Assyrian Australians () are ethnic Assyrians or people of Assyrian descent possessing Australian nationality. According to the most recent census, 40,218 persons are Assyrian, while 21,166 identified themselves as having Chaldean ancestry.Kinarah: Twentieth Anniversary of Assyrian Australian Association 1989, Assyrian Australian Association, Edensor Park. The majority of Assyrian Australians have immigrated from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan and the Caucasus. The first Assyrians arrived in Australia in the 1950s, to flee from the 1958 revolution in Iraq.
Of the 61,400 Assyrians in Australia, 40,218 are members of the Assyrian Church of the East or Ancient Church of the East and 21,172 are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The City of Fairfield, in Sydney, has the most Assyrians in Australia, with 75% of Assyrians living in that area. 95% of Fairfield's Iraqi-born population are of Assyrian ancestry. Fairfield LGA has one of the most predominant Assyrian communities in the diaspora, where one in every ten person is Assyrian. In contrast to other migrants, Assyrians have the highest rate of acquiring the Australian citizenship.Community Relations Commission For a Multicultural NSW 2004, Cultural Harmony. The Next Decade 2002–2012 (White Paper), New South Wales Government, Sydney South.
In the 1980s, the Iraq-Iran war resulted in significant numbers of Assyrians fleeing Iraq and applying for refugee status. In the early 2000s, 5% of Australia's humanitarian immigrants identified as being adherents of Syriac churches. In May 2013, the Assyrian genocide was recognised by the New South Wales state parliament. Assyrian-Australians have established various clubs, social organisation, churches and language schools. In the 2021 census, 61,930 Australians reporting having Assyrian or Chaldean ancestry, representing 0.2% of the population.
History Early immigration (1950s–1970s) The first Assyrian, named Brian Youkhana, arrived in Sydney in 1951, from Lebanon, where he was joined by his siblings four years later. In the late 1950s, another family settled in Perth.ASSYRIAN COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING IN FAIRFIELD CITY by Greg Gow with Ashur Isaac, Paul Gorgees, Marlin Babakhan and Kardonia Daawod. University of Western Sydney. Retrieved 26 December 2023. By 1965, there were around five Assyrian families and a few individuals living in the eastern Sydney suburbs of Randwick, Paddington and Clovelly. Although around 80% of the arrivals lived in the suburbs of Fairfield LGA in Greater Western Sydney, some Assyrians settled in the eastern suburbs, a region on Sydney's coast. During that period 4,500 Assyrians came from Iraq, 2,500 from Iran and 1,000 from Syria and Lebanon. According to Dinkha Warda, Fairfield was the most popular settlement among Assyrians for reason as follows:Assyrian Australian Association & Ettinger House 1997, Settlement Issues of the Assyrian Community, AAA, Sydney.
Back in 1966, a small meeting was held between the early settlers to decide the future of Assyrians in this country...In 1966, Fairfield's developed area went west up to the Cumberland Highway. The majority of those attending the meeting agreed to establish the Assyrian community in Fairfield. The reason was to centralise the development of all the Assyrian social, religious and sporting activities, allowing greater access and participation. If we remained in the Sydney city area, we would have scattered. And so, four or five families purchased fibro houses in Fairfield (including myself), and a few bought blocks of land.
In 1969, after the settlement of Assyrians in the Fairfield area, the Assyrian Australian Association (AAA) was established. The significance of the AAA is based primarily on the fact that it was the first registered Assyrian organisation in Australia. Prior to AAA, there had existed an unofficial club called the Assyrian Australian Club which was established in 1966 and initially based for the Assyrians residing in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney prior to the move to the Fairfield area. The Assyrian Australian Club was replaced with the Assyrian Sports and Cultural Club in 1972, the second official Assyrian secular organisation to be registered in NSW after the AAA. After a brief period of inactivity, the Assyrian Sports and Cultural Club was relocated to the Fairfield area after many Assyrians moved during the housing boom in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, where it has remained active since. In the 1970s, a few soccer clubs were established as the Assyrian community began to have a prominence. An Assyrian language school was formed in 1974, thanks to the AAA.
Community growth (1980s–2000s)
In 1980, the Nineveh Club, a prominent Assyrian club in Edensor Park, Sydney, was established. Built with artificial mud brick, the club was designed after Assyrian royal palace in Nineveh. The entryway features two winged bull statues containing the body of a lion, the head of an Assyrian king and wings of an eagle. In the late 1980s, the Church of the East was controversially split – The Church of the East in Australia from that time on now has two denominations; The 'old' (Ancient Church of the East) and the 'new' (Assyrian Church of the East).
As the Assyrian community grew in the late 1980s, the Assyrian Sports and Cultural Club leased its premises from 1990 onwards, in Fairfield Heights, Sydney and acquired liquor and gaming licenses. The club later purchased its current building in 1997, and it was officially opened in 2000. Currently, it is the only Assyrian club in operation after the closure of the Nineveh Club in 2008. The club co-hosted sports events such as The Assyrian Cup soccer tournaments and held functions and activities for the community. It has supported migrants, who arrived in the 1990s, settle in the country and it encouraged education by aiding achievers in the high school certificate. During the late 1990s, there was an increased level of Assyrian migration to Australia under the family reunion, refugee and humanitarian programs. Reportedly, around 903 Assyrian arrivals were allowed under the Australian Government's Special Humanitarian Program and the Family Reunion Program.2004, Australia's Support for Humanitarian Entrants 2003–04, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
In 1997, it was reported that, for the Assyrian youth, lack of English skills was the major impediment for gaining employment, school achievement and becoming socially manoeuvrable in the Australian society. For instance, some Fairfield High School Assyrians wanted to go to university but felt hopeless because of their poor English. As such, several Assyrian churches developed a number of youth programs. For Assyrians with a higher education, the problem was also language and unacceptability of overseas qualifications, which prevented them from pursuing their careers.
The opening of St Hurmizd Assyrian Primary School in 2002, in Sydney, was the first school from the ACOE that was established in the international diaspora. In 2006, also in Sydney, St. Narsai Assyrian Christian College was established. It was the first ACOE high school to be built in the western world.
Post-Iraqi war (2010s–present)
In August 2010, a memorial monument for the Assyrian genocide was erected in Bonnyrigg. The statue, 4.5 meters tall, is of a hand of a martyr draped in an Assyrian flag. The memorial is placed in a reserve, to be named the Garden of Nineveh. The statue and the name for the reserve were proposed in August 2009. After consultation with the community, Fairfield Council received more than 100 submissions, including some from overseas, and two petitions. The proposal was condemned by the Turkish community. Turkey's consul general to Sydney expressed resentment about the monument, while acknowledging that tragedies had occurred to Assyrians in the period, as well as to Turks.
In August 2014, more than 6,000 Assyrians marched in Belmore Park in Sydney CBD to protest against the treatment of their Assyrian counterparts in Iraq and Syria by ISIL. Many wore T-shirts reading the hashtag #WeAreN, and chanted "we want peace, we want justice" and "save our Christians". They also waved posters, which read "stop genocide against our Christians" and "stop crimes against humanity". They marched in Elizabeth Street, through the city to Martin Place. Assyrian Community leaders made passionate speeches requesting that the Australian and other international governments help those being persecuted in the Middle East.
In 2015, the Abbott government announced that 12,000 extra humanitarian visas would be given to persecuted groups in the war-torn Middle Eastern countries. The Department of Social Services confirmed that 11,400 Iraqi and Syrian refugees, many of whom being Assyrian, were admitted to Australia as part of its one-off humanitarian intake, where they would primarily settle in Fairfield and Liverpool. The Assyrians told SBS World News they were in a state of despair, as they hoped more of their kin from the Middle East were brought to Australia. Carmen Lazar, manager of the Assyrian Resource Centre, said, "If they can just lend another hand, you know, give us another 12,000 intake, just to release that pressure from what's happening overseas".
On 15 April 2024, Assyrians were a target in a terrorist attack at a Wakeley church, where an Islamic extremist stabbed bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and five others. All survived.
Demographics Distribution Sydney
In Sydney, Assyrians are the leading ethnic group in the Fairfield LGA suburbs of Fairfield, Fairfield Heights and Greenfield Park. Ample amount of Assyrians exist in other suburbs in the Fairfield LGA, such as, Bossley Park, Prairiewood, Wakeley, Wetherill Park, Abbotsbury, Smithfield, Fairfield West, Bonnyrigg Heights, Horsley Park and Cecil Park.Deniz, F. 2000, 'Maintenance and Transformation of Ethnic Identity: the Assyrian Case’, The Assyrian Australian Academic Journal One in every ten people living in Fairfield City is of Assyrian heritage. Fairfield Public School and Fairfield High School have high a proportion of Assyrian students, and as well as Bossley Park High School.
In City of Liverpool, a LGA that borders Fairfield City, they're found in Cecil Hills, Green Valley, Hoxton Park, Hinchinbrook and Middleton Grange. In the southern and eastern suburbs, they're mainly found in Hillsdale, Matraville, as well as Maroubra.
Sydney's local government areas with the most Assyrians, population and percentage-wise:Greater Sydney – Ancestry
Greater Fairfield is home to over 20,000 Assyrians.
Fairfield City: 13,437 (5.7%)2016 Census QuickStats – Fairfield City Liverpool City: 2,451 (1.3%) Bayside Council: 635 (1.22%) Blacktown City: 459 (0.15%) Canterbury-Bankstown: 202 (0.11%)
Melbourne In Melbourne, Assyrians tend to be found in the northwest region, in the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park and Fawkner. According to the 2016 census, Melbourne had around 13,000 citizens who claimed Assyrian ancestry.Stone, W. 2001, Measuring Social Capital: Towards a theoretically informed measurement framework for researching social capital in family and community life, Research Paper No. 24, February, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne.
The population of Assyrians in the suburbs of Melbourne (2016 census): Roxburgh Park – 3,281 Craigieburn – 2,573 Meadow Heights – 1,334 Greenvale – 571 Coolaroo – 337 Gladstone Park, Victoria – 199
Brisbane In Brisbane, small Assyrian communities are slowly growing around the Moreton Bay area such as Bracken Ridge and Strathpine including in Logan City such as Woodridge and Loganlea due to the recent Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming into Australia.
According to the 2016 census, they are 311 Assyrians living in Brisbane which has almost doubled from the 2011 census. 407 Iraqis according to the 2016 census in Brisbane identified as Christian.
General statistics