| Notable Greek Australians: Jenny Mikakos • Anthony Koutoufides Peter Andre • Mark Philippoussis |
| Total population |
|---|
| 109,989 (Greek-born, 2006), 165,147 (Greek ancestry, 2006) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
Predominantly Greek Orthodox |
Greeks are the seventh-largest ethnic group in Australia, after those declaring their ancestry simply as "Australian". In the 2006 census, 365,147 persons declared having Greek ancestry, either alone or in conjunction with another ethnicity.[1] The 2006 census recorded 97,218 people of Greek ancestry born in Greece and 18,381 in Cyprus,[2][3][4] though it is uncertain how many of the latter are Greek Cypriots.
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The first Greek migrants to Australia were seven convict sailors convicted of piracy by a British naval court in 1829 and sent to serve out their terms in New South Wales.[5] Though eventually pardoned, two of the seven settled in the country. The first known free Greek immigrant to Australia was Katerina Georgia Plessos (1809–1907), who arrived in Sydney with her husband Major James Crummer in 1835. They married in 1827 on the island of Kalamos where Crummer, the island's commandant met the young refugee from the Greek independence wars. She is thought to be one of the last people to speak to Lord Byron. They lived in Sydney, Newcastle and Port Macquarie where she is buried. They had 11 children.[6] The first free Greek settler to South Australia was George Tramountanas who arrived in Pt. Adelaide in 1842. He was a Pastoralist on the West Coast of South Australia and eventually became a well-respected sheep farmer and prominent member of the Elliston District. He is revered by the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia as their Pioneering Grandfather. Groups of Greeks then settled in significant numbers during the gold rushes of the 1850s.
The 1901 census recorded 878 Greek-born, but this must surely omit a few hundred other ethnic Greek migrants from the Ottoman Empire and elsewhere. The expulsion of Greeks from Asia Minor in 1922-23 led to further Greek migration to Australia, primarily to New South Wales. These Greeks are difficult to trace but the number of Greeks from Greece proper had risen to 12,291 by the time of the 1947 census.
Greeks – alongside Italians – were one of the main groups targeted by Australian Government migration schemes in the 1950s and 1960s. By 1971 there were 160,200 Greek-born persons in Australia, and smaller numbers from Cyprus and Egypt. Today, just under half of the Greek-born (49.6%) live in Victoria, with a further third in New South Wales (31.7%). In comparison, only 24.7% of Australians as a whole live in Victoria, underlining the density of the Greek presence there.
Melbourne has been known as one of the largest Greek cities in the world, although it is difficult to confirm this fact given the different methods countries use to conceptualise and measure people of particular backgrounds. In 2006, 149,195 persons in the Melbourne Statistical District claimed Greek ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry.[7] Four Greek cities had larger populations in 2007. In addition 224,500 persons reside in the Greek part of Nicosia, and 159,763 Greek Americans reside in New York State.
Greek Australians have an exceptionally high rate of return migration to Greece. In December 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 135,000 Australian citizens resident in Greece. It is assumed that these are mostly returned Greek emigrants with Australian citizenship, and their Greek Australian children.
According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2006, Greek Australians are mainly Christian by religion, with 95.3% of Greece-born persons identifying with that religion. 1.6% identified with no religion or atheism, and a further 1.1% identified with other religions, while 1.9% did not answer the census question on religion.[8]
In 2006, the Greek language was spoken at home by 252,222 Australian residents, a 4.125% decrease from the 2001 census data. Greek is the fourth most commonly spoken language in Australia after English, Chinese and Italian.[9]
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