Estonian Australians
Eestlased Austraalias (Estonian)
Total population
1,928 (by birth, 2011 Census)[1]
8,551 (by ancestry, 2011 Census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Estonia-born people by state or territory
 New South Wales731[1]
 Victoria365[1]
 Queensland290[1]
 Western Australia240[1]
Languages
Australian English · Estonian
Religion
Christianity (Predominantly Lutheranism)
Related ethnic groups
Finnish Australians, Estonian Americans

Estonian Australians (Estonian: Eestlased Austraalias) refers to Australian citizens of Estonian descent or Estonia-born persons who reside in Australia. According to the 2011 Census, there were 8,551 people of Estonian descent in Australia and 1,928 Estonia-born people residing in the country at the moment of the census, having a fall of 0.4 per cent compared to the 2006 Census. The largest Estonia-born community in Australia is in the state of New South Wales, with 731 people.[1]

From 1940 to 1944, more than 70,000 Estonians fled to the West due to the Soviet and German occupations. Many settled in Australia.[2] The first voyage under Arthur Calwell's Displaced Persons immigration program, that of the USS General Stuart Heintzelman in 1947,[3] was specially chosen to be all from Baltic nations, all single, many blond and blue-eyed, in order to appeal to the Australian public.[4] Of the 843 immigrants on the Heintzelman, 142 were Estonian.[5]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The Estonia-born Community". Australian Government Department of Immigration. 19 November 2003. Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "Our new home: Estonian-Australian stories". migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au. 2007. Archived from the original on 5 September 2007.
  3. ↑ "First of the Fifth Fleet". Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  4. ↑ J. Franklin, Calwell, Catholicism and the origins of multicultural Australia, Proc. of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 2009 Conference, 42-54.
  5. ↑ "Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild: USAT General Stuart Heintzelman". Retrieved 27 February 2017.


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