The first immigrants in Australia were the forfathers of the present indigenous people. Australian immigrants are recorded to have migrated in the time frame at 40,000 to 43,000 years Before Present (BP), while the upper range supported by others is 60,000 to 70,000 years BP.

From the early 17th century onwards, Australia started getting immigrants from the first coastal landings and exploration by European explorers. Europeans started permanently settling from 1788, and established the British penal colony in New South Wales, on January 26, a date till today known as ‘Australia Day’. After the World War II the White Australia Policy was abolished having the modern era of multiculturalism in Australia.

In 1851 the first gold discovery was made near Bathurst in New South Wales and then in the newly formed colony of Victoria, transformed Australia economically, politically and demographically. The impact of gold rush occurred hard and as a result, about two per cent of the population of the British Isles migrated to New South Wales and Victoria during the 1850.

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans migrated to Australia with more than three million people immigrating from Europe during the late 1940, after World War II, until the 1960. Immigration to Australia started significantly from Asian and other non-European countries, from late 1970.

Australia is now one of the most multicultural and diverse nations in the world, with an amazing growing economy, having over 200 plus languages spoken, with English the common language and all this due the approach on migrant intake. The reason why Australia is considered as a migrant multicultural country is because nearly a quarter of the population was born in another country, compared to over 10 percent in the US and over 17 percent in Canada.

Opportunities in farming, mining, IT solutions, engineering, trade, healthcare, infrastructure, dairy, fresh produces and scarcity of people with vast land mass for millions of people has made Australia what we call today “A land of opportunity”.