[3] Females account for 61% while males represent 39% of Filipino Australians born in the Philippines.

As a consequence, their numbers in Australia remained minimal; confined to descendants of those few Filipinos who had migrated to the north west pearling areas of Western Australia and the sugar cane plantations of Queensland prior to 1901; until the abolition of racially selective immigration policies in 1966.

[6] Martial law in the Philippines, declared by former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, and the renunciation of the White Australia policy made Australia an attractive destination for Filipino emigrants, particularly skilled workers.

Many Filipinos also settled in Australia from the 1970s onward as either migrant workers or the spouses of Australian citizens.

Marriages between Filipinos and Australians rose very sharply from 1978, peaked in 1986, and remained high as of 2000, despite a dip in the early 1990s.