Becoming A City: Migration

The majority of residents, 8366, were born in Australia and 3187 were born in the British Isles. The next most common birthplace was Germany (179). (This figure was greater in surrounding census areas such as West Moreton where 15% of residents had been born in Germany.) There were no residents born in Asia or India and only four from the Pacific Islands. [1]

Toni Risson's publication Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill: Gender and Ethnic Relations in Ipswich's Greek Cafe from 1900 to 2005 explores the history of Greek people in Ipswich. She wrote:

Several Greeks had settled in Ipswich by 1891 and from the end of the nineteenth century were becoming established, as they were elsewhere, in the food service industry (Gilchrist 1: 114). Janiszewski’s records show that in 1916, Ioannis Mavrokefalos (John Denis Black), aged 42, was an oyster saloon proprietor, Efstathios Mavrokefalos, aged 28, was a shop assistant, and Gerasimos Mavroudas, aged 38, and Nikolaos Skavos, aged 31, were cooks (Janiszewski email dated 6th August 2005, 3:17 pm). Conomos claims that by 1910, Ipswich was one of eight provincial Queensland towns where Greek café proprietors were laying the foundations for Greek settlement and business in provincial areas (History 112).

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