According to the 2011 Census, there were 13,594 people of Lithuanian descent in Australia and 2,639 Lithuania-born people residing in the country at the moment of the census, having a fall of 14.1 percent compared to the 2006 census.

The largest Lithuanian Australian community is in the state of Victoria, with 897 Lithuania-born people, especially located in Melbourne.

The First Lithuanian Australians

The earliest arrivals of Lithuanian emigres was in 1815 when approximately 900 people landed on the shores of Western Australia from the S.S. Waspertian.

Within weeks, many found themselves dispersed throughout the area around Perth….

  • First Arrivals
    Early settlers
    After the First Fleet, there were many more ships to arrive and settle on aboriginal soil. Within the first few waves, Lithuanians escaping from the ravages of a Tsarist regime from Russian persecution arrived to Australia's shores and became amalgamated into the diaspora of the New World.
  • 2nd wave
    Finding a new peace
    Almost 100 years later, a second major wave of Baltic settlers arrived
  • World War II
    Escaping the purges of Hitler and Stalin
    Displaced by war, reluctant to return to a homeland persecuted by a totalitarian government, many more Lithuanians arrive to the open arms of the Australian way of life. The first voyage under Arthur Calwell's Displaced Persons immigration program was on the boat the "General Stuart Heintzelman" which came over in 1947. Of the 843 immigrants on the Heintzelman, 442 were Lithuanian.