In Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, a number of German settlements in the Riverina

Riverina

The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales , Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop...

were established in the late nineteenth century. The settlements were populated by Germans migrating both from established German settlements in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 and directly from Germany. Due to the distinct religious and language difference between the new settlers and the established Anglo-Celtic community in the Riverina, these settlements maintained a distinct cultural identity.

History

Australia became a popular destination for German immigrants from as early as 1838 when religious persecution

Religious persecution

Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or lack thereof....

 in Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 spurned the first organised group migration of Lutherans to South Australia. What was to follow was a progressive chain migration

Chain migration

Chain migration has multiple meanings. It refers to the social process by which immigrants from a particular town follow others from that town to a particular city or neighborhood, whether in an immigrant receiving country or in a new, usually urban, location in the home country...

 from the areas in northern and eastern Prussia, that was to last until the end of the nineteenth century. However, with this influx, land soon became difficult to obtain at reasonable prices. Also, land holdings in South Australia proved too small for sustainable crop

Crop

Crop may refer to:* Crop, a plant grown and harvested for agricultural use* Crop , part of the alimentary tract of some animals* Crop , a modified whip used in horseback riding or disciplining humans...

ping with Australian soils unable to cope with the type of intensive farming that was traditional practice of German farmers in the homeland. These factors, combined with the desire of the Germans to live in homogenous communities, their land inheritance practices, and the typically large size of German families, culminated to instigate a second migrational wave from South Australia to the colonies of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 from the 1860s. Substantial numbers of German settlers left South Australia to select land in the Southern Riverina.

The Albury

Albury, New South Wales

Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...

 region had long been a settlement area for Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 Germans, particularly farmers and wine growers from the Rhineland

Rhineland

Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....

, who had begun to melt in with the Anglo-Celtic

Anglo-Celtic

Anglo-Celtic is a term used to describe people of British and Irish descent. The term today is mainly used outside of Britain and Ireland, particularly in Australia but also in Canada, New Zealand and the United States, where a significant diaspora is located....

 population. The first South Australian Germans to reconnoitre the Riverina took up land in May 1866. By the end of 1866 Germans had selected seven parcels of land, totalling 1470 acres (5.9 km²). In the following year an additional 55 properties with a combined area of 7680 acres (31.1 km²) had been selected by German settlers, while in 1868 a further 51 properties (with 4,503 acres) were selected. While some of those moving to the Riverina were original immigrants who had come to Australia from Germany, the majority were apparently first generation Australia-born Germans. Ethnically, many of the Germans were in fact Wendish

Wendish

Wendish may refer to:* the Sorbian languages used by the Slavs* the Wends, a Slav people of Northern Europe...

 or Sorbs

Sorbs

Sorbs are a Western Slavic people of Central Europe living predominantly in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland. In Germany they live in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. They speak the Sorbian languages - closely related to Polish and Czech - officially recognized and...

, an ethnic community in north-eastern Germany. Even though most were Australian-born, the German and Wendish setters in the Riverina remained culturally Germans with little if any acculturation to the English environment. This cultural identity could be maintained because these German settlers formed close-knit communities held together by Lutheran Christianity, and also due to their adherence to the German language

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

. As in South Australia, both factors became the distinguishing element from mainstream New South Wales.

While the Germans made up the greatest non-British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

 immigrant community in NSW, their overall numbers were not that large. What made the Germans so visible, was the clustered nature of their settlements: two thirds of all German holdings were concentrated in the four postal town areas of Albury

Albury, New South Wales

Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...

, Jindera

Jindera, New South Wales

Jindera is a town in the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town is situated north of the regional centre of Albury, in the Greater Hume Shire Local government area...

 (57 properties each), Walla Walla

Walla Walla, New South Wales

Walla Walla is a town in Greater Hume Shire Council in New South Wales, Australia. It is about north of Albury-Wodonga and south of Wagga Wagga.Walla Walla had a population of 581 people in 2006 and has the largest Lutheran church in New South Wales....

 (28 properties) and Gerogery

Gerogery, New South Wales

Gerogery is a small village in Greater Hume Shire Council in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gerogery serves a rural farming community. The village is located on the Main South railway line between Sydney and Melbourne, where it intersects with the Olympic Way. At the 2006 census,...

(27 properties) all of which were located close to each other.