The nations of Australia and Zimbabwe both have their origins in colonies established by the British as part of their empire in the Georgian and Victorian eras. While Australia experienced significant amounts of white immigration from Europe (beginning in the 19th century), Zimbabwe was only settled by Europeans in the 1890's and the white population of Zimbabwe always remained a minority. The colony of Southern Rhodesia was granted self-governing status in 1923, but was not granted dominion status, unlike Australia or South Africa. The colony of Rhodesia eventually broke away from the British Empire in 1965, with the white-minority government of Ian Smith issuing a Unilateral Declaration of Independence as the state of Rhodesia. This new state of Rhodesia, despite gaining unofficial support from apartheid South Africa and Estado Novo Portugal (until 1974), failed to gain any international recognition and became increasingly isolated. The Australian government of Robert Menzies did not officially recognise the declaration, noting "there can be no diplomatic recognition by the Australian Government of a government so formed." Despite this, several backbench government MPs visited Rhodesia in a private capacity following the UDI (Dr Wylie Gibbs, James Killen, Ian Pettitt and Wilfrid Kent Hughes in 1967 and David Connolly in 1976).