Austhink Consulting was founded in 2000 after some initial explorations in the late 1990s.  Tim van Gelder had completed a Research Fellowship in cognitive science at the University of Melbourne, and was interested to apply some of what he had learnt in 20 years' study of human thinking to "real world" problems.  Paul Monk meanwhile had gained first hand experience of such real world thinking, and its challenges, through working for the Defense Intelligence Organisation.   Austhink Consulting was conceived as a partnership aimed at producing tangible improvements in thinking on critical issues through the application of cognitive science.  

Austhink soon developed regular work training intelligence analysts in critical thinking in Australia and the United States.  Austhink's distinctive methodology, argument mapping, has since become a standard part of the analytical training in the US intelligence community. 

In 2004, Austhink Consulting created a sister company, Austhink Software, to develop world-class software for visual deliberation for its training and consulting operations.  Austhink Software developed the Rationale and bCisive packages which, besides being the core tools used in Austhink Consulting's work, are used in hundreds of other organisations around the world.  

Meanwhile Austhink Consulting was broadening its client base to include a range of organisations in the corporate, professional, government and educational sectors.

In recent years Austhink Consulting has shifted its emphasis from training to facilitation. We now focus our efforts primarily on helping teams improve their thinking on complex or challenging issues by complementing the team's domain expertise and knowledge with Austhink principals' expertise in visual deliberation. We find that this delivers real business value faster and in a more targeted manner than attempting to modify the deliberative skills of team members themselves.