Australian High Commission

New Zealand

High Commission address: 72-76 Hobson Street, Thorndon, Wellington - Telephone: +64 (0)4 473 6411 - Fax: +64 (0)4 498 7135

Multiculturalism

Australians have always been and continue to be a diverse mix of people. It is estimated that Indigenous Australians have inhabited Australia for some 50 000 years. All other Australians are settlers or descendants of settlers arriving since 1788.

The First Fleet, which arrived from England in 1788, transported convicts from many different backgrounds: British, Italians, Greeks, Jews, and people from various other parts of Europe and Malays. The convicts and officials of the penal system were joined by free immigrants from the early 1790s. Migration continued at a steady pace reaching 50 000 a year during the gold rushes of the 1850s. Most settlers were from a British or Irish background. Migrants of other origins continued to arrive and influenced the development of Australian society, principally Germans, Chinese, Scandinavians, Indians, Italians, Pacific Islanders and Americans. At Federation in 1901 there were also small numbers of people born in France, Russia, Greece, Switzerland, other European countries, South Africa, Japan and other parts of Asia and the Pacific.

Despite restrictive Commonwealth immigration policies after Federation, Australia's population continued to include a proportion of people born in a wide range of countries. By 1947, 90 per cent of Australia's 7.6 million inhabitants were locally born (including the descendants of non-British settlers). Of the three-quarters of a million Australians born overseas most were from the United Kingdom or Ireland (550 000). However, communities existed from northern, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East and Asia, north and south America and the Pacific.

Despite its population growth up to 1945, at the end of World War II Australia was rich in untapped natural wealth but short of human resources to pursue national development. The Australian Government embarked on an extensive planned immigration program which, though modified over the years, continues to this day. The program started in 1946 with the offer of free or assisted passages for British ex-servicemen and their dependants and some other selected British migrants. The first group arrived in January 1947. The scheme was later extended to ex-service people or freedom fighters from the British Empire and its European and North American allies.

In the 1950s agreements between Australia and other governments enabled people from the USA, Turkey, the USSR and almost every country in Europe to migrate to Australia. About one million migrants arrived in each of the four decades following 1950. While the largest groups of settler arrivals in recent years continue to come from the United Kingdom and New Zealand, increasing numbers of migrants have arrived from China, Vietnam, the Middle East, South Africa and India.

At the time of the 2001 Census there were almost 19 million people in Australia. Twenty-two per cent had been born overseas, and more than 18 per cent of the Australia-born had at least one parent born overseas. More than 200 languages were spoken, including 62 Indigenous languages. Apart from English the most common were Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Spanish. In December 2003 Australia reached the 20 million mark.

Related weblinks -

• Learn about Australian Multiculturalism Policy at the government's website
http://www.immi.gov.au/multicultural/index.htm
• Download the Multicultural Australia - United through Diversity Kit
http://www.immi.gov.au/multicultural/australian/multikit.htm
• Making Multicultural Australia is a new website in developmen tfor kids and teachers - http://www.multiculturalaustralia.gov.au
• There is a great Immigration Museum in Melbourne
http://immigration.museum.vic.gov.au/