Serbian Australians

During the time of Federation a very small number of Serbs inhabited Australia. Despite a lack of accurate data it is assumed that ethnic Serbs deriving from Lika, Dalmatia and Montenegro did reside in largely mining communities throughout the Commonwealth, though exact numbers are unsubstantiated. The first significant, albeit small wave of Serbian migrants, comprising mostly former POWs, and displaced persons fleeing war and genocide began arriving in Australia as post-war immigrants.{{Cite web|title=Introduction {{!}} Serbian ancestry {{!}} CRC NSW|url=https://multiculturalnsw.id.com.au/multiculturalnsw/ancestry-introduction?COIID=174|access-date=2020-08-28|website=multiculturalnsw.id.com.au}}{{Cite web|title=Serbians in South Australia {{!}} Adelaidia|url=https://adelaidia.history.sa.gov.au/subjects/serbians-in-south-australia|access-date=2020-08-28|website=adelaidia.history.sa.gov.au}} This initial wave also included members of the royalist Chetnik movement fleeing political persecution by the Communist regime of Josip Broz Tito.{{Cite web|title=Vojislav Stojkovic, Yugoslavian (Serbian) Migrant, 1948|url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/8111|access-date=2020-08-28|website=Museums Victoria Collections}}{{Cite book|last=Leustean|first=Lucian N.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yt6vAwAAQBAJ&q=chetniks+australia&pg=PT380|title=Eastern Christianity and Politics in the Twenty-First Century|date=2014-05-30|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-81865-6|language=en}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Stefanovic |encyclopedia=The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins |first=D.S. |isbn=978-0-521-80789-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTKFBXfCI1QC&q=serbian+national+defence+council+of+australia&pg=PA678 |editor=James Jupp|publisher=Cambridge University Press |title=Serbs |location=Cambridge |pages=678 |year=2002}}

The easing of emigration restrictions by Yugoslavia generated a second, larger wave of predominantly economic migration throughout the 1960s and 1970s. An agreement between Australia and Yugoslavia facilitated the recruitment of largely unskilled and semi-skilled immigrants, from predominantly rural backgrounds to work in Australia's manufacturing and construction industries.{{Cite web|last=Statistics|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|date=1997-06-19|title=Chapter - Composition: Birthplace of overseas-born Australians|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/95a816f7735aabd5ca2570ec001b074f!OpenDocument|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.abs.gov.au|language=en}} The developing political and economic issues in Yugoslavia during the 1980s, alongside its disintegration, ensuing wars, economic sanctions, and hyperinflation of the 1990s, resulted in the largest Serbian migration to Australia.{{Cite web|url=https://origins.museumsvictoria.com.au/countries/serbia | title=Immigration History from Serbia to Victoria |access-date=2020-08-28|website=origins.museumsvictoria.com.au}}{{Cite web|date=2018-08-22|title=The Trials of Growing up Serbian Abroad|url=https://balkaninsight.com/2018/08/22/the-trials-of-growing-up-serbian-abroad-07-30-2018/|access-date=2020-08-28|website=Balkan Insight|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Discover Victoria's diverse population|url=http://www.vic.gov.au/discover-victorias-diverse-population|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.vic.gov.au|language=en}}

In recent years, some Serbian Australians have joined and become members of the "Serbian Chetniks Australia" organisation.{{Cite web |title=Serbian Chetniks Australia |url=https://www.chetniks.org.au/ |access-date=2024-11-16 |language=en-AU}} This organisation promotes the concept of Chetnik forces fighting against the Nazi and Italian regimes during the second world war and as a result has participated in Anzac Day marches in Melbourne and Sydney. This is a highly controversial move due to the Nazi collaboration that Draža Mihailović participated in during the second world war and has attracted criticism from the large Croatian Australian and Bosnian Australian communities. {{Cite web |title=Serbian Chetniks and Nazis |url=https://thegoldmanreport.org/blog/chetniksarenazis |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=The Goldman Report |language=en-AU}}

For many years Serbian Australians were classified "Yugoslavs" as flawed Australian census data failed to recognise the diverse ethnic groups within the former Yugoslavia. Questions regarding ancestral heritage were not included in any Australian census until 1986.{{Cite web|last=Statistics|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|title=Fact sheet - Ancestry|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/factsheetsa?opendocument&navpos=450|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.abs.gov.au|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Statistics|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|title=Fact sheet - Ancestry - Serbian|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/factsheetsancserb?opendocument&navpos=450|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.abs.gov.au|language=en}} From 1971- 1991 Yugoslavian nationals ranked 4th largest in Australia's post-war migrant intake. Census data has established that Serbs ranked 3rd within the Yugoslav immigrant pool, behind declared Croat and Macedonian ethnicities.{{Cite web|last=corporateName=Commonwealth Parliament; address=Parliament House|first=Canberra|title=Top 10 countries of birth for the overseas-born population since 1901|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1819/BornOverseas|access-date=2020-08-28|website=www.aph.gov.au|language=en-AU}}

File:Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Inner Sydney by POA - BCP field 1186 Serbian Total Responses.svg

Serbian Australians comprise 0.36% of Australia's population, with 69.67% residing in the states of New South Wales and Victoria alone. Serbs reside mainly in state capitals and major metropolitan areas throughout Australia. The largest Serbian communities can be found predominantly in Melbourne's western and south-eastern suburbs, and in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-07 |title=Cultural diversity: Census, 2021 {{!}} Australian Bureau of Statistics |url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/latest-release |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=www.abs.gov.au |language=en}}{{cite book|url=https://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/immigration-update/people-australia-2013-statistics.pdf|title=The People of Australia – Statistics from the 2011 Census|publisher=Department of Immigration and Border Protection|year=2014|isbn=978-1-920996-23-9|page=59|quote=Ancestry}}{{Cite web|last=School of Historical Studies|first=Department of History|title=Serbs - Entry - eMelbourne - The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online|url=https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01354b.htm|access-date=2020-09-05|website=www.emelbourne.net.au|language=en-gb}}{{Cite journal|date=9 August 2016|title=Svetosavnik|journal=Svetosavnik - Parorhiski List Srpske Pravoslavne Crkve "Sv Sava"|language=sr, en|volume=123|pages=20–26}}

{{Pie chart

| thumb = right

| caption = Ancestral composition of Serbian Australians as declared in the census (2016)

| label1 = Serbs

| value1 = 67.06

| color1 = Red

| label2 = Other

| value2 = 6.97

| color2 = black

| label3 = Australians

| value3 = 5.85

| color3 = Yellow

| label4 = Croats

| value4 = 4.63

| color4 = Darkblue

| label5 = English, Irish, Scots, Welsh

| value5 = 4

| color5 = Skyblue

| label6 = Macedonians

| value6 = 2.7

| color6 = Brown

| label7 = Germans

| value7 = 1.79

| color7 = Pink

| label8 = Italians

| value8 = 1.71

| color8 = orange

| label9 = Bosniaks

| value9 = 1.36

| color9 = green

| label10 = Hungarians

| value10 = 1.24

| color10 = Gray

| label11 = Greeks

| value11 = 0.74

| color11 = White

| label12 = Montenegrin

| value12 = 0.53

| color12 = purple

| label13 = Russians

| value13 = 0.51

| color13 = fuchsia

| label14 = Poles

| value14 = 0.46

| color14 = maroon

| label15 = Romanians

| value15 = 0.24

| color15 = sienna

| label16 = Slovenes

| value16 = 0.13

| color16 = aqua

|

}}

The Australian Bureau of Statistics allows the provision of two ancestries in a multi-response question. In the 2016 census there were 73,901 people in Australia of Serbian descent, 0.31% of the total population. 67.06% of Serbian Australians declared full Serbian ancestry. Individuals identifying as Serbian in the first response comprised 11.84%, whilst 21.09% declared Serbian heritage in the second response.{{Cite web|last=Statistics|first=c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of|title=Fact sheet - Ancestry|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/factsheetsa?opendocument&navpos=450|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.abs.gov.au|language=en}}

{{Pie chart

| thumb = right

| caption = Serbian Australians by country of birth according to 2016 census data

| label1 = Australia

| value1 = 45.0

| color1 = Yellow

| label2 = Serbia

| value2 = 22.7

| color2 = Red

| label3 = Yugoslavia

| value3 = 10.7

| color3 = Gray

| label4 = Bosnia and Herzegovina

| value4 = 7.7

| color4 = Green

| label5 = Croatia

| value5 = 7.4

| color5 = Darkblue

| label6 = Other countries

| value6 = 4.7

| color7 = Aqua

| label8 = Not stated or unclear

| value8 = 1.8

| color8 = White

|

}}

{{Pie chart

| thumb = right

| caption = Religion of Serbian Australians as declared in the census (2016)

| label1 = Serbian Orthodox

| value1 = 56.6

| color1 = Purple

| label2 = Other Christian

| value2 = 18.8

| color2 = Skyblue

| label3 = No religion

| value3 = 14.5

| color3 = Gray

| label4 = Roman Catholic

| value4 = 5.7

| color4 = Yellow

| label6 = Not stated or unclear

| value6 = 2.9

| color6 = white

| label5 = Other religions

| value5 = 1.4

| color5 = red

|

}}

Serbian Australians predominantly belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Eastern Orthodox faith, estimated at approximately 75%. This is due to a statistical discrepancy amongst Serb Australians affiliated within the "Christianity (defined and not defined)" category in the 2016 Australian census. The largest religious body of Serbian Orthodox Australians is the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Australia and New Zealand, located in Alexandria, Sydney.{{Cite web|title=Serbian Culture - Religion|url=http://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/serbian-culture/serbian-culture-religion|access-date=2020-08-29|website=Cultural Atlas|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Serbian Orthodox Church Australia and New Zealand - HOME|url=https://soc.org.au/en/|access-date=2020-08-29|website=soc.org.au}}

File:Serbian Orthodox Church in Coober Pedy.jpg]]

17.4% of Serbian Australians declared "No Religion/Not Stated", 5.7% "Roman Catholic" whilst 1.4% professed "other faith's".

{{more citations needed|date=January 2016}}

{{image array|perrow=12|width=55|height=95| border-width = 1

| image1 = Andrew Nikolic -June 2009.jpg| caption1 = Andrew Nikolic

| image2 = Listening - Karl Stefanovic - Ch9 Today Show, Bourke Street Mall - Flickr - avlxyz (cropped).jpg| caption2 = Karl Stefanovic

| image3 = Altiyan Childs.jpg| caption3 = Altiyan Childs

| image4 = Nick Vujicic speaking in a church in Ehringshausen, Germany - 20110401-02.jpg| caption4 = Nick Vujicic

| image5 = Holly Valance 1800-1.jpg | caption5 = Holly Valance

| image6 = Aleks Marić.jpg | caption6 = Aleks Marić

| image7 = Les Miserables Premiere Sydney (8293105383).jpg | caption7 = Bojana Novakovic

| image8 = JelenaDokicUSopen2011 cropped.jpg | caption8 = Jelena Dokić

| image9= Monika Radulovic arrives at the 58th Annual Logie Awards at Crown Palladium (26836426901).jpg | caption9= Monika Radulovic

| image10= Biljana Dekic 2002.jpg | caption10 = Biljana Dekic

| image11= Alex Antic.jpg | caption11 = Alex Antic

| image12= Nick Lalich MP.jpg | caption12 = Nick Lalich

}}

• Alex Antic – Australian senator{{cite news|url=https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F8cddaed5-c36d-4ec4-8daf-377e5e704aa8%2F0129%22;src1=sm1|title=First speech|first=Alex|last=Antic|date=17 September 2019|access-date=1 December 2019|publisher=Parliament of Australia|work=Hansard}}
• Eli Babalj – Soccer player
• Milan Blagojevic – Soccer player
• Pedj Bojic – Soccer player
• Nick Cotric - Rugby league player
• Nina Marković-Khaze - Political scientist and journalist
• Nik Cubrilovic - Hacker and internet security expert.{{cite web|title=One Serb's Crusade Against his Privacy Being Invaded by Facebook|publisher=Britić|url=http://www.ebritic.com/?p=135334}}
• Miloš Degenek – Soccer player
• Biljana Dekic – Chess player
• Bobby Despotovski – Soccer player and coach{{Cite web|title=Bobby admits salute|url=https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/bobby-admits-salute|access-date=2020-08-29|website=The World Game|language=en}}
• Bronko Djura - Cricket and Rugby league player
• Dirty South – Musician
• Jelena Dokić – Tennis player
• Dragan Durdevic – Rugby league player
• Ivan Ergić – Soccer player
• Vedrana Grbović – Model{{cite web|title=Bivša Miss Srbije Vedrana Grbović: Đoković me nasmejao do suza!|publisher=Svet|url=http://www.svet.rs/svetplus/intervju-bivsa-miss-srbije-vedrana-grbovic-dokovic-me-nasmejao-do-suza/}}
• Dan Ilic – Comedian
• Luke Ivanovic – Soccer player
• Milan Ivanović – Soccer player
• Marko Jesic – Soccer player
• Robert Jovicic – Immigration case
• Sam Kekovich – Australian Rules footballer & media personality
• Nick Lalich - Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and Mayor of Fairfield
• Ksenija Lukich – Model & TV presenter
• Aleks Marić – Basketball player
• Steven Marković – Basketball player
• Katrina Milosevic - Actress
• Danny Milosevic – Soccer player
• Nik Mrdja – Soccer player
• Andrew Nikolic – Australian politician and former Australian Army Brigadier
• Bojana Novakovic – Actress
• Abdullah Numan – Mufti of Serbia{{Cite web|title=ABDULLAH ef. NUMAN|url=https://www.rijaset.rs/index.php/biografije/57-biografije/338-abdullah-ef-numan|access-date=2021-02-06|website=www.rijaset.rs|language=sr-yu}}
• Tom Opacic - Rugby League player
• Andreja Pejic – Model.{{cite web |title=Naš Andrej je lep ko lutka! |trans-title=Our Andrej Is Beautiful Like a Doll! |language=sr |website=Alo! |date=31 December 2011 |url=http://www.alo.rs/vesti/44942/Nas_Andrej_je_lep_ko_lutka |access-date=31 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109044141/http://www.alo.rs/vesti/44942/Nas_Andrej_je_lep_ko_lutka |archive-date=9 January 2012 |url-status=dead}}
• Vedrana Popovic – Soccer player
• Monika Radulovic – Model{{cite web|title=Srpkinja sa titulom Mis Australije: Upoznajte Moniku Radulović|publisher=Cosmopolitan|url=http://www.cosmopolitan.rs/moj-zivot/uspesna-i-smela/20680-srpkinja-sa-titulom-mis-australije-upoznajte-moniku-radulovic.html}}
• Rale Rašić – Soccer coach,

player and media personality

• Nikola Roganovic – Soccer player
• Tom Rogic – Soccer player
• Siluan - Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand{{Cite web|title=Serbian Orthodox Church Australia and New Zealand - BIOGRAPHY OF BISHOP SILUAN (MRAKIC) NEWLY CONSECRATED BISHOP OF THE METROPOLITANATE OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND|url=https://soc.org.au/en/news/547-biography-of-archimandrite-siluan-mrakic-bishopelect-of-the-metropolitanate-of-australia-and-new-zealand|access-date=2021-11-10|website=soc.org.au}}
• Karl Stefanovic – TV presenter & journalist
• Peter Stefanovic – TV presenter & journalist
• Daniel Subotic – Socialite
• Aleksandar Šušnjar – Soccer player
• Vuko Tomasevic – Soccer player
• Jake Trbojevic – Rugby league player
• Tom Trbojevic – Rugby league player
• Doug Utjesenovic - Soccer player
• Holly Valance – Actress, singer and model
• Olympia Valance – Model and actress
• Dragan Vasiljković – Serbian paramilitary leader
• Lazar Vidovic – Australian rules footballer
• Tyla-Jay Vlajnic - Soccer player
• Nick Vujicic – Christian evangelist
• Danny Vukovic – Soccer player
• B. Wongar – Writer
• Ursula Yovich – Actress and singer
• Lew Zivanovic – Rugby league player
• Alexandar Popovic – Soccer player

• List of Serbian soccer clubs in Australia

• Australia–Serbia relations
• European Australians
• Europeans in Oceania
• Immigration to Australia
• Serbian New Zealanders
• Serbian diaspora
• Serbian Americans
• Serbian Canadians

{{Cnote2 Begin|liststyle=upper-alpha}}

{{Cnote2|a|The community is commonly known in English as Serbian Australians, and scarcer as Serb Australians. In Serbian, the community is known as Australian Serbs ({{lang|sr|{{lang|sr-Cyrl|аустралијски Срби}} / {{lang|sr-Latn|australijski Srbi}}}}), and scarcer as Serbs in Australia ({{lang|sr|{{lang|sr-Cyrl|Срби у Аустралији}} / {{lang|sr-Latn|Srbi u Australiji}}}}).}}

{{Cnote2 End}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041028074111/http://www.crc.nsw.gov.au/statistics/Sect1/Table1p08Aust.pdf Ancestry by Birthplace – Results of 2001 Australian census]

{{Ethnic groups in Australia}}

{{Serbian diaspora}}

{{Portal bar|Australia|Serbia}}

*

Australia