Malaysian Australians

Total population
180,470 (2023)
Regions with significant populations
Melbourne,Sydney,Perth,Brisbane,Adelaide
Languages
Australian English,Malaysian English,Chinese (Cantonese,Min Chinese,Malaysian Mandarin),Tamil,Malay, otherLanguages of Malaysia,Orang Asal languages
Religion
PredominantlyUnaffiliated andChristianity, with minorities ofBuddhism,Islam andHinduism
Related ethnic groups
Various ethnic groups of Malaysia,Singaporean Australians,Cocos Malays,Chinese Australians, andIndian Australians

Malaysian Australians (Malay:orang Malaysia Australia) refers toMalaysians who have migrated to Australia orAustralian-born citizens who are of Malaysian descent. This may includeMalaysian Chinese,Malays,Malaysian Indians,Orang Asal, mixed Malaysians and other groups.

Malaylabourers were brought over to Australia to work mainly in thecopra,sugarcane,pearl diving andtrepang industries. In the case of Cocos Islands, the Malays were first brought asslaves underAlexander Hare in 1826, but were then employed as coconut harvesters for copra. Possibly the first Malay immigrant to Australia was a 22-year-old convict named Ajoup who arrived in Sydney on 11 January 1837. Ajoup, described as 'of the Malay faith', had been sentenced in Cape Town, South Africa, to 14 years transportation to New South Wales. He received his ticket of leave—that is, his freedom—in the colony in 1843.

The 1871 colonial census records that 149 Malays were working in Australia as pearl divers in northern and western Australia, labourers in South Australia's mines, and on Queensland's sugar plantations. At Federation in 1901, there were 932 Malay pearl divers in Australia, increasing to 1860 by 1921.^[1]: 111 InWestern Australia and theNorthern Territory, Malaypearl divers were recruited through an agreement with the Dutch. By 1875, there were 1800 Malay pearl divers working in Western Australia alone. Most of them returned home when their contracts expired. TheImmigration Restriction Act 1901 severely curtailed this community's growth.

At the 2006 Census 92,335 Australian residents stated that they were born in Malaysia.^[2] 64,855 Malaysian born Australian residents declared having Chinese ancestry (either alone or with another ancestry), 12,057 declared a Malay ancestry and 5,848 declared an Indian ancestry. The proportion of Malaysian-born individuals in Australia who claim Chinese ancestry is 70.2%, which is markedly different from the proportion of Malaysians in Malaysia who claim Chinese ancestry (22.9%). The proportion of Malaysians in Australia that claim Indian ancestry (6.3%) is similar to the proportion in Malaysia (7.1%). From these statistics, it is clear that migration from Malaysia to Australia has not reflected a cross-section of Malaysia, but rather, is heavily skewed away from theMalay natives and towards theethnic Chinese community and to a lesser extent theethnic Indian community.

ThoughIslam is the majorreligion in Malaysia, Islam is the minority religion among Malaysians inAustralia. In 2016, 11,633 people from 165,616 Malaysian Australians, or 7% of the Malaysian Australian population, identified asMuslim, up from 7,610 Muslims or 5.2% in 2016.^[3]

According to the data from Australian Bureau Statistics in 2016, 24.1% from Malaysian Australians population identifying asBuddhists, 20.9% asNo religion, 12.7% asCatholic, 5.6% as Other Christian and 5.2% asMuslim.

According toAustralian Bureau Statistics in 2021, 24.1% from Malaysian Australian population identifying as No religion, 23.8% asBuddhists, 11.8% asCatholic, 7.0% asMuslim and 5.9% as Other Christians.^[4]

Slightly more than half (46,445) hadAustralian citizenship,^[6] and 47,521 had arrived in Australia in 1989 or earlier.^[6] 32,325 spoke English at home, 24,347 spokeCantonese, 18,676 spokeMandarin and 5,329 spokeMalay.^[6] Malaysian Australians were resident inMelbourne (29,174),Sydney (21,211) andPerth (18,993).^[7]

• Islam in Australia
• Cocos Malays
• Australia–Malaysia relations

• Cleland, Bilal.The Muslims in Australia: A Brief History. Melbourne: Islamic Council of Victoria, 2002.
• JPS Bach, 'The pearlshelling industry and the "White Australia" policy', Historical Studies, Australia and New Zealand, vol. 10, no. 38, May 1962, pp. 203–213
• Bilal Cleland, Muslims in Australia: A Brief History, www.icv.org.au/history.shtml
• Nahid Kabir, Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations, and Cultural History, Kegan Paul, London, 2004
• Nahid Kabir, 'Muslims in Western Australia, 1870–1970', Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, vol. 12, part 5, 2005, pp. 550–565
• L Manderson, 'Malays' in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1988, pp. 691–93
• Daniel Oakman, Facing Asia: A History of the Colombo Plan, Pandanus Press, Canberra, 2004
• Gwenda Tavan, The Long, Slow Death of White Australia, Scribe, Melbourne 2005

• History of immigration from Malaysia
• Muslim Journeys – Arrivals – Malays
• HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES – "there was a place called 'Malay Town' set up in Cairns ..."
• Malay boy, Broome
• Terri McCormack (2008)."Malaysians".Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved4 October 2015. [CC-By-SA] (History of Malaysians in Sydney)

• Australian people of Malaysian descent
• Malaysian diaspora
• Asian diaspora in Australia
• Australia–Malaysia relations

• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from May 2016
• Use Australian English from January 2018
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Use dmy dates from November 2019
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation
• Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters
• Articles containing Malay (macrolanguage)-language text