Who were the first Maltese in Australia?

Maltese Australian historian and researcher Mark Caruana speaks with Joe Axiaq about the first Maltese in Australia. The first Maltese to arrive in Australia were convicts, transported in the 1810s for deserting their British regiments when Malta was then a British colony. In South Australia, John Pace arrived in June 1790, although it is not clear if he was Maltese at all. The first free settler, Antonio Azzopardi, arrived in Melbourne in 1837 and became a successful businessman. Many attempts were made at organised mass migration throughout the 19th century, but it was only in 1883 that the first group of 70 labourers and nine stowaways arrived in Australia.