 Until the Second World War , the vast majority of settlers and immigrants came from the British Isles , and a majority of Australians have some British or Irish ancestry . In the 2011 Australian census , the most commonly nominated ancestries were English ( 36 @.@ 1 % ) , Australian ( 35 @.@ 4 % ) , Irish ( 10 @.@ 4 % ) , Scottish ( 8 @.@ 9 % ) , Italian ( 4 @.@ 6 % ) , German ( 4 @.@ 5 % ) , Chinese ( 4 @.@ 3 % ) , Indian ( 2 @.@ 0 % ) , Greek ( 1 @.@ 9 % ) , and Dutch ( 1 @.@ 7 % ) . 
