The Australian Antarctic Medal (AAM) was established in 1987 to recognise outstanding service by people connected with Australian Antarctic expeditions. The Australian Antarctic Medal replaced the British Polar Medal and its variations which date back to 1857 for service in the Antarctic and Arctic regions.

Each Australian Antarctic Medal is differentiated by a date bar indicating the period of service in the Antarctic. A person recieving a subsequent award of the medal wears a further appropriate date bar on the ribbon or the original insignia.

Recipients of the medal are entitled to use the post-nominal letters ‘AAM’.