Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Australian. The country's law does not provide for any racial or ethnic component of nationality, instead relying on citizenship to define one as an Australian. In early colonial times, the term was primarily used for the native-born children of British and European settlers and convicts, before later broadening in scope.Irving, Helen. A Cultural History of Australia's Constitution, chapters 7–8. Since the postwar period, Australia has pursued an official policy of multiculturalism; it has the world's eighth-largest migrant population, with immigrants accounting for 30 percent of the population in 2019. Australian culture is of primarily Western origins, and is derived from its British, Indigenous and migrant components.
Between European colonisation in 1788 and the Second World War, the vast majority of settlers and immigrants came from the British Isles, although there was significant immigration from China and Germany during the 19th century. Many early settlements were initially penal colonies to house transported convicts. Immigration increased steadily, with an explosion of population in the 1850s following a series of gold rushes.
In the decades immediately following the Second World War, Australia received a large wave of immigration from across Europe, with many more immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe than in previous decades. Since the late 1970s, following the end of the White Australia policy in 1973, a large and continuing wave of immigration to Australia from around the world has continued into the 21st century, with Asia now being the largest source of immigrants. A smaller proportion of Australians are descended from its indigenous peoples, comprising Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.
The development of a distinctive Australian identity and national character began in the 19th century. The primary language is Australian English. Australia is home to a diversity of cultures, a result of its history of immigration. Since 1788, Australian culture has primarily been a Western culture, strongly influenced by early Anglo-Celtic settlers. The cultural divergence and evolution that has occurred over the centuries since European settlement has resulted in a distinctive identity.
As the Asian Australian population continues to expand and flourish as a result of changes in the demographic makeup of immigrants, and as there has been increased economic and cultural intercourse with Asian nations, Australia has observed the gradual emergence of a "Eurasian society" within its major urban hubs, blending both European and Asian material and popular culture within a distinctly Australian context. Other influences include Australian Aboriginal culture, traditions brought to the country by waves of immigration from around the world, and the culture of the United States.
History
The first human inhabitants and the ancestors of the Indigenous Australians migrated to the Australian continent from Asia approximately 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, traversing the open ocean to arrive at the ancient landmass known as Sahul. It is probable that they utilized canoes or rafts to travel between the islands of Southeast Asia.
Prior to British settlement, Australian Aboriginals were nomadic, frequently traveling over extensive distances, and primarily relied on a mix of hunting, gathering, and fishing. Their social structure was intricate, deeply connected to the land, and intertwined with beliefs about the spiritual realm. Following 1788, these ways of life started to transform or disappear as Australian Aboriginals were forced to compete with settlers. Conflict, fuelled alternatively by misunderstanding and prejudice, saw indigenous people subjugated, with some being killed and others forcibly removed from their traditional territories. The spread of European-borne diseases led to significantly elevated mortality rates.
The Colony of New South Wales was established by the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1788, with the arrival of the First Fleet, and five other colonies were established in the 19th century, now forming the six present-day Australian states. Large-scale immigration occurred following a series of gold rushes in the 1850s and after the First and Second World Wars, with many post-World War II migrants coming from Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and The Middle East. Since the end of the White Australia policy in 1973, immigrants to Australia have come from around the world, and from Asia in particular.
The predominance of the English language, the existence of a parliamentary system of government drawing upon the Westminster system, constitutional monarchy, American constitutionalist and federalist traditions, Christianity as the dominant religion, and the popularity of sports including Australian Football, cricket, rugby football and tennis are evidence of a significant British heritage. As a result of many shared linguistic, historical, cultural and geographic characteristics, Australians have often identified closely with New Zealanders in particular. Australian citizenship prior to 1949 was a social, moral, and political concept. Prior to the introduction of Australian citizenship, Australians had the status of "British subjects"."Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwell when he proclaimed in his speech to parliament announcing the 1948 Nationality and Citizenship Act that 'to say one is an Australian is, of course, to indicate beyond all doubt that one is British'." – A. Haebich, Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950–1970, 2008, p. 67 The High Court of Australia in Potter v Minahan (1908) stated that "Although there is no Australian nationality as distinguished from British nationality, there is an Australian species of British nationality."
Settlement of convicts
Ancestries The Australian Bureau of Statistics does not collect data on race, but asks each Australian resident to nominate up to two ancestries each census. These ancestry responses are classified into broad standardised ancestry groups. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses within each standardised group as a proportion of the total population was as follows: 57.2% European (including 46% North-West European and 11.2% Southern and Eastern European), 33.8% (including 29.9% Australian) Oceanian, 17.4% Asian (including 6.5% Southern and Central Asian, 6.4% North-East Asian, and 4.5% South-East Asian), 3.2% North African and Middle Eastern, 1.4% Peoples of the Americas, and 1.3% Sub-Saharan African. At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated individual ancestries as a proportion of the total population were:
European Australians
European Australians are Australians of whose descent is wholly or partially European. Australians of European descent are the majority in Australia, with the number of ancestry responses categorised within the European groups as a proportion of the total population amounting to 57.2% (including 46% North-West European and 11.2% Southern and Eastern European). The proportion of Australians with European ancestry is thought to be higher than the numbers captured in the census as those nominating their ancestry as "Australian" are classified within the Oceanian group, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most who nominate "Australian" as their ancestry are Anglo-Celtic Australians. Since soon after the beginning of British settlement in 1788, people of European descent have formed the majority of the population in Australia.
The largest statistical grouping of European Australians are Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in the British Isles. This includes English Australians, Irish Australians, Scottish Australians and Welsh Australians. Anglo-Celtic Australians have been highly influential in shaping the nation's character. By the mid-1840s, the numbers of freeborn settlers had overtaken the convict population. Although some observers stress Australia's convict history, the vast majority of early settlers came of their own free will. Far more Australians are descended from assisted immigrants than from convicts, the majority of Colonial Era settlers being British and Irish.J. Jupp, From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration, 2007, p. 16 About 20 percent of Australians are descendants of convicts. Most of the first Australian settlers came from London, the Midlands and the North of England, and Ireland.J. Jupp, The English in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 27R. Watts, P. Trudgill, Alternative Histories of the English Language, Routledge, 2002, p. 70B. Kachru, Y. Kachru, C. Nelson, The Handbook of World Englishes, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, p. 295
Settlers that arrived throughout the 19th century were from all parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, a significant proportion of settlers came from the Southwest and Southeast of England, from Ireland and from Scotland.C. Meierkord, Interactions across Englishes: Linguistic Choices in Local and International Contact Situations (Studies in English Language), Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 37 In 1888, 60 percent of the Australian population had been born in Australia, and almost all had British ancestral origins. Out of the remaining 40 percent, 34 percent had been born in the British Isles, and 6 percent were of European origin, mainly from Germany and Scandinavia. The census of 1901 showed that 98 percent of Australians had Anglo-Celtic ancestral origins. In 1939 and 1945, still 98 percent of Australians had Anglo-Celtic ancestral origins. Until 1947, the vast majority of the population were of British origin.
Germans formed the largest non-British Isles ancestry for most of the 19th century.G. Leitner, Australia's Many Voices: Australian English—The National Language, 2004, p. 79 Between 1901 and 1940, 140,000 non-British European immigrants arrived in Australia (about 16 percent of the total intake).V. Colic-Peisker, Migration, Class and Transnational Identities: Croatians in Australia and America (Studies of World Migrations), 2008, p. 72 Before World War II, 13.6 percent were born overseas, and 80 percent of those were British.J. Abowd, R. Freeman, Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, 2007, p. 386 Following the Second World War, large numbers of continental Europeans immigrated to Australia, with Italian Australians and Greek Australians being among the largest immigrant groups during the post-war era. During the 1950s, Australia was the destination of 30 per cent of Dutch emigrants and the Netherlands-born became numerically the second largest non-British group in Australia. In 1971, 70 percent of the foreign born were of European origin.