Polish Australian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polish Australian is the twelfth largest ethnic group in Australia, numbering 150,901 or 0.6 per cent of respondents in the 2001 Census. However, the number is potentially greater, with other estimates ranging between 160,000 - 200,000. [1]
The first Pole known to have arrived in Australia was a J. Potowski, who was sent there as a convict from Great Britain. The first settlers from Poland arrived in South Australia in 1856 and settled in the Clare Valley region in a place later called Polish Hill River. The first mass migration happened in the late 1940s when large groups of displaced persons migrated to Australia after World War II, including soldiers from the Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade ("rats of Tobruk"). Between 1947 and 1954, the Poland-born population increased from 6,573 to 56,594 people.
In the early 1980s there was further Polish migration to Australia. The emergence of the Solidarity trade union movement and the declaration of martial law in Poland at the end of 1981 coincided with a further relaxation of Polish emigration laws. During the period 1980-91 Australia granted permanent entry to a large number of Polish migrants, many arriving as refugees.
One of the Poles best-known in Australia (besides Paul Strzelecki, who explored it, and Tadeusz Kościuszko, after whom Strzelecki named Australia's highest peak) is Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki, known as "the father of multiculturalism in Australia" [2]. Other well-known contemporary Polish Australians include swimming champions Michael Klim and Daniel Kowalski, comedian Magda Szubanski, physicist and media personality Karl Kruszelnicki, tennis players Alicia Molik and Peter Luczak, and former Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski.
[edit] External links
An article on the use of the Polish language by Polish Australians, specifically those in Melbourne: Fitzgerald, M. and Debski, R. (2006). Internet Use of Polish by Polish Melburnians: Implications for Maintenance and Teaching. Language Learning and Technology, 10(1), 87-109. Retrieved August 10, 2006 from http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num1/fitzdebski/default.html .
