origin of Egyptians in general. History First history of short term Egyptians migrants in Australia dates back to 1860s to 1900 period when small groups of mainly Muslim cameleers were shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals, to service South Australia's inland pastoral industry by carting goods and transporting wool bales by camel trains, who were commonly referred to as "Afghans" or "Ghans", despite their origin often being mainly from British India, and some even from Afghanistan and Egypt and Turkey. Permanent emigration from Egypt began in the late 1940s and 1950s, disproportionately so for non-ethnic Egyptian minorities escaping the growing Arab nationalist movement in Egypt which saw the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy and the subsequent Suez Crisis. In total numbers, Egyptian Christians were the largest contingent of emigrants to leave Egypt for other countries, including to Australia. Christians were the second largest in terms of proportion to their original community size in Egypt. Egyptian Jews, as a proportion of their original community size in Egypt, were the largest emigrant community to leave Egypt (they were the second largest in total numbers). The number of Jews in Egypt numbered around 75,000 in 1948; following the establishment of the State of Israel that same year, most of the population left, starting the Jewish exodus from Arab lands, and settling largely in Israel, USA, Europe, Latin America, with around 2,000 settling in Australia. The Egyptian Jewish population in Australia is concentrated particularly in Adelaide, South Australia. Officially, only 6 Jews remain in Egypt today. Notable people Aziza Abdel-Halim Anne Aly Waleed Aly Bishop Angaelos Albert Bensimon Jonah Bolden Taj El-Din Hilaly Robert Kabbas Nick Kaldas Naguib Kanawati Peter Khalil Henry Ninio Ahmed Saad Theodore Saidden Akmal Saleh Sam Soliman Joseph Tawadros See also Egyptian diaspora in Australia related topics Arab Australians Coptic Orthodoxy in Australia Persecution of Copts in Egypt Persecution of Jews in Egypt Egyptian diaspora elsewhere Egyptian Americans Egyptian Canadians References External links Coptic Orthodox Electronic Publishing Australia Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Melbourne Coptic Theological College of Sydney Australia (Egyptians in Sydney) Arab Australian African Australian