German settlement in Australia

German settlement in Australia began in large numbers in 1838, with the arrival of immigrants from Prussia to Adelaide, South Australia. German immigrants became prominent in settling South Australia and Queensland. From 1850 until World War I, German settlers and their descendants comprised the largest non-British or Irish group of Europeans in Australia.

On 23 April 1838, the barque Kinnear arrived at Sydney carrying six German wine growing families. Johann Justus, Friedrich Seckold, Johann Stein, Caspar Flick, Georg Gerhard and Johann Wenz, were the first German vinedressers in Australia. Hundreds of Germans followed their arrival in Australia. They worked in the vineyards belonging to John Macarthur's son William Macarthur in what is now Camden. These six families were recruited from the Rheingau region of Hesse by Major Edward Macarthur.

The second group arrived with Pastor August Kavel on the ships Prince George, and Bengalee. These first immigrants to settle from what is today known as Germany were escaping from what they considered to be religious persecution at the hands of Prussian King Frederick William III. The group was composed of Lutheran immigrants who had left their homeland mainly because of their rejection of Prussian state enforcement of a new prayer book for church services. They developed a settlement at Klemzig, six kilometres from Adelaide, named after their namesake home town in the Prussian province of Brandenburg.

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