| Many Hindus who came to Australia in the nineteenth century worked as hawkers, travelling around the remote communities. Some came as labourers to work on sugar cane or cotton plantations. In 1880, there were about 3 000 Indians in Australia. However, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, also known as the 'White Australia Policy,' restricted immigration from Asia and the numbers of Hindus declined.
In 1911, Hindus represented just 0.01 per cent of the population. However, the official dropping of the 'White Australia' policy in mid-1960s marked a turning point in the migration of South Asians. The more relaxed immigration policy in Australia, following other liberal Western nations, facilitated the arrival of professionals, such as doctors, engineers, and technicians. Teachers also arrived to set up retreat centres, organise networks and make converts. Their arrival was part of a renewed interest in Indian religion among the people of the west.
In the late 1980's two military-style coups in Fiji in the late 1980s and political upheavals in Sri Lanka and some African states increased the number of South Asians and people of Indian descent living elsewhere seeking to leave their homes, and many looked to Australia. Thus, immigration of Hindus further increased in the 1980s and they represented 0.14 per cent of the population in the 1986 and 0.26 per cent in 1991.
Between 1991 and 1996 an additional 34 687 people immigrated from southern Asia and Hindus represented 0.38 per cent of the population. By 2001, Hindus numbered 95 473 or 0.51 per cent of the population which represents a population increase of 0.13 per cent since the 1996 Census.
These people arrived with their cultural, linguistic and religious links with India or Sri Lanka still intact and came with more money than had the fledging group of professionals from the subcontinent in earlier phases of immigration. The latter migrants quickly found themselves in well-salaried, specialised positions, choosing to live in select suburbs which had previously been saturated with European and Jewish families. The contribution of South Asians from these regions to forging a distinctive religious identity in Australia cannot be overlooked.
However, there are few formal mechanisms for the reception of new immigrants. Most are welcomed by family or friends. Other channels of assistance are only explored when there are some drastic problems to which the immediate hosts are not able to find a resolution. The Ecumenical Migration Centre, with the cooperation of the Federated Indians Associations of Victoria, have succeeded to procuring a modest grant from the Victorian government to establish a resource centre for new immigrants from India. A welfare worker has been hired on semi-voluntary basis to coordinate the operation. There has recently been an attempt to broaden the help base and resources available for the newly arrived. Many issues confront them, from difficulties with language (despite the excellent service provided by the government interpreting services) to need for information about employment, suitable schools for their children, and contact with others of the ethnic or religious group. With few resources compared with many other community groups, the Indian community feels marginalised in these areas.
The two major Hindu temples in Australia, in Melbourne and Sydney, are dominated and in an organisational way regulated by the minority Sri Lankan Hindus in association with Tamils and Telugu speaking Hindus from southern Indian and Malaysia. By contrast, the Fiji-born Hindus, comprising the second largest group of Hindus in Australia, are less organised or united as a group. Their dissimilarities are due to linguistic and regional differences or prejudices that relate to the caste and class cleavages in the subcontinent. As a group they are less politically minded despite the problems that Hindus have experienced under the present Fijian regime.
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