Not so long ago some Australians living in the States were talking about the ethnic compositions of the two countries. When Jews were mentioned, one quite innocently said, “But there are no Jews in Australia, are there?”

By comparison with America, this might seem to be the case. These days Italians and Greeks have the most visible ethnic presence (other than the established Anglo-Celtic ethnics, that is) and it is not until recent years that ethnic identity has become a popular subject of discussion. With the exception of visible and viable communities such as that of the German immigrants to the Barossa Valley in South Australia, non-British settlement up to the end of World War Two has been relatively dispersed and rigorously assimilated into a secular, British-oriented society.