Collection SummaryThemultese community in fairfieldDescriptionThe first Maltese person to come to Australia arrived as a convict in 1810, and the first free settler stepped ashore in 1838. After World War I, the Maltese community flourished, particularly in Sydney’s western suburbs where settlers established market gardens and small farms.
In 1948, the Australian Government set up an assisted immigration scheme with Malta, the first with a country other than Britain, which extended the benefit of subsidised travel costs to more than 63,000 Maltese. Since the early 1980s the Malta-born population in Australia has been declining and ageing.
Nevertheless, the community in Australia has become the largest Maltese community outside of Malta. By the turn of the century (2001), there were 46,998 Malta-born persons in Australia, of whom 18,422 or 39.2% lived in NSW.
Horsley Park Public School has significance to the Maltese community as a place where the Maltese language, culture, history and traditions are taught at various levels.
