There are more than 21 million people resident in Australia and they come from a wide range of backgrounds:
Indigenous peoples who have inhabited Australia for up to 60 000 years
Descendants of the British who set up colonies on the Australian continent in the 1700s
Europeans and others who migrated to Australia as the colonies grew, formed a federation in 1901 and the new nation evolved
More recent immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
It is important for migrants to understand that there is no class system in Australia. Australia is demonstrably egalitarian—for example, a train driver, Ben Chifley, became Prime Minister—and Australians are inclusive, with immigrants and refugees accepted from more than 200 countries and around a quarter of the population overseas-born.
Migrants have enriched almost every aspect of Australian life, from business to the arts, from cooking to comedy and from science to sport. They, in turn, have adapted to Australia’s tolerant, informal and broadly egalitarian society.
Read more here http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/people_culture.html
