The Australian Respiratory Council has a long and proud place in the history of public health in NSW. Founded before World War I as the National Association for the Prevention and Cure of Consumption it opened the first anti-tuberculosis dispensary in Australia in September 1912.

Over the years the name was changed. In the early 1930s it became The Anti-Tuberculosis Association of New South Wales. The name was changed to Community Health and Anti-Tuberculosis Association in 1973. In mid-2001 the name was again changed to Community Health and Tuberculosis Australia. After considerable research, the name was changed to Australian Respiratory Council in March 2006.

In the 1940s CHATA as it became known began using mobile chest x-ray units for the detection of TB around NSW. By the 1950s there were eight mobile units taking 500,000 chest x-rays annually in NSW and other parts of Australia. At the same time, and for the next twenty years, CHATA operated a state-of-the-art TB research and diagnostic institute in Sydney and was invited to provide technical assistance and TB detection service in several Asia-Pacific countries.

From 1981, when the government took on the responsibility of mass TB screenings CHATA continued to serve the community through a mobile general screening service. In the early 1990s CHATA consolidated its role in the support of research grants and scholarships in the area of tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases. This research funding continues today, as does the provision of technical expertise relating to TB in the Asia-Pacific region.