page_title: Assyrian Australians
section_title: Community growth (1980s–2000s)
hierarchical_section_title: Assyrian Australians / History / Community growth (1980s–2000s)
caption_attribution_description: English: Nineveh Club in Smithfield Rd, Edensor Park. The largest Assyrian club in Australia.
context_page_description: Assyrian Australians are Australians of Assyrian descent or Assyrians who have Australian citizenship. According to the census, 40,218 persons are Assyrian, 21,166 identified themselves as having Chaldean ancestry. Historically, Assyrian people were indigenous to their ancient ancestral Assyrian homeland that corresponds to modern-day northern Iraq, southeast Turkey northwestern fringes of Iran and, much recently, northeast Syria. The majority of Assyrian Australians have immigrated mainly from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan and the Caucasus.
  Of the 61,418 Assyrians in Australia, 40,218 are members of the Assyrian Church of the East or Ancient Church of the East and 21,172 are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The City of Fairfield, in Sydney, has the most Assyrians in Australia, with 75% of Assyrians living in that area. 95% of Fairfield's Iraqi-born population are of Assyrian ancestry. Fairfield LGA also has one of the most predominant Assyrian communities in the diaspora, where one in every ten person would be Assyrian. Moreover, in contrast to other migrants, Assyrians have the highest rate of acquiring the Australian citizenship.
context_section_description: In 1980, Nineveh Club, a prominent Assyrian club in Edensor Park, Sydney, was established. Built with artificial mud brick, the Club was designed after Assyrian royal palace in Nineveh. The entryway features two winged bull statues containing the body of a lion, the head of an Assyrian king and wings of an eagle. In the late 1980s, the The Church of the East was controversially split – The Church of the East in Australia from that time on now has two denominations; The 'old' (Ancient Church of the East) and the 'new' (Assyrian Church of the East).
  As the Assyrian community grew in the late 1980s, the Assyrian Sports and Cultural Club leased its premises from 1990 onwards, in Fairfield Heights, Sydney and acquired liquor and gaming licenses. The club later purchased its current building in 1997, and it was officially opened in 2000. Currently, it is the only Assyrian club in operation after the closure of the Nineveh Club in 2008. The club co-hosted sports events such as The Assyrian Cup soccer tournaments and held functions and activities for the community. It has also supported migrants, who arrived in the 1990s, settle in the country and it encouraged education by aiding achievers in the high school certificate. During the late 1990s, there was an increased level of Assyrian migration to Australia under the family reunion, refugee and humanitarian programs. Reportedly, around 903 Assyrian arrivals were allowed under the Australian Government's Special Humanitarian Program and the Family Reunion Program.
  In 1997, it was reported that, for the Assyrian youth, lack of English skills was the major impediment for gaining employment, school achievement and becoming socially manoeuvrable in the Australian society. For instance, some Fairfield High School Assyrians wanted to go to university but felt hopeless because of their poor English. As such, several Assyrian churches developed a number of youth programs. For Assyrians with a higher education, the problem was also language and unacceptability of overseas qualifications, which prevented them from pursuing their careers.
  The opening of St Hurmizd Assyrian Primary School in 2002, in Sydney, was the first school from the ACOE that was established in the international diaspora. In 2006, also in Sydney, St. Narsai Assyrian Christian College was established. It was the first ACOE high school to be built in the western world.
caption: Nineveh Club in Smithfield Rd, Edensor Park, is the largest Assyrian club in the country.
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