The Donkey Society of Australia and New Zealand was formed in the early 1970's when truckloads of donkeys were being  transported down from the Northern Territory under inhumane conditions. The society's efforts resulted in legislation being passed to ensure that transport was much more humane, and many donkey studs came into existence.
The Society became The Donkey Society of Australia, then became state societies. The Affiliated Donkey Society of Australia was formed for the purpose of National Registration and publication of Donkey Digest. Each state society was incorporated separately. Up until this time there were only Australian Donkeys, but then some English/Irish donkeys were imported and a separate registry was kept for them. Then Miniature donkeys were also imported and in 1999 the first Mammoth jack since about the 1930's was imported then followed by more mammoths..
The ADSA registry now caters for all breeds and Donkey Digest is produced quarterly and distributed to all member states