Hinduism in Australia
- 8 min read
- 8 chapters
Related on Lably
In the nineteenth century, the British authorities first brought Hindus from India to Australia to work on cotton and sugar plantations. Many remained as small businessmen, working as camel drivers, merchants and hawkers, selling goods between small rural communities. The Hindus in Australia are mostly of Indian origin; other origins include those from Sri Lanka, Fiji, Malaysia, Bali, Cham, Singapore, Mauritius, and Nepal.
History
Early presence
The following dates briefly outline the arrival of Hinduism.
- 1836 – The census recorded 277 Hindus in Victoria.
- 1844 – P. Friell who had previously lived in India, brought 25 domestic workers from India to Sydney and these included a few women and children.
- 1850s – A Hindu Sindhi merchant, Shri Pammull, built a family opal trade in Melbourne that has prosperously continued with his third-to fourth-generation descendants.
- 1890 – The census showed that 521 Hindus were living in New South Wales.
- 1907 – About 800 Indians lived in Australia; most lived in northern New South Wales and Queensland.
- 1911 – The census counted 3,698 "Hindoos", the majority of whom were Hindus.
- 1911 – The census counted 3,698 Hindus in the entire country.
- 1921 – Less than 2200 Indians lived in Australia.
Migration and institutional growth since the 1970s
- 1971 – Swami Prabhupada arrives in Australia and founded first Hare Krishna centre in Sydney.
- 1977 – The first Hindu temple in Australia, the Sri Mandir Temple, was built. Established by three devotees; Dr Prem Shankar (from Ujhani, UP), Dr Padmanabn Shrindhar Prabhu and Dr Anand, who bought an old house in Auburn NSW and paid $12000.00 to convert it into a temple.
- 1981 – The census recorded 12,466 Hindus in Victoria and 12,256 in NSW from a total of 41,730 in the entire country.
- 1985 – A Hindu society, the Saiva Manram, was formed to build a temple for Lord Murukan. Since its inception, Lord Murukan has been called 'Sydney Murukan'. The Saiva Manram has worked for nearly ten years to build a temple for Lord Murukan.
- 1986 – According to the 1986 census, the number of Hindus in Australia surpasses 21,000.
- 1991 – According to the 1991 census, the number of Hindus in Australia surpasses 43,000.
- 1995 – Completion of the Brisbane Selva Vinayakar Kovil the consecration ceremony was held on 5 February 1995.
- 1996 – Hindus with their birthplace in India made up 31 per cent of all Hindus in Australia. The census also showed there were 67,270 Hindus living in Australia.
- 2001 – According to the 2001 census, the number of Hindus in Australia surpasses 95,000.
- 2003 – Sri Karphaga Vinayakar Temple was formed to build a temple for Lord Ganesha/Ganapathi/Vinayakar. Since its inception, Lord Ganesh has been called 'Sydney Ganesh Temple'.
- 2006 – According to the 2006 census, the number of Hindus in Australia was 148,123.
- 2011 – According to the 2011 census, the number of Hindus in Australia was 275,535.
- 2016 – 2016 Census data states that Hindus comprise almost 2% of the Australian population.
Sign in to keep reading
7 more chapters are free with a Lably account.
Demographics
Population growth
Distribution by state and territory
The 2016 Census noted 415 Hindus belonging to the indigenous community of Australia (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people).
Geographic concentration
As per 2021 census, Hindus form 2.7% of Australia's total population. From 2011 to 2021, in 10 years Hindus have increased from 275,534 to 684,002, a growth of 408,462 or 148.2%, making Hinduism the second fastest growing religion of Australia.
The majority of Australian Hindus live along the Eastern Coast of Australia, mainly in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. About 39% of Hindus lived in Greater Sydney, 29% in Greater Melbourne, and 8% each in Greater Brisbane and Greater Perth. The states and territories with the highest proportion of Hindus are the Australian Capital Territory (2.57%) and New South Wales (2.43%), whereas those with the lowest are Queensland (0.98%) and Tasmania (0.50%).
According to the 2006 Census, 44.16% of all Australians who were born in India were Hindu, so were 47.20% of those born in Fiji, 1.84% born in Indonesia, 3.42% from Malaysia, and 18.61% from Sri Lanka.
In Tasmania, Hinduism is practised mainly by the Lhotshampa community from Bhutan.
Hindu communities and converts
Hinduism is growing among the Anglo-Australian population. Many Caucasians in Australia also visit the Hindu temple at Carrum Downs (Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple) and learn Vedic Hindu scriptures in Tamil. The ISKCON Hindu community in Australia has 60,000 members - 70% of whom are Hindus from overseas, with the other 30% being Anglo Australians.
Languages
According to the 2021 Census, 13.0% of Australian Hindus speak English at home. English (88,832 or 13.0%) is the third most common language spoken by Australian Hindus, behind Hindi (155,242 or 22.7%) and Nepali (111,353 or 16.3%). The number of Australian Hindus speaking various languages in their home according to the 2006 census:
- Indian migrants speak Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada etc.
- Tamil by immigrants from India, Sri lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius
- Nepali by immigrants from Nepal, Bhutan and India.
- Bengali by immigrants from India and Bangladesh.
- Fijian Hindi and Fijian by migrants from Fiji
- Mauritian Creole by migrants from Mauritius
- Balinese and Indonesian by Indonesian migrants
- Other languages such as French, Malay, Sinhalese, Italian, Vietnamese, etc.
Temples and religious institutions
Hindu temples operate in every Australian state and territory. The Hindu Council of Australia, an umbrella body, lists member and associate organisations covering temples, cultural associations and service groups nationwide, though this list is not limited to temples and does not on its own support a specific count.
- Sri Karphaga Vinayakar Temple, Sydney
- Sydney Murugan Temple, Westmead
- Sai Mandir, Regents Park, Sydney
- Minto Shiva Temple, Sydney
- Sri Venkateswara Temple, Helensburgh, New South Wales
- Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, Toongabbie, New South Wales
- Sydney Durga Temple, Sydney
- Perth Shiva Temple, Perth
- Bala Murugan Temple, Perth
- Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Perth
- BAPS Temple, Melbourne
- Sri Venkata Krishna Brundavana, Melbourne
- Sri Venkata Krishna Vrundavana, Sydney
- Shiva Vishnu Temple, Melbourne
- Durga Temple, Melbourne
- Shirdi Sai Sansthan, Melbourne
- Sankatamochan Hanuman Mandir, Melbourne
- Melbourne Murugan Temple, Melbourne
- Sri Vakrathunda Vinayagar Temple, Melbourne
- Perth Ram Temple, Perth
- BAPS Shree Swaminarayan Mandir – Canberra (Taylor, ACT)
- Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre - Florey, ACT
Discrimination and social indicators
According to a national survey reported in 2019, Hindu Australians continues to experience the highest rates of discrimination even after being the model minority. At the 2016 census, women aged 45 to 49 who reported Hinduism had an average of 1.81 children, compared with 2.02 for all Australian women in that age group, 2.11 for Christian women and 3.03 for Muslim women.
Festivals and public life
Two members of Australian parliaments have taken their oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita. Daniel Mookhey did so on entering the New South Wales Legislative Council in May 2015, which was reported at the time as an Australian first. Varun Ghosh, a Labor senator for Western Australia, was sworn in on the same text in 2024 and was reported as the first senator to do so.
Diwali has received official recognition in New South Wales. Parliament House in Sydney was illuminated for the festival on 4 November 2021, which the presiding officers said recognised the state's Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities.
In April 2025 the New South Wales Government announced $3.75 million towards a Hindu Cultural and Education Centre at Parramatta, intended as the administrative home of the Hindu Council of Australia.
Christmas Island
Hinduism is practised by the small number of Malaysian Indians in Christmas Island. According to the 2021 census, Hinduism constitute 0.6% of its population.
Temple vandalism and threats
- 2023 Jan: Three Hindu temples were vandalized across Australia namely the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple of Melbourne, Shiva Vishnu Temple of Carrum Downs, Victoria and ISKCON Temple of Melbourne with anti-Hindu graffiti by Khalistani extremists. High Commission of India to Australia condemned the repeated hate-crimes and the Australian High Commission to India assured support and solidarity with the Hindu community of Australia. Several top Australian lawmakers condemned the attacks on Hindu community's places of worship and stressed importance of respect in a multicultural society.
- 2023 Feb: Khalistani extremists made threatening phone calls to a prominent Hindu temple in Brisbane. The perpetrators demanded the temple raise Khalistan slogans if they wished to celebrate Mahashivratri peacefully. The calls came after three Hindu temples in Australia were defaced with anti-India graffiti, allegedly by Khalistani extremists.
- 2023 Mar: The Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple in Brisbane was vandalized by Khalistani extremists with anti-Hindu graffiti on the walls of temple. Sarah L Gates, the Director of Hindu Human Rights suspects that the hate crime is an attempt to terrorize Hindu community by members of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) headed by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an individual designated as terrorist by the government of India. However the Australian Police claims they have no suspects or leads behind the vandalism.
- 2023 May: The BAPS Swaminarayan Temple of Sydney was vandalized with anti-Hindu graffiti allegedly by Khalistani extremists. Andrew Charlton, Member of Parliament from Parramatta expressed regret and visited the temple for helping the temple volunteers in cleaning the graffiti. Michelle Rowland, Minister of Communications condemned the vandalism. The Hindu Council of Australia called it not only an attack on sanctity of temple but also an insult to Australian Hindus and demanded investigation and justice.
- 2025 July: The Shree Swaminarayan Temple in Melbourne was vandalised with hateful racial slurs. Victoria's Premier Jacinta Allan's office sent out a private message to the Temple management. It read, "The Shree Swaminarayan Temple is so much more than a place of worship - it's a place of warmth and community... What happened this week was hateful, racist and deeply disturbing. It wasn't just vandalism - it was a deliberate act of hate, designed to intimidate, isolate, and spread fear." Hindu Council of Australia's President, Victoria chapter, Makrand Bhagwat expressed his deep shock at the vandalism of the holy place. He called it "an attack on our identity, our right to worship and freedom of religion".