1 Populations based on Sri Lankan born population only, 2016 census.[2]
Sri Lankan Australians (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලාංකික ඕස්ට්රේලියානුවන්, Tamil: இலங்கை ஆஸ்திரேலியர்கள்) are people of Sri Lankan heritage living in Australia; this includes Sri Lankans by birth and by ancestry. Sri Lankan Australians constitute one of the largest groups of Overseas Sri Lankan communities and are the largest diasporic Sri Lankan community in Oceania. Sri Lankan Australians consist of people with Sinhalese, Tamil, Moor, Burgher, Malay and Chinese origins among others.[3]
Recorded Sri Lankan immigration to Australia started in 1816, with the transportation of Drum Major William O'Dean (a Sri Lankan Malay) and his wife Eve (a Sinhalese). Early immigrants from Sri Lanka (at that time known as Ceylon) were generally (unlike the O'Deans) absorbed into the Aboriginal population. Other early references of Sri Lankan migration date back to the 1870s when authorities in South Australia sought out the possibility of importing labour from Ceylon.[5] The first Sinhalese from Sri Lanka arrived in 1870 to work in sugarcane plantations in Queensland. A community was believed to exist on Thursday Island in 1876. In 1882, a group of 500 left Colombo for Queensland, mostly in Mackay.[5]
20th century
The number of permanent settlers arriving in Australia from Sri Lanka since 1991 (monthly)
Under the White Australia policy, immigration was negligible. It resumed after the Second World War primarily involving migration of Burghers, who fulfilled the then criteria that they should be of predominantly European ancestry and that their appearance should be European. By 1954 around 2000 Sri Lankans had been accepted. Sinhalese migration began in the 1960s but it was after the mid-1970s that large groups arrived, which also included Christians and Buddhists. During the 1970s intake restrictions loosened and Sri Lankan students undertook courses in Australia as part of the Colombo Plan prior to the formal dismantling of the White Australia policy, and after 1973 and from the early 1980s Sinhalese, Tamil and Moor migration resumed and increased.[5][6]
Present
In The Australian People, S. Pinnawala writes that "social interaction between the various Sri Lankan migrant groups has often been influenced by factors originating in their home country".
In the 1980s, on a reflection of ethnic unrest in Sri Lanka, tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities grew. However, in Pinnawala's opinion, more recently a Sri Lankan identity has developed among the various religious and ethnic migrants.
This has led to many new community organisations being established to promote Sri Lankan culture and traditions. There have also been strong links formed between Sinhalese Buddhists now living in Australia and their co-religionists from Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. Similar trends can be traced between Christian migrants from Sri Lanka who now live in Australia.[5]
People born in Sri Lanka as a percentage of the population in Sydney divided geographically by postal area, as of the 2011 censusPeople with Sinhalese ancestry as a percentage of the population in Sydney, divided geographically by postal area, as of the 2011 census
The city of Melbourne contains just under half of the Sri Lankan Australians. Fewer than 20% are estimated to live outside New South Wales and Victoria.
The number of Sri Lankan Australians counted in 1996, including the second-generation, was 64,068. The 2011 census recorded 86,412 Sri Lankans born in Australia.
The rate of assimilation among Sri Lankan Australians is fairly high: among second-generation immigrants, the 'in-marriage' rate was extremely low – 5.6% for brides and 3.0% for grooms.
Sinhalese Australians have an exceptionally low rate of return migration to Sri Lanka. In December 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 800 Australian citizens resident in Sri Lanka. It is unclear whether these were returning Sri Lankan emigrants with Australian citizenship, their Sri Lankan Australian children, or other Australians present on business or for some other reason.
Tamils in Australia numbered 19,426 in the 2011 Census.[7] The majority of Tamils born in Sri Lanka came to Australia after 1983 when Sri Lanka faced ethnic turmoil and unrest (Black July). The Western suburbs of Sydney and the South Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne have a relatively high number of Tamil speaking people. There were 73161 Tamil speakers according to the 2016 Census, with the largest proportion of people across Australia in the Western Sydney suburb of Westmead (1,425 people, or 3.6% of people in that suburb), followed by Toongabbie (1,404 people, or 3.5% of people in that suburb).[8] Numerous Tamil schools and Hindu Temples have been established in all main cities to cater for the growing Sri Lankan Tamil population.
Analysis of 2011 census by language and ancestry[9]
In 2006, there were 29,055 Australians who spoke Sinhalese at home.[10] SBS Radio is available in Sinhalese,[11] and Melbourne television channel Channel 31 runs the Sri Lankan Morning show, which has sections in Sinhalese.[12]
In 2016, 40.8% from Sri Lankan Australians population identifying as Buddhists, 20.7% as Catholic, 18.8% as Hindus, 4.2% as Anglican and 3.7% as Irreligion.[14]
Most Sinhalese in Australia are Theravada Buddhists, and a small percentage of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity. Sri Lankans have established many Theravada Buddhist temples across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia including the Dhamma Sarana Buddhist Temple of Melbourne's eastern suburbs.[15]
The majority of Sri Lankan Tamils are Hindu. The Sydney Murugan Temple was constructed for the needs of the high Tamil population in Western Sydney. Smaller temples have been built in the greater Sydney area. The Siva Vishnu Temple in Carrum Downs south east of Melbourne is also a temple built by Sri Lankan Tamils. The Sunshine Murugan Temple in western Melbourne also caters to the Tamil community. In other cities such as Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Townsville, Darwin, Canberra and Hobart, Hindu temples have also been built.
^"People of Sri Lanka"(PDF). The Ministry of National Coexistence, Dialogue and Official Languages. March 2017. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
Information about Sri Lankans in Australia can be obtained from the following publications.
Gamage, S. 'Curtains of culture, ethnicity, and class: changing composition of the Sri Lankan community in Australia, Journal of intercultural studies, vol 19(1), 1998,pp. 37–56.
Gamage, S. 2001. Sinhalese in Australia, in The Australian people – An Encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins(ed) James Jupp, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, pp, 684–685.
Gamage, S. 2002. Adaptation Experiences of Sri Lankan Immigrants and their Children in Australia in the Context of Multiculturalism and Anglo-Conformity, in Annette Richardson and Michael Wyness (eds) Exploring Cultural Perspectives: Integration and Globalization, International Cultural Research Network (ICRN) Press, Edmonton, pp. 3–29.
Gamage, S. 2014. Life of Sri Lankans in Australia: identity, lifestyle and dilemmas of living between two cultures, Island (29.01.2014), Colombo.
Reeves, P. 2014. The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora, Editions Didier Millet Pty Ltd. Singapore.
