[3] The Han Taiwanese majority can be loosely subdivided into the Hoklo (70%), Hakka (14%) and "Mainlanders (Waishengren)" (post-1949 Chinese immigrants) (14%).
[4] Historically, the first known Taiwanese people in Australia arrived from the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) (historical Indonesia) during World War II (1939–1945), having been brought to the country by the exiled NEI government as civilian internees in 1942;[5] at the time, Taiwan was part of the Empire of Japan and Taiwanese people were considered Japanese.
Historically, Taiwanese Australians have had a significant presence in Tatura and Rushworth, two neighbouring countryside towns respectively located in the regions of Greater Shepparton and Campaspe (Victoria), in the fertile Goulburn Valley.
[6] During World War II, ethnic-Japanese (from Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific) and ethnic-Taiwanese (from the Netherlands East Indies) were interned nearby to these towns as a result of anti-espionage/collaboration policies enforced by the Australian government (and WWII Allies in the Asia-Pacific region).
[7] Roughly 600 Taiwanese civilians (entire families, including mothers, children and the elderly) were held at "Internment Camp No.
[9] Several Japanese and Taiwanese people were born in the internment camp and received British (Australian) birth certificates from a nearby hospital.
This debate concerning the citizenship of Taiwanese internees—whether they were Chinese or Japanese—further inflamed public outrage at their allegedly appalling treatment by the Australian government.
Unlike in the United States, for example, there aren't many large non-Anglophone ethnic enclaves in Australia, since Australian history has been heavily dominated by British colonialism.
Depending on which social class and/or ethnic group the Taiwanese immigrant parents originate from, their children may only remain proficient in one of these languages.
By the third and fourth generations, proficiency in even Mandarin is usually lost entirely, unless the family has been residing in a Chinese or Taiwanese ethnic enclave in Australia for several decades.