| 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 ofCaribbean ancestry who arecitizens ofAustralia.
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]
Connections between theWest Indies and Australia began in the early days of European settlement.
Australia’s first newspaper publisher, and founder of theSydney Gazette in 1803 wasGeorge Howe, a white convict fromSt Kitts.[3] Eighteen convicts from the West Indies arrived on the convict shipthe 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 theBritish Army before being convicted of stealing sugar and transported to Australia was also thought to be a Jamaican.[6]
At the height of theBritish Empire, officers and administrators moved freely between far-flung colonies. Many came to Australia from the West Indies, while others, likeEdward Eyre,[7] left Australia to take up appointments there. Another emigrant was barristerRobert 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 intoAboriginal communities.[citation needed] These relationships, and links forged through the sport of boxing, contributed to later alliances between theBlack Consciousness Movements in Australia, the USA and the West Indies, including a branch ofMarcus Garvey’sUNIA-ACL in Sydney in the 1920s.[citation needed]
Caribbean people were also among the many nationalities flocking to theVictorian goldfields after 1851. One of the thirteen miners killed at theEureka Stockade was aJamaican, James Campbell.Arthur Windsor, editor of the Age newspaper from 1872 to 1900 was born inBarbados.[9]
Especially since the abandonment of theWhite Australia policy, West Indians have arrived from many countries of the Commonwealth. From honky-tonk pianistWinifred Atwell to environmental engineer Ken Potter and writerRalph de Boissière, they have brought wide-ranging skills, experience and cultural richness to Australia.
 Caribbean diaspora | |
|---|---|
