Who was the first Spaniard in Australia?
According to SBS Cultural Atlas, “the first Spaniard to live in Australia was a male who arrived in 1821 and settled in New South Wales.
More Spanish settlers migrated during the 19th century – many in search of fortune during the gold rush. However, their total numbers were very small throughout the 1800s (peaking at around 500) and the first half of the 20th century, remaining at less than 1,000. Many early settlers were offered assisted passages to Australia as rural workers in Queensland’s cane cutting industry. Many others worked as tomato growers. Women and families often did not have the same opportunity to qualify under Australia’s migration policy as it restricted most migration from Southern Europe. Therefore, most of the Spaniards during this period were men (roughly 80%). This changed later on with an influx of Spanish migration at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1939). ” Source: SBS Cultural Atlas
The Australian Government’s Department of Home Affairs confirms these details and provides additional information. “The first recorded Spanish free settler to Australia was J.B.L. De Arrieta, who arrived in 1821. The New South Wales colonial government granted him 2000 acres of land at Morton Park. He died in 1838 and is remembered through the naming of Spaniard's Hill near Camden.
A few Spanish fortune-seekers were recorded in the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s. A group of Catalan and Basque Spaniards migrated to Victoria in 1880 and a number of Spanish families settled in White Hills in central Victoria in 1885 in search of gold. Others settled near Echuca in northern Victoria on the Murray River working as tomato growers, while others settled in Queensland and worked in the sugar cane industry. By 1891, the Spain-born population numbered 503 persons. It slowly increased to 992 in 1947. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, from 1939, over 600,000 Spaniards left Spain moving to countries such as Latin America and Australia. Spanish rural workers were considered to be suited to cane cutting and were offered assisted passages.“ Source: Department of Home Affairs
We discover J.B.L. De Arrieta’s full name via the Multicultural NSW website. “The first free Spanish immigrant – Jean Baptiste Lehimas de Arrieta – arrived in Sydney in 1821, and was granted 2,000 acres (800 ha) of fertile land in Morton Park (now called Camden Park). His memory is perpetuated by the name Spaniard’s Hill near Camden.” Source: Multicultural NSW
If you are interested to learn more about the story of the first Spaniard in Australia, Jean Baptiste Lehimas de Arrieta, you can refer to journal pages of The La Trobe Journal online, State Library Victoria.