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Fijians in Australia - People who made their mark
There are approximately 60,000 people of Fijian origin living in Australia. They are nurses and doctors, teachers and engineers, builders and business owners, athletes and artists, community leaders and public servants. They are in every city and in many regional areas. They have built careers, raised families, and contributed to Australian life in ways that rarely make headlines but that are felt every day in the communities where they live.
This is a partial portrait of some of the Fijians who have made a particular mark — in sport, in public life, and in the community. It is a beginning, not a definitive list.
In sport
The most visible Fijians in Australian public life are, inevitably, in sport. The Fijian rugby tradition has produced a remarkable number of players who have represented Australian clubs and national teams. Jarryd Hayne — born in Sydney to a Fijian father — was one of the most electrifying players in NRL history, winning the Dally M Medal as the competition’s best player in 2009 before attempting a career switch to American NFL football. His story is complicated, but his footballing brilliance was undeniable.
Semi Radradra, born in Fiji and now one of the most celebrated backs in rugby union, began his career in the NRL with Parramatta before transitioning to rugby union and playing for clubs in France and England before becoming a fixture in the Fijian national team. His power, balance, and skill are the kind of thing that made even opposition coaches stop and watch.
Waisake Naholo, Vereniki Goneva, Filipo Daugunu — the list of Fijians who have played in the NRL, Super Rugby, or A-League in Australia is long, and grows every season as the Fijian Drua’s participation in Super Rugby Pacific creates new pathways and new profiles.
In health and community service
Less visible but equally significant is the contribution of Fijian Australians in health and community service. The nursing sector in particular has a significant Fijian presence — Fijian nurses work in hospitals across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and beyond, often in aged care and community health settings where their warmth, patience, and cultural competence make them exceptionally effective.
In the hospitals and aged care facilities of western Sydney, you will hear Fijian names called at shift change. These are people who left home to build careers in Australia and who have, in doing so, become essential to the country that received them.
Community health workers, aged care staff, disability support workers — Fijians are disproportionately represented in the caring professions in Australia, a fact that reflects both the limited options that drove emigration from Fiji and the genuine vocational commitment that many bring to these roles.
In business
The Fijian business community in Australia is growing. Fijian-owned restaurants, catering businesses, cleaning companies, and trade services are present in every major city. The entrepreneurial instinct that characterised the Indo-Fijian business community in Fiji — built on the conviction that if you cannot own land, you can build a business — has transplanted effectively to Australia.
In western Sydney in particular, Fijian-owned businesses serve both the broader community and the diaspora specifically — providing the groceries, the catering, and the services that allow the community to maintain its cultural practices. The Fijian market day and community fair model, where Fijian food, music, and products are available in a single location, has become an established feature of the community calendar in several Australian cities.
In community leadership
The leaders of Fijian community organisations in Australia are largely unknown to the broader public but enormously significant within the community. They are the people who organise the cultural events, advocate for community members in dealings with government agencies, raise funds for families in need, and maintain the networks that turn a dispersed migrant population into a community.
Many of these leaders — women and men — have been doing this work for decades, unpaid, in addition to their professional lives. They are the reason that a Fijian family arriving in Sydney in the 2020s finds a community already waiting for them. Their contribution deserves to be named and recognised, and this website is committed to doing exactly that — through profiles, through coverage of community events, and through the ongoing documentation of the Fijian Australian story.