Scottish Australians (Scots: Scots Australiens; Scottish Gaelic: Astràilianaich Albannach) are residents of Australia who are fully or partially of Scottish descent.
According to the 2021 Australian census, 130,060 Australian residents were born in Scotland, while 2,176,777 claimed Scottish ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry.[3]
The links between Scotland and Australia stretch back to the first British expedition of the Endeavour under command of Lieutenant James Cook who was himself the son of a Scottish ploughman. Cook navigated and charted the east coast of Australia, making first landfall at Botany Bay on 29 April 1770. His reports in Cook's expedition would lead to British settlement of the continent, and during the voyage Cook also named two groups of Pacific islands in honour of Scotland: New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.[4] The first European to die on Australian soil was a Scot; Forbey Sutherland from Orkney, an able seaman died on 30 April 1770 of consumption and was the first to be buried on the colony by Captain Cook, who named Sutherland Point at Botany Bay in his honour.
Colonial period
The first Scottish settlers arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788,[5] including three of the first six Governors of New South Wales John Hunter, Lachlan Macquarie (often referred to as the father of Australia)[4][5] and Thomas Brisbane. The majority of Scots arriving in the early colonial period were convicts: 8,207 Scottish convicts, of the total 150,000 transported to Australia, made up about 5% of the convict population. The Scottish courts were unwilling to punish crimes deemed to be lesser offences in Scots Law by deportation to Australia. Scottish law was considered more humane for lesser offences than the English and Irish legal systems.[4] Although Scottish convicts had a poor reputation, most were convicted of minor property offences and represented a broad cross-section of Scotland's working classes. As such, they brought a range of useful skills to the colonies.[6]
From 1793 to 1795, a group of political prisoners later called the 'Scottish Martyrs', were transported to the colonies. They were not all Scots, but had been tried in Scotland. Their plight as victims of oppression was widely reported and the subsequent escape of one of them, Thomas Muir, in 1796 caused a sensation and inspired the poetry of Robert Burns.[4] The majority of immigrants, 'free settlers', in the late 18th century were Lowlanders from prominent wealthy families.[citation needed] Engineers like Andrew McDougall and John Bowman arrived with experience in building corn mills, while others were drawn to Australia by the prospects of trade. William Douglas Campbell, Robert Campbell, Charles Hook, Alexander Berry Laird of the Shoalhaven, were some of the first merchants drawn to the colonies.[citation needed]
At this time, several Scottish regiments were recorded in the colonies: Macquarie's unit or the 73rd Regiment, the Royal North British Fusiliers, and the King's Own Scottish Borderers. Three of the Deputy Commissaries-General (the highest rank in the colony) from 1813 to 1835 were Scots: David Allan, William Lithgow, Stewart.[citation needed]
By 1830, 15.11% of the colonies' total population were Scots, which increased by the middle of the century to 25,000, or 20-25% of the total population. The Australian Gold Rush of the 1850s provided a further impetus for Scottish migration: in the 1850s 90,000 Scots immigrated, far higher than other British or Irish populations at the time.[5] Literacy rates of the Scottish immigrants ran at 90-95%. By the 1830s a growing number of Scots from the poorer working classes joined the diaspora. Immigrants included skilled builders, tradesmen, engineers, tool-makers and printers. They settled in commercial and industrial cities, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Melbourne. The migration of skilled workers increased, including bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, and stonemasons. They settled in the colonies of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania.
In the 1840s, Scots-born immigrants constituted 12 percent of the Australian population. Out of the 1.3 million migrants from Britain to Australia in the period from 1861 to 1914, 13.5 percent were Scots.[7] Much settlement followed the Highland Potato Famine, Highland Clearances and the Lowland Clearances of the mid-19th century. By 1860 Scots made up 50% of the ethnic composition of Western Victoria, Adelaide, Penola and Naracoorte. Other settlements in New south Wales included New England, the Hunter Valley and the Illawarra.
Highland Pipers, Newcastle, New South Wales, 5 November 1898
Their preponderance in pastoral industries on the Australian frontier and in various colonial administrative roles, meant that some Scottish migrants were involved in the injustices against Indigenous Australians throughout the colonial period, including: the dispossession of the indigenous from their lands, the creation of discriminatory administration regimes, and in killings and massacres.[8]
Throughout the 19th century, Scots invested heavily in the industries of the Australian colonies. In the 1820s, the Australian Company of Edinburgh & Leith exported a variety of goods to Australia, but a lack of return cargo led to the company's termination in 1831. The Scottish Australian Investment Company was formed in Aberdeen in 1840, and soon became one of the chief businesses in the colonies, making substantial investments in the pastoral and mining industries. Smaller companies, such as George Russel's Clyde Company and Niel & Company, also had a significant presence in the colonies. Before the 1893 Australian financial crisis, Scotland was the main source of private British loans to Australia.[9]
A steady rate of Scottish immigration continued into the 20th century, with substantial numbers of Scots continuing to arrive after 1945.[4] Between 1910 and 1914, around 9000 Scots arrived each year, and in 1921 the Scottish population of Australia was 109,000. Due to economic decline in Scotland after the First World War, there was an over-representation of Scots among British migrants to Australia during the interwar period, and by 1933 there were 132,000 Scottish migrants living in Australia.[10]
By the 1920s and 1930s, a majority of Scottish migrants in Australia were living in Victoria and New South Wales. The urban working-class background of many British migrants to Australia in the early 20th century meant that Scots were most likely to settle in industrial portside suburbs, especially in Melbourne and Sydney, where they made notable contributions to the shipbuilding industry.[11] In the late-19th and early-20th century, Scottish-born workers had a significant influence in the labour movement, and played key roles in trade unions and the Australian Labor Party,[12] as well as becoming leaders in the Communist Party of Australia.[13][14] In 1928, a significant delegation of Scottish Australians to Scotland was influential in the opening of a direct trade route between Australia and Glasgow, and by 1932 traders on the Clyde had reported a three-fold increase in imports from Australia and New Zealand.[15]
Today, a strong cultural Scottish presence is evident in the Highland games, dance, Tartan day celebrations, Clan and Gaelic-speaking societies found throughout modern Australia. In the early 2000s, the number of Australians claiming to have Scottish ancestry increased almost three-fold; the majority of those who claim Scottish ancestry are third or later generation Australians.[16]
People with Scottish ancestry as a percentage of the population in Australia divided geographically by statistical local area, as of the 2011 census
2011 Census
According to the 2011 Australian census 133,432 Australian residents were born in Scotland, which was 0.6% of the Australian population. This is the fourth most commonly nominated ancestry and represents over 8.3% of the total population of Australia.[20]
2006 Census
At the 2006 Census 130,205 Australian residents stated that they were born in Scotland.[24] Of these 80,604 had Australian citizenship.[25] The majority of residents, 83,503, had arrived in Australia in 1979 or earlier.[25]
Presbyterianism - the majority of Scottish settlers were Presbyterian, some were Roman Catholic or Episcopalian.
Tartan, some regions of Australia have their own tartan.
Tartan Day, in Australia, falls on 1 July,[28] the date of the repeal proclamation in 1792 of the Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of Scottish national dress.[29]
Highland gatherings
Highland gatherings are popular in Australia. Notable gatherings include:
Maclean, New South Wales first held in 1904. A gathering that attracts pipe bands from all over Australia and includes massed bands, dancing and a street parade.
In Australia, Scottish names make up 17 per cent of all non-Indigenous placenames. Many are of Lowland origins, but Highland names are also common in areas of concentrated Highland settlement. There are also many other landscape features, properties, and streets in Australia with Scottish origins.[32]
Born and raised in Fife, Scotland. He emigrated to Australia from Scotland at age 14 with his family, where he later became an actor, best known for playing Andrew Robinson in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
Retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Air Force.
He served as Chief of Air Force (CAF) from 20 June 2001 and then as the Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) from 4 July 2005. He retired from the military on 3 July 2011. Since then Houston has been appointed to a number of positions, including chairman of Airservices Australia. In March 2014 he was appointed to head the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) during the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Houston was born on 9 June 1947 in Ayrshire, Scotland and educated at Strathallan School in Forgandenny, Perthshire, Scotland. He emigrated to Australia in 1968 at age 21.
Emigrated 1853, settled in Tasmania after some time on the Victorian Gold Fields. Founder and proprietor of J. Boag & Sons, owner of the Boag's Brewery in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
Brewer and founder of the Essendon Football Club in 1873
Emigrated from Ardwell Farm near Girvan in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1840. The Essendon Club was formed at a meeting at his family home "Ailsa" at Ascot Vale.
Roy Cazaly was a champion ruckman who played for St Kilda (1909–1920) and then South Melbourne (1921–1926). His teammate's constant cry of 'Up there Cazaly' entered the Australian idiom and became part of folk-lore'.
His mother was Elizabeth Jemima, née McNee from Scotland.
British Royal Navy officer who was the first to sail through Bass Strait from west to east, charting the then unknown coastline and the first European to land on Phillip Island where the south west point is named after him, and Churchill Island.
Naval surgeon who sailed as an assistant surgeon with the First Fleet to establish the first European settlement in Australia, and later became its principal surgeon.
Colonial botanist of New South Wales who collected and catalogued numerous Australian plant species, and participated in a number of exploring expeditions.
Australian rugby league footballer, he played for the Illawarra Steelers and, St George Illawarra Dragons and has represented New South Wales in the State of Origin and the Australian national rugby league team.
Botanist who made extensive collections during Flinders' coastal surveys. Held in high regard by his contemporaries, he received numerous academic honours and made several major discoveries in his subject, including molecular agitation now called 'Brownian movement'.
Francis McCallum, calling himself Captain Francis Melville and posing as a gentleman, he reached Victoria about October 1851. He became a bushranger and claimed leadership of the Mount Macedon gang.
Author, teacher, journalist, politician (Australia's first female political candidate) and leading suffragette. Appears on the Australian $5 dollar note
Legendary Australian operasoprano and one of the most famous sopranos, and the first Australian to achieve international recognition in the form. Appears on the Australian $100 dollar note
Australian bridge builder, responsible for the construction of historic Lansdowne Bridge over Prospect Creek, Lennox Bridge over the Parramatta River and Lennox Bridge over Brookside Creek at Lapstone as well as a further fifty-three bridges in Victoria.
Worked at CSIRO Canberra 1980-82, Migrated in 2005 as an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow. Australian citizen 2007. Employed at the University of Western Australia and subsequently at the University of Tasmania.
Mother born in Paisley, wife born in Falkirk, daughter born in Edinburgh. Employed at the University of Edinburgh 1983-2004. Married in Glasgow 1997. Drummer in the City of Hobart Highland Pipe Band.
Malcolm Prentis - Australian Catholic University (2008). "Scots". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Retrieved 4 October 2015. (History of Scots in Sydney)
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