EMTMGiselle

 Welcome to Giselle's focus page. In this page I'm going to be writing about migrants from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece to Melbourne.The aim is to talk about people that come and came from those countries for different reasons and settled here at our home city. The order in which I'm going to be focusing is alphabetical; Greece, Italy, Portugal and then Spain.

=Greece = The Greek precinct is located around the eastern end of Lonsdale St. The Greek Precinct is home of many Greek restaurants and Greek cultural shops. In March 2009, the Government of Victoria and the City of Melbourne announced that the Greek Precinct would receive a $3.5 million rejuvenation. The Greek Community Centre of Melbourne is located on the corner of Lonsdale St.and Russell St. Greeks are the seventh-largest ethnic group in Australia. According to the 2001 Australian census, Melbourne has the largest Greek-Australian population in Australia and the largest Greek population of any city in the world apart from Greece. The first ever Greek immigrants to Australia were seven convict sailors convicted of piracy by a British naval court in 1829. Though eventually pardoned, two of those seven Greeks stayed and settled in the country. RMIT’s Professor Desmond Cahill was responsible for helping develop Greek settlement programs.

=Italy = The Italian presence in Australia predates the First Fleet. The first Italians to arrive at Australia were James Matra and Antonio Ponto which accompanied Captain James Cook on his voyage of discovery in 1770 aboard of the “Endeavour”. Hundred of Italians came to Victoria because of the 1850's Gold Rush, but when the gold ran out many of them left to other parts of Australia to find work. Those who stayed established small, mainly agricultural communities in Victoria. The Italian cultural association established a branch in the city in 1896, its first outside Italy. By then, around 1,500 Italians lived in Victoria. Many worked as labourers, artisans, artists, doctors, agriculturalists, retailers, manufacturers and scientists. Engineers such as Carlo Catani and Ettore Checchi transformed the city of Melbourne and oversaw irrigation and water catchment projects around the State. Today in Melbourne there is a Italian Precinct located around Lygon St. and Carlton. Most of the businesses at Lygon St. are cafes and restaurants; actually Lygon is the birthplace of Melbourne's “cafe culture”.

=Portugal = Portugal’s links with Australia may extend as far back as the sixteenth century, predating Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia by 250 years. Some evidence suggests that Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to visit Australia. Three hundred years later, a few Portuguese were among the earliest settlers in Australia. Emanuel and Ana Serrão and their infant daughter arrived in Sydney in 1824, and moved to Warrnambool with their family in 1852. Few followed, and by 1901 only 86 Victorians were Portugal-born. Males made up 90% of the community. The Portugal-born population in Victoria declined in the early twentieth century, and by 1933, only 12 were recorded in the census. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">While the post-war migration boom had little effect on the Portuguese population of Victoria, the late 1960s saw the beginning of a dramatic increase in immigration. After the Portuguese colonial wars in Angola and Mozambique ended in 1974, and the former Portuguese colony of East Timor was invaded by Indonesian troops in 1975, more ethnic Portuguese immigrants settled in Victoria. The number of immigrants from Portugal also increased, from 131 in 1966 to 2,335 in 1986. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By 2006, 2,668 Portugal-born migrants were living in Victoria. The Portuguese community in Victoria today also includes people from the former Portuguese colonies of Macau, East Timor, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, Goa and Brazil. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Members of the Portugal-born community today are predominantly employed as tradespeople and workers within the manufacturing and construction industries. Almost three-quarters still speak Portuguese at home. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The community is supported by organisations including the Portuguese Community Council of Australia, which serves as an umbrella organisation for all Portuguese people in Australia. Portuguese language radio programs, language classes and sporting clubs help maintain the community in Victoria. Events such as performances by Madeira Folk Dancing provide an opportunity for the wider community to appreciate the rich, vibrant Portuguese culture. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Despite their rather modest number compared to the Greek and Italian communities, Portuguese-Australian form a very organised, self-conscious and active community in many fields of Australian life. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A few Portuguese were among the earliest settlers in Australia. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Portugal-born population in Victoria declined in the early twentieth century, and by 1933, only 12 were recorded in the census. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">While the post-war migration boom had little effect on the Portuguese population of Victoria. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By 2001, 2,661 Portugal-born migrants were living in Victoria.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Spain = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Spanish sailors began to explore the South Pacific in the fourteenth century, but it wasn’t until the 1850s that the majority of Spanish immigrants began to arrive in Victoria because of the Gold Rush. The Spanish-born population dramatically increased from the late 1950s, following the 1958 Spanish-Australian migration agreement. The agreement provided assisted passages to Spanish migrants, many escaping poverty and hunger. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By 1871, 135 Spaniards lived in Victoria, 80% of them men. Over the next two decades, the number of Spanish women arriving in Victoria tripled; a few more men arrived. Despite a military coup in Spain in 1923 and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, few Spanish refugees settled in Victoria. The Spanish community in Victoria increased from 374 in 1954 to 3,143 in 1966. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Spanish-born community in Victoria today is at its lowest level since the early 1960s, declining from 4,067 in 1986 to 2,917 in 2006. There are approximately 58,271 Australians of Spanish full or partial descent, most of which reside within the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne.