The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis magazine, to recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

The Aurealis Awards are intended to complement the Annual Australian National Science Fiction Convention’s Ditmar Awards and the Australian Children’s Book Council Awards. Neither of those awards distinguishes between the different categories of speculative fiction. We hope that the growing list of Aurealis Awards finalists and winners will increase the profile of Australian science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and provide an essential reading list for anyone interested in these genres.

The awards originally comprised four categories: science fiction, fantasy, horror, and young adult. A fifth category for children’s fiction (ages 8-12 years) was added in 2001.
The YA and children's categories cover works in all three speculative fiction genres.

These categories each have two separate awards, one for novels and one for short fiction.

Two changes to the awards’ process were introduced in 2008, the best-in-show Golden Aurealis Awards for novel and short fiction (introduced in 2004) were discontinued, and two new categories were introduced: best anthology and collection, and best illustrated work or graphic novel.

Submissions within a category are reviewed by a panel of at least three judges, which selects each year's finalists and winners. One of the judges on each panel is also the panel convenor.

There is also the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence, which is awarded at the discretion of the convenors for a particular achievement in speculative fiction or related areas in that year. This award may take into account a body of work or achievements over a number of years; it can also be for a work of non-fiction, artwork, electronic or multimedia work, or that which brings credit or attention to the speculative fiction genres. The award was originally known as The Convenors' Award for Excellence and was renamed in 2002 after Peter McNamara (d. 2004), publisher, editor and the original Aurealis Awards convenor, shortly after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Because this is a special award and the scope of the entries may vary greatly, entries for this award do not feature on the list of general Aurealis Awards 2009 entries.

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