New South Wales 5,101 Queensland 1,316 | Victoria 2,160 Australian Capital Territory 640 | |
Laotian Australians (also known as Lao Australians) are Australians originating from Laos, and their descendants. Mass migration from Laos to Australia began in 1976. As of 1995, they numbered roughly 9,800 people.
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Organisations
Organisations established by Laotians in Australia include the Lao Studies Society, the Council of Overseas Lao, the Lao Patthin Association, LaoAus Care Inc. and the Lao Women's Association. The leadership of these organisations is largely drawn from among the civil servants of the pre-communist government of Laos, as well as the international students who were sponsored to come to Australia under the Colombo Plan during that government.
Religion
Most Laotians in Australia are Theravada Buddhists, with a minority of Catholics. In the early days of their migration, they had no temples of their own, and so worshipped at established Thai Buddhist temples instead. Later, the community sponsored monks of their own country to come to Australia, mostly drawing from the population already in refugee camps in Thailand. As of 2001, Sydney had four Laotian Buddhist temples, Melbourne had two, and Canberra, Adelaide, and Albury-Wodonga each had one.