German Immigration To Australia After Ww2
. Courtesy National Archives of Australia. The Germans moved onto Western Australia the Barossa Valley the Riverina and South East Queensland where they found the regions suitable for wheat and dairy farming the planting of vineyards and wine making.
The number of Germans in Victoria increased five-fold from the end of the War to 1961 when 39291 were counted. German settlement in Australia began in large numbers in 1838 with the arrival of immigrants from Prussia to Adelaide in the then colony of South Australia. Migration from Germany to Australia of course stopped during the first and second world wars and many Australians of German origin were interned during the Second World War but as soon as the war ended a new wave of migrants arrived the numbers gradually dropping as Germany itself recovered and developed into an economic powerhouse of its own.
Before the war Australia accepted the immigration of 15000 Jewish refugees from Europe reluctantly as the holocaust was considered not a problem for Australia.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II Ben Chifley Prime Minister of Australia 19451949 established the. After the war one more surge of German immigrants arrived in the United States as survivors of the conflict sought to escape its grim aftermath. The program was part of Minister for Immigration Arthur Calwells push to populate or perish encouraging immigration as a way to rebuild Australias agricultural and industrial sectors after World War II and to build up the population against potential future attack. See our classroom resource.
