We've generally 'skipped' Poles down here, at least in comparison to other immigrants. Most of our eactern European immigrants were Yugoslav, especially Croatian.
I always wondered about that - why is it that so many Australians have Croatian roots?
Well, most Croats who emigrated emigrated after world war two; there wasn't
all that much before it. Australia was looking for white, European immigrants; Croatia is a relatively white nation, and so it was pretty easy for them to get over here. They had no links to America or Canada, or the UK, and so the Croatian diaspora sort of founded itself in Australia. Also, with most of the other Yugoslavs heading to other parts of the world, Croatia wanted a country where it wouldn't have to deal with the Serbs and Bosnians.
