The Lebanese have a long history of migration to Australia, but prior to 1975 the vast majority of immigrants were Christian. Until World War I, Lebanon, as we know it today, was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. With the break-up of the Ottoman territories in 1920, Lebanon came under the mandate of France. It finally gained independence in 1943.
Prior to the World War I, Lebanese immigrants coming to Australia were issued with Turkish documents. This angered some of the Lebanese who were fleeing Turkish persecution. To add to the confusion, Australian officials often classified Lebanese as Syrians, as Lebanon fell within the Ottoman province of Syria. It was not until after World War II that the term 'Lebanese' was widely adopted.
  | Letter from J Tremoulet, Consul General of France, to WM Hughes, Minister for External Affairs, 18 November 1938 NAA: A1, 1938/32817, p. 7 | |
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Two waves
In the early 1950s, a small number of Muslim families arrived from North Lebanon. However, the first real wave of Lebanese-Muslim immigration began in the 1960s. These were mainly Sunni Muslims who, once established, sponsored the migration of further family members.
 | Alien registration card for Mohamad Mounif Laz, who arrived in Australia from Lebanon on 28 July 1968 NAA: P1183, 3/135 LAZ, pp. 1-2 | |
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 | Confidential memorandum on 'Lebanese migration to Australia, by H Neill Truscott, Ambassador to Lebanon, c 1971 NAA: A1838, 1634/131 Part 1, pp. 169-73 | |
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The pace and scale of Lebanese-Muslim migration changed dramatically after 1975, when civil war broke out in Lebanon. Most arrivals continued to be sponsored by existing residents, but many of the usual requirements for entry into Australia (such as health and security checks) were held in abeyance or waived on humanitarian grounds. Between 1975 and 1977, about 14,000 Lebanese Muslims arrived in Australia.
Lebanese Muslims came to Australia late in the history of Lebanese immigration. Unlike the well-established Christian Lebanese community, they lacked the church structures and organisations to help them adjust to their new life. The new arrivals mostly settled in industrial areas of Melbourne and Sydney. They joined Turkish and other migrants on assembly lines at factories like Ford and Leyland.
Later, Australian-born generations became tertiary qualified professionals, building on their immigrant parents' sacrifices and living out their dreams. By 1981 there were 17,000 Lebanese Muslims living in Australia.
 | Lebanese proprietor of Manjimup restaurant, 1970 NAA: A12111, 70/16/105 | |
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In Sydney, the Muslim Lebanese population became concentrated in the Canterbury area. It was here, in the 1960s, that Sunni Muslims converted a modest house into their first mosque. It was very different in size and architecture to the magnificent Lakemba Mosque, built by the community in the 1970s.
 | The Lakemba Mosque, 1978 NAA: A8746, KN4/4/78/4 | |
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While the majority of Lebanese Muslims are Sunnis, there is also a sizable Shi'ite minority with their own mosques and organisations. Shi'ite Muslims settled around Arncliffe in Sydney, establishing the Al-Zahra Mosque in 1983. Relations between the two Islamic sects are amicable in Australia.
In Melbourne, most Lebanese live in the suburbs of Brunswick, Coburg, Preston and Northcote, Wiliamstown and Newport. Through the efforts of their leading imam, Sheikh Fehmi, the Lebanese were always well represented in the early Islamic Society of Victoria, and in the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC).
> See A remarkable journey in Stories
 | Members of the Islamic Society of Victoria, including Sheikh Fehmi, examine a model of a planned new mosque in Melbourne, 1975 NAA: A6180, 25/7/75/37 | |
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By the late 1970s, institutional Islam was entrenched in Australia through the building of mosques, Islamic schools and a plethora of religious societies and cultural organisations, some ethnic-specific, others multicultural.
Sources
Andrew & Trevor Batrouney, The Lebanese in Australia, AE Press, Melbourne, 1985
Trevor Batrouney, 'Lebanese community life in Melbourne', in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1988, pp. 680-82
Michael Humphrey, 'Muslim Lebanese' in James Jupp (ed.), The Australian People, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1988, pp. 677-80
James Jupp (ed.), The Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001