HANDOUT – Australia: A Culturally Diverse Society

Australia has a tolerant and inclusive society made up of people from many
different backgrounds. Cultural diversity is a central feature of our national
identity.
In 1900, the Australian population consisted of a relatively small number of
Indigenous people (estimated at 95,000) and an overwhelming majority of
Europeans (3.7 million), mostly from Britain. By 2013, Australia’s population
had exceeded 23 million, including people from around 200 countries.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are culturally diverse and belong
to many language groups. Their lives were changed irrevocably after the
British claimed Australia in 1788.

European settlement began with the establishment of British penal colonies,

and more than 160 000 convicts were brought here until transportation as
punishment ceased in 1868. From the early 1790s, the convicts were joined
by free immigrants.
The gold rush era of the 1850s was also influential in bringing people from
many parts of the world. The largest non-European group who came during
this time was Chinese.

The State of Victoria has been enriched by the presence of people from all
over the world. At the 2011 Census 26.2% of Victoria's population were born
overseas and 46.8% of Victorians were either born overseas, or have a parent
who was born overseas. Victorians come from more than 200 countries,
speak more than 230 languages and dialects and follow more than 130
religious faiths. Most of the overseas-born Victorians came to Australia as
migrants hoping to find a better life for themselves and their children. A
significant number came to Australia as refugees – first Europeans displaced
by the Second World War, then refugees from the war in Indo-China and
more recently refugees from conflicts in the republics of the former
Yugoslavia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.