Italians are one of the largest ethnic groups in Australia. "Italian" was the fourth largest ethnic group in the 2001 census of Australia.
The Early Stage
Italians have been arriving in Australia since the last decades of the eighteenth century.
This sprinkling of northern Italian middle class professionals and entrepreneurs to Australia probably escaped the persecutions by Austrian authorities - under whose control were most of northern regions of Italy until 1860 - especially after the failure of the revolts in many European cities in the 1840s and 1850s.
As stated by D'Aprano in his work on the first Italian migrants in Victoria:
"We find some Italian artisans in Melbourne and other colonies already in the 1840s, many of whom had participated in the defeated revolts against the despotic rulers of Modena, Naples, Venice, Milan, Bologna, Rome and other cities.They came to Australia to seek a better and more efficient life".
