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Greek Australians

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Greek Australians
Regions with significant populations
Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, [[Newcastle, New South Wales[Newcastle]]
Languages
Australian English, Greek, Cretan Greek, Maniot Greek, Cypriot Greek, Pontic Greek
Religion
Predominantly Greek Orthodox

Greeks are the eighth-largest ethnic group in Australia, after those declaring their ancestry simply as "Australian". In the 2011 census, 378,160 persons declared having Greek Nationality and 22,700 persons declared having Greek-Cypriot Nationality, either alone or in conjunction with another ethnicity.[2] The 2006 census recorded 125,849 people of Greek Nationality born in Greece and 21,149 in Cyprus,[3][4][5] though it is uncertain how many of the latter are Greek Cypriots. There are also a large number of Greek-Australian citizens that come from the Greek regions of Crete, Macedonia, Mani Peninsula, Messenia, Thessaly, Cyprus, the Greek islands, or from areas outside Greece such as Pontus, Egypt and Ionia.The modern Greek diaspora has produced around 60,000 Kytherian descendants in Australia.http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Cythera_(island

Early immigration

The first ever Greek immigrants 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.[6] Though eventually pardoned, two of the seven Greeks stayed and settled in the country. The first known free Greek migrant 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.[7] The first free Greek settler to South Australia was Giorgios Tramountanas who arrived in Port 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.

20th Century immigration

The 1901 census recorded 878 Greek-born, but this must surely omit a few hundred other ethnic Greek Immigrants from the Ottoman Empire and elsewhere. The expulsion of Greeks from Asia Minor in 1922–23 led to further Greek Immigration to Australia, primarily to New South Wales. These Greeks are were mainly form Kythera and Castellorizia. The number of Greeks from Greece proper had risen to 12,291 by the time of the 1947 census.

Each dot denotes 100 Greek-born Sydney residents
Each dot denotes 100 Greek-born Melbourne residents

Greeks were one of the main groups targeted by Australian Government immigration schemes in the 1950s and 1960s. By 1971 there were 160,200 Greek-born Greeks 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 having one of the largest Greek communities in the world, although it is difficult to confirm this fact given the different methods countries use to conceptualise and measure people of particular nationalities. In 2006, 149,195 persons in the Melbourne Statistical District claimed Greek Nationality, either alone or in combination with another Nationality.[8] Four Greek cities had larger populations in 2007. In addition 224,500 people live in the Greek part of Nicosia, and 159,763 Greek Americans live in New York State.

Return immigration

Greek-Australian citizens have an exceptionally high rate of return immigration 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 immigrants with Australian citizenship, and their Greek Australian citizen children.

Religion

According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2006, Greek-Australian citizens 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.[9]

Greek language

In 2011, the Greek language was spoken at home by 252,211 Australian residents, a 4.125% decrease from the 2001 census data. Greek is the fifth most commonly spoken language in Australia after English, Chinese, Arabic and Italian.[10]

Greeks by state

List of countries and territories by Greek population
Rank State/Territory Capital City Greek Population Total State/Territory Population Total Capital City Population
1 New South Wales Sydney 126,903 6,917,601 4,667,283
3 Queensland Brisbane 27,624 4,332,732 2,189,878
4 Western Australia Hobart 13,821 2,239,185 1,728,877
6 Tasmania Hobart 2,174 495,356 216,959
2 Victoria Melbourne 171,157 5,354,023 4,246,345
5 South Australia Adelaide 39,803 1,796,588 1,277,174
8 Northern Territory Darwin 3,636 211,985 131,678
7 Australian Capital Territory Canberra 4,552 357,221 347,622

Notable Greek Australians

Academic

Art and design

Business

Fashion

Film, theatre and television

Costas Mandylor – actor

Journalism

Justice

Stephen Comino - pioneer environmental lawyer notable the preservation of Fraser Island QLD

Music

Politics

Religion

Science and technology

Professor Manuel Aroney - organic chemistry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Aroney

Sport

Australian Rules

Boxing and Kickboxing

Cricket

Football (Soccer)

Martial Arts

Rugby League

Sailing

Shooting

Skiing

Tennis

Wrestling

Writing

See also

References

  • Tamis, Anastasios (2005). The Greeks in Australia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54743-1
  • Gilchrist, Hugh (1992). Australians and Greeks Volume I: The Early Years. Brown, Prior, Anderson Pty. Ltd.. ISBN 1-874684-01-8

Citations

  1. ^ "ABS Ancestry". 2012.
  2. ^ 2006 Census Table: Ancestry by Country of Birth of Parents – Time Series Statistics (2001, 2006 Census Years)
  3. ^ 2006 Census Table: Country of Birth of Person by Sex – Time Series Statistics (1996, 2001, 2006 Census Years)
  4. ^ 2006 Census Table: Country of Birth of Person (full classification list) by Sex
  5. ^ Ethnic Media Package
  6. ^ de Hartog, The Greeks in Australia, p. 31.
  7. ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
  8. ^ Cat. No. 2068.0 – 2006 Census Tables 2006 Census of Population and Housing Melbourne (Statistical Division) – Vic. ANCESTRY (REGION) BY COUNTRY OF BIRTH OF PARENTS
  9. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistic
  10. ^ 2006 Census Table: Language Spoken at Home by Sex – Time Series Statistics (1996, 2001, 2006 Census Years)
  11. ^ "The Australian People" an encyclopedia of the nation, it's people and their origins, by James Jupp – published 1988

12 http://www.letsgostudy.com.au/Greeks_in_Australia

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