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Caribbean and West Indian Australians

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Caribbean and West Indian Australians
Total population
4,242 (by ancestry, 2006)[1]
10,500 (by birth, 2023).[2]
Regions with significant populations
New South Wales · Victoria
Languages
Caribbean English, Caribbean Spanish, Haitian Creole, Antillean Creole, Papiamento, French
Related ethnic groups
Cuban Australians, British Indo-Caribbean people, British African-Caribbean people, Caribbean Brazilians, African Australians, West Indian Americans, Black Canadians

Caribbean and West Indian Australians are people of Caribbean ancestry who are citizens of Australia.

Demographics

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According to the 2006 Australian census, 4,852 Australians were born in the Caribbean[2] while 4,242 claimed the Caribbean ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry.[1]

History

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Connections between the West Indies and Australia began in the early days of European settlement.

Australia’s first newspaper publisher, and founder of the Sydney Gazette in 1803 was George Howe, a white convict from St Kitts.[3] Eighteen convicts from the West Indies arrived on the convict ship the Moffatt in 1836 including William Buchanan and Richard Holt.[4] Buchanan and James Smith, also from Jamaica, were two of 34 convicts from the West Indies known to have stayed at the Hyde Park Barracks.[5] Billy Blue who had served in served in the British Army before being convicted of stealing sugar and transported to Australia was also thought to be a Jamaican.[6]

At the height of the British Empire, officers and administrators moved freely between far-flung colonies. Many came to Australia from the West Indies, while others, like Edward Eyre,[7] left Australia to take up appointments there. Another emigrant was barrister Robert Burnside. He was born and raised in the Bahamas, the son of the country's Solicitor-General.[8] After qualifying in England, he set up practice in Perth, eventually becoming a Supreme Court judge.

Black convicts, servants and sailors from the West Indies also arrived in Australia and many of them later integrated into Aboriginal communities.[citation needed] These relationships, and links forged through the sport of boxing, contributed to later alliances between the Black Consciousness Movements in Australia, the USA and the West Indies, including a branch of Marcus Garvey’s UNIA-ACL in Sydney in the 1920s.[citation needed]

Caribbean people were also among the many nationalities flocking to the Victorian goldfields after 1851. One of the thirteen miners killed at the Eureka Stockade was a Jamaican, James Campbell. Arthur Windsor, editor of the Age newspaper from 1872 to 1900 was born in Barbados.[9]

Especially since the abandonment of the White Australia policy, West Indians have arrived from many countries of the Commonwealth. From honky-tonk pianist Winifred Atwell to environmental engineer Ken Potter and writer Ralph de Boissière, they have brought wide-ranging skills, experience and cultural richness to Australia.

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Further reading

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  • Smith, Dr. Karina, Pat Thomas, and Lisa Montague, eds. Adding Pimento: Caribbean Migration to Victoria, Australia. Melbourne: Breakdown Press, 2014.
  • Pybus, Cassandra. Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2006.
  • Chingaipe, Santilla. Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia. Sydney: Scribner Australia, 2024.

Further Listening

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References

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  1. ^ a b "20680-Ancestry (full classification list) by Sex - Australia" (Microsoft Excel download). 2006 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2 June 2008. Total responses: 25,451,383 for total count of persons: 19,855,288.
  2. ^ a b "20680-Country of Birth of Person (full classification list) by Sex - Australia" (Microsoft Excel download). 2006 Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2 June 2008. Total count of persons: 19,855,288.
  3. ^ J. V. Byrnes, 'Howe, George (1769–1821)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, MUP, 1966, pp 557–559. Retrieved 13 March 2025
  4. ^ "Caribbean Convicts in Australia". ABC listen. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  5. ^ "The extraordinary life of William Buchanan: slave, convict, bushranger | MHNSW". Museums of History NSW. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  6. ^ Freedom Is Mine Official (5 October 2021). Billy Blue: The Extraordinary Black Australian Convict. Retrieved 15 March 2025 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Geoffrey Dutton (1966), "Eyre, Edward John (1815–1901)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1 (Australian National University), accessed 13 March 2025.
  8. ^ Staples, G. T. (1979). "Burnside, Robert Bruce (1862–1929)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 7. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  9. ^ Caribbean, Select Births and Baptisms, 1590-1928

See also

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