The first traces of Bulgarian emigration to Australia date back to 1876, when an unknown number of Bulgarians fleeing the
Ottoman atrocities in the wake of the
April Uprising settled in
Queensland and
Tasmania. According to 1891 statistics, only 14 Bulgarians lived in Australia. Following the anti-Ottoman
Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1908, around 100 Bulgarians from
Macedonia and southern
Thrace emigrated to Australia. The first more prominent Bulgarian colony was formed in
Perth,
Western Australia, in 1906–07. The first larger organized group of Bulgarian emigrants arrived in Australia in 1907 and consisted of around 100 people, most from the
Veliko Tarnovo region; 30 of these disembarked in
Adelaide,
South Australia, 35 in
Melbourne,
Victoria and 35 in
Sydney,
New South Wales. After the end of
World War II, there was an influx of hundreds of Bulgarian political emigrants who did not accept the newly established communist authority in
Bulgaria. It is difficult to establish the exact number of Bulgarian settlers in the pre-World War II period, but one estimate puts the number of emigrants from the
Kingdom of Bulgaria at 1,000, with another 5,000 to 6,000 ethnic Bulgarian emigrants from
Macedonia,
Dobruja and
Bessarabia. It was not until 1950 that
Bulgarian Orthodox church communities were officially established. The Bulgarian Orthodox churches in Australia are part of the
Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia. Today, there are three Bulgarian Orthodox churches in Australia: the Saint
John of Rila Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church in
Macquarie Fields, Sydney, the Saint
Petka Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church in Adelaide, and the
Saints Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Cathedral in Melbourne. ==Notable people==