Today, their homeland is a part of North Iraq, Southeast Turkey, Northwest Iran and Northeast Syria.

[3] In the 1980s, the Iraq-Iran war resulted in significant numbers of Assyrians fleeing Iraq and applying for refugee status.

[6] The first Assyrian, named Brian Youkhana, arrived in Sydney in 1951, from Lebanon, where he was joined by his siblings four years later.

The reason was to centralise the development of all the Assyrian social, religious and sporting activities, allowing greater access and participation.

The club co-hosted sports events such as The Assyrian Cup soccer tournaments and held functions and activities for the community.

It has supported migrants, who arrived in the 1990s, settle in the country and it encouraged education by aiding achievers in the high school certificate.

During the late 1990s, there was an increased level of Assyrian migration to Australia under the family reunion, refugee and humanitarian programs.

[10] In 1997, it was reported that, for the Assyrian youth, lack of English skills was the major impediment for gaining employment, school achievement and becoming socially manoeuvrable in the Australian society.

For instance, some Fairfield High School Assyrians wanted to go to university but felt hopeless because of their poor English.

For Assyrians with a higher education, the problem was also language and unacceptability of overseas qualifications, which prevented them from pursuing their careers.

Turkey's consul general to Sydney expressed resentment about the monument, while acknowledging that tragedies had occurred to Assyrians in the period, as well as to Turks.

Assyrian Community leaders made passionate speeches requesting that the Australian and other international governments help those being persecuted in the Middle East.

[13] In 2015, the Abbott government announced that 12,000 extra humanitarian visas would be given to persecuted groups in the war-torn Middle Eastern countries.

The Department of Social Services confirmed that 11,400 Iraqi and Syrian refugees, many of whom being Assyrian, were admitted to Australia as part of its one-off humanitarian intake, where they would primarily settle in Fairfield and Liverpool.

The Assyrians told SBS World News they were in a state of despair, as they hoped more of their kin from the Middle East were brought to Australia.

Carmen Lazar, manager of the Assyrian Resource Centre, said, "If they can just lend another hand, you know, give us another 12,000 intake, just to release that pressure from what's happening overseas".

[14] On 15 April 2024, Assyrians were a target in a terrorist attack at a Wakeley church, where an Islamic extremist stabbed bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and five others.

In Melbourne, Assyrians tend to be found in the northwest region, in the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park and Fawkner.

[20] The population of Assyrians in the suburbs of Melbourne (2016 census): In Brisbane, small Assyrian[21] communities are slowly growing around the Moreton Bay area such as Bracken Ridge and Strathpine including in Logan City such as Woodridge and Loganlea due to the recent Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming into Australia.

43% of the Assyrians in the Fairfield LGA owned their home, and they generally worked in manufacturing (39%), trade, accommodation, hospitality and transport industries (31%).

Furthermore, some of the recently arrived Assyrian children have had psychological trauma for the experiences in their countries of origin, which encroached their settlement in Australia.

Assyrians, depending on the village/town they belong to commemorate their specific patron saints and celebrate it usually with their families at picnics or halls.

People from Alqosh, like many other Assyrian towns/villages wear their traditional clothing at these events which commemorate their patron saints and celebrate the history of their towns.

Visitors would generally picnic, barbecue or relax in the Australian bush, and they would usually participate in Assyrian folk dance.

Thousands attend the New Year festival and it usually features music and theatrical performances, traditional dancers, food stalls and fireworks.

The notorious event resulted in legal proceedings over property rights and it even received national media coverage.

Sydney's Assyrian community assembled in Fairfield to celebrate Iraq qualifying for the Asian Football Cup finals in 2007.

More than 7000 people, including Iraqi Arabs, joined in street celebrations around Fairfield on Sunday 29 July 2007 after Iraq won the Asian Cup finals.