Slovene Australians or Slovenian Australians are Australians of Slovene origin.

History

Slovenes began migrating to Australia in the mid-nineteenth century http://museumvictoria.com.au/origins/history.aspx?id=54. Until the 1900s there was a small number of Slovene immigrants to Australia. The largest numbers of Slovenes immigrated to Australia after World War

World war

A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....

s One and Twohttp://www.radio.sbs.com.au/language.php?page=info&language=Slovenian. Most of these refugees came between 1925 and 1943, although the exact number is impossible to determine because Slovenes were often classified as Austrians

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

, Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

, or under other, broader labels, such as Slavonic

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

 or Slavic

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

. These later arrivals migrated to the industrial cities or to mining towns.

Numbers

In the 2001 Australian Census, 14,189 Australians declared that they were of Slovene origin. In the 2006 Australian Census, 16,093 Australians declared that they were of Slovene origin. The number of reported Australians of Slovene descent undoubtedly is an underestimate. Some Slovenes coming from the Austro-Hungarian Empire avoided anti-Slavic prejudice by identifying themselves as Austrians. Many others were recorded as Slav, Slavic, Slavish, or Slavonian.

Notable individuals

• Brad Eve
• Robert Jakofcic
• Mark Oman
• Tanya Plibersek
  Tanya Plibersek
  Tanya Joan Plibersek, MP , is an Australian politician with the Australian Labor Party, and Federal Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister for Human Services. She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the seat of Sydney, New South Wales...
  
  
• Lyenko Urbanchich
  Lyenko Urbanchich
  Lyenko Urbanchich was a Slovenian-born Australian politician. During World War Two he was a Domobranci propagandist, however his wartime activities only became known in Australia in 1979—the exposure ended his political ascension...
  
  
• Aurelio Vidmar
  Aurelio Vidmar
  Aurelio Vidmar is an Australian football player and former captain of the Australian national team. He is currently not tied to any A-league club...
  
  
• Tony Vidmar
  Tony Vidmar
  Anthony "Tony" Vidmar is an Australian former professional football player of Slovenian origin. He was a member of the Australian national team, competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for his native country, and is currently Australia's third highest capped player...
  
  

External links

• History of immigration from Slovenia
• Slovenian community in Australia

See also

• Slovene Americans
• Slovene Argentines
• Slovene Canadians