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From around the 1800s on, Italians migrated to Australia for a number of reasons.

The first major influx of Italian migrants came with the goldrush in Victoria. Hundreds of Italians came to seek their fortune. In fact, the famous Eureka Stockade of 1854 was witnessed and documented by Italian migrant Raffaello Carboni, who called the actions of the soldiers a "foul deed, worthy of devils".

When the goldrush died down, many Italians stayed to establish small towns based around agricultural communities in rural Victoria. As the Italian communities built up, businessmen, tradesmen and professionals from Italy joined them. Italy was a rather poor country for almost a century after the birth of the Italian State in 1861. This is why many Italians, especially from the Southern regions that were the poorest ones, left Italy for richer countries (USA, Australia, Germany). By 1896, there were an estimated 1500 Italians living in Victoria alone, while others were attracted to the sugar cane growing areas of northern New South Wales and Queensland.

Italian migration continued in the early part of the 20th century as Italians sought to escape the economic hardships of their own country. The 1925 Immigration Act severely limited numbers of Italians after World War I, but they increased once more after World War II. This was due to the huge, ambitious engineering project, the Snowy River Hydro-Electric Scheme, which attracted thousands of immigrant workers from around the world, including Italy. The scheme offered high pay, the freedoms available in Australia and the surety of employment in the post-war period.

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13y ago

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