Ukrainian Australians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Ukrainian 13,990 (by birth, 2011 census) 38,791 (by ancestry, 2011 census)) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth | |
| Languages | |
| Ukrainian, Australian English | |
| Religion | |
| Ukrainian Byzantine Catholicism, Ukrainian Eastern Orthodoxy, Judaism |
Ukrainian Australians refers to Australian citizens of Ukrainian descent, or Ukraine-born people who emigrated to Australia. They are an ethnic minority in Australia, numbering about 38,000 people according to the 2011 Census. Currently, the main concentrations of Ukrainians are located in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
One of the first Ukrainian migrants to Australia was Mykhailo Hlyb, who in the 1860s established a sheep farm. A notable Ukrainian who visited Australia was Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay, an ethnographer and naturalist who came to Australia in 1878, and besides scientific and ethnographic studies, was responsible for the building of Australia's first biological field station at Watson's Bay in NSW.
Prior to World War I, up to 5,000 Ukrainians migrated to Australia, with some settling in communities in Brisbane. However, the main body of Ukrainians emigrated to Australia along with other nationalities in the post-World War II wave of refugees from Europe. These refugees were called "displaced persons" and started arriving in 1948 as part of the International Refugee Organization resettlement agreement or on assisted passages which included 2-year work contracts with the Australian Government. The 1947 Australian Census did not list Ukraine as a birthplace, though the 1954 Census recorded 14,757 as Ukraine-born.
The number of migrants from Soviet Ukraine was minimal, though there was a limited migration of Ukrainians from communities in Poland and Yugoslavia. In 1991 Ukraine gained independence, and over the next five years the Ukraine-born population increased for the first time in many decades, in Victoria from 2,937 in 1991 to 5,370 in 1996. Many of these new post-independence migrants were young professionals in the fields of science, mathematics and computer technology.
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Wikipedia