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Islam made contact with Australia during the seventeenth century. Small numbers of Muslim sailors and prisoners arrived in Australia on convict ships, but little else is known about them.
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The first Jews arrived in Australia as convicts on the First Fleet in 1788. Some twenty-five years later, there were about twenty Jews living in Sydney. Jewish convicts generally did not observe Jewish religious practices.
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He did this to ensure that Jews living in Sydney were buried according to Jewish tradition. Rites were performed until about 1825 by Marcus, who claimed to have been educated at a rabbinical college.
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Initially, Philip Cohen opened his house for weekly worship until the congregation obtained a warehouse in Bridge Street which served as Sydney's and Australia's first synagogue.
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Synagogues were established in:
Tasmania in 1845
Victoria in 1848
South Australia in 1850
Queensland in 1878
Western Australia in 1897. -
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Australia's first purpose-built synagogue was opened in York Street, Sydney. It accommodated 500 worshippers and became the centre of Jewish life in Sydney. -
The first significant influx of Muslims to Australia occurred during the 1860s with the arrival of Afghan cameleers.
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The discovery of gold during the 1850s attracted many Jews
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Photo - Replica of the first Mosque. Muslim people built Australia's first mosque in South Australia in 1861. -
During the 1870s, Muslim Malay divers were recruited to work in the pearl trade in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
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By 1875, their numbers had grown to around 1800. Few stayed on with most deciding to return to their home country.
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During the 1890s, many Jewish refugees escaped persecution in Russia and Poland. They settled in Australia where they strengthened orthodox Jewish practices
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Muslim migration was severely curtailed with the introduction of the White Australia Policy in 1901
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By the 1920s, about 2,000 Afghan cameleers had arrived in Australia, but only about 100 families remained. -
During the 1920s and 1930s, Albanian Muslims managed to enter Australia due to their fairer European complexion.
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The second influx of Jewish people occurred after World War I, particularly after Hitler assumed power in Germany in 1933.
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Although hesitant to welcome large numbers of Jewish migrants, the Australian government allocated 15,000 visas for victims of oppression. By 1939, some 7,000 of these had been filled.