From its inception in 1977 until its last year of publication by an Australian publisher in 2015, the "Australian Review of Applied Linguistics" featured over 700 articles related to applied linguistics. This publication history provides a unique resource for tracing the scope and change of the applied linguistics landscape in Australia over the last four decades. While the journal design and format have naturally undergone some changes in this time, in this paper we consider the nature of the articles themselves, whether there have been changes in coverage or emphasis, and what this can tell us about the history of and the changes in applied linguistics in Australia. Our analysis of the articles focuses in particular on two independent dimensions- the sub-field of applied linguistics and the particular language under focus in each article--and the changes in frequencies of each of these over time.