updated constitution was adopted, setting out as some of its primary objects the establishment of uniform regulations for figure skating throughout Australia. There was an immediate move to introduce these uniform regulations, and to establish the National Association as an independent and technically competent body which would truly regulate the sport in Australia.

In the years since 1970, the National Ice Skating Association has assumed responsibility in all areas of figure skating. It has established national tests of proficiency; it has prepared and adopted rules governing all aspects of figure skating; it has promoted the regular participation of Australians in international competitions, World Championships and Olympic Winter Games. It has also sent officials to and qualified judges for international competitions in all disciplines of the sport, the Olympic Winter Games, and for ISU Championships, again in all disciplines of the sport.

As a federal body set up by the States, the members of the Association are the State Associations. The Council is generally composed of nineteen representatives, three each from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Victoria (VIC) and Western Australia (WA), and one from Tasmania (TAS) as a limited member.

There have been several revisions of the Constitution, the latest being in April 2004.

During the 1997 Australian Figure Skating Championships, August 2 - 9, in Sydney, National Delegates voted to change the name of the Association to Ice Skating Australia Incorporated.