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German Australian is the fourth largest ethnic group in Australia, numbering 742,212 or 3.5 per cent of respondents in the 2001 Census.

The census recorded 103,010 German-born in Australia, although this excludes persons of German ethnicity and culture born elsewhere, such as the Netherlands (1,030), Hungary (660) and Romania (440).

Germans were active as missionaries and explorers in Australia from the early in the nineteenth century, and German prospectors were a large group in the 1850s gold rushes. In the second half of the century German migrants were prominent in settling South Australia and Queensland, and there were 45,000 Germans recorded present in Australia by the 1891 census. However, during both World Wars Germans were considered an "enemy within" and a number were interned or deported - or both.

After the Second World War, Australia received a large influx of ethnic German displaced persons. In the 1950s and 1960s, the migration of Germans continued under planned migration programs promoted by the Australian Government. By 1991, there were 112,000 German-born persons in Australia.

In December 2001, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 15,000 Australian citizens resident in Germany. It is not clear what proportion of this number are returned emigrants with Australian citizenship or their German Australian children, and what number is simply other Australians in Germany for business or other reasons.

According to the 2001 Census, the Germany-born are more likely than Australians as a whole to live in South Australia (11.9 per cent to 7.6 per cent) and Victoria (27.0 per cent to 24.7 per cent). They are also more likely to live in rural and regional areas. It is probable their German Australian children share this settlement pattern.

According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2004, German Australians are, by religion, 21.7 per cent Catholic, 16.5 per cent Anglican, 32.8 per cent Other Christian, 4.2 Other Religions and 24.8 No Religion.

In 2001, the German language was spoken at home by 76,400 persons in Australia. German is the eighth most widely spoken language in the country after English, the Chinese languages, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish and Tagalog.

Notable German Australians