Manwel Bugeja : the grandfather of the Maltese in Australia

Abstract

There are more than 59,000 Maltese-born persons in Australia. They, and their much larger number of descendants, have more than fifty Maltese community organizations spread around the major centres of Maltese population: Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Canberra, Wollongong, Broken Hill, Adelaide, and Perth. There are Maltese newspapers and radio broadcasts, and the traditional Festas are celebrated, too. While in the immediate post-war years the Maltese immigrants were regarded as a source of labour, today there are increasing numbers of Maltese-Australians in the professions, especially medicine, law, and academia. Three Maltese-Australians have been elected to parliaments On New South Wales and in Victoria). One, John Aquilina, became NSW Minister for Natural Resources in 1986. [excerpt]