Finnish Australians

Finnish Australians (Finnish: Australiansuomalaiset) are Australian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finland-born people who reside in Australia. According to Finnish estimates, there are approximately 30,000 Australians of Finnish ancestry, and about 7,500 Finland-born Finns residing in Australia.[2]

Finnish Australians
Australiansuomalaiset
Total population
7,939 (by birth, 2011 Census)[1]
22,420 (by ancestry, 2011 Census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Mount Isa
Languages
Australian English · Finnish
Religion
Lutheranism
Related ethnic groups
Finnish New Zealanders, Estonian Australians

History

The first person from Finland to arrive in Australia was Herman Spöring Jr. from Turku, who was part of the first voyage of James Cook that landed on the continent in 1770. The first Finns to migrate permanently were joining the Victorian gold rush in the 1850's.[3] More migration followed in the following decades to Queensland. In 1899, Matti Kurikka tried to establish a utopian community in Chillagoe with about a 100 Finns, though the experiment failed within a year.[4]

Many Finnish immigrants began arriving in Australia between 1947 and 1971. When these new immigrants came to Australia, they were taken to migrant camps. Once in the camp, they were given free room and board until the head of the family was assigned his first job. The largest and best-known of these camps was Bonegilla, a former military camp in northern Victoria. Most of these Finns, along with more than 300,000 immigrants from other countries, began their new lives in Bonegilla during this period.[5]

A migrant camp located in Bonegilla, Victoria in 1954. Groups of immigrants were housed there until they were destined for a job and a place to settle with their families.

The first group of Finnish immigrants who arrived in Australia came to work in the gold mines of Victoria in the 1850s. Years later, after the first significant wave of Finnish immigration in the 1920s, a second major wave of immigrants from the Nordic country takes place again, this being more numerous than the first one. Finns were usually hired to perform heavy physical labour. Despite this, they were particularly attracted by the income from the sugar cane fields and mining in Mount Isa, in north Queensland. As a result, Mount Isa has one of the largest Finnish communities in Australia.

At the end of the Second World War, around 20,000 Finns had moved to Australia. In the last three decades the Finnish immigration has dropped significantly.

In the mid 1950s an economic crisis occurs in Finland causing a new wave of Finnish immigration to Australia. One of the main reasons for leaving Finland, besides crisis, was Australia's reinvigorated assisted passage scheme.

Statistics

The below table shows the number of residents in Australia that were Finnish-born or Australian-born with Finnish ancestry at different times.[3][6]

Year Finnish-born Finnish ancestry
1921 1,358
1954 1,733
1961 6,488
1971 10,359
1991 9,110
2011 7,939 22,420
2016 7,711 24,144
2021 7,831 27,811

Notable people
The Holy Trinity Finnish Lutheran Church in Canberra

See also

References
  1. Australian Government - Department of Immigration and Border Protection. "Finnish Australians". Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  2. Embassy of Finland, Canberra. "History of the Finns in Australia". Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  3. Watson, G. (1997). "The Finnish-Australian English Corpus*". S2CID 128284076. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. "Matti Kurikka (1863-1915)". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 December 2000. p. 95. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  5. "Finnish Immigration to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s". Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  6. "SBS Census Explorer: How diverse is your community?". SBS News. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
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