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Tonga was first listed in the census under the name ‘The Friendly Islands' as a place of birth, bestowed by Captain James Cook due to the friendly reception he received on his first visit to the islands in 1773. The Tonga-born population in Australia has remained low up until recent decades. In the mid-1970s, New Zealand ended its contract-worker scheme, which resulted in many Tongans seeking employment in nearby Australia. Other Tongan migrants since the 1970s came directly to Australia to study, work or join family members already in the country. Family migration and unification continue to be a standard feature of Tongan settlement in Australia, further facilitated by the establishment of an Australian visa office in Tonga in the mid-1990s.

The 2021 census recorded that approximately 80.5% of Australia’s Tonga-born population speak Tonga at home.¹ The majority identify as Christian, more specifically the Uniting Church (21.6%), the Catholic Church (21.0%), Christianity (not further defined) (11.8%), the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter-day Saints (11.8%) and other Protestant traditions (11.1%).¹ Of those Tonga-born who are in the workforce, approximately one-third are employed as labourers (32.2%), followed by machine operators or drivers (20.4%) and community and personal service workers (14.0%). The Tongan community is supported by religious and cultural organisations around the country as well as Pacific Island cultural groups.

While the 2021 census recorded 12,260 Tonga-born in Australia,¹ several thousand have participated in Australia’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme since 2020.² As of 2024, approximately 10% of the 31,305 participating in the program are from Tonga.³ In turn, many seasonal workers may not be captured in the census data. Most seasonal workers from the Pacific are men,⁴ leaving behind their families to work in rural parts of Australia to support their family back home. Indeed, Australia is one of Tonga’s largest sources of remittances, thus sustaining links between Tongans at home and abroad. There are also some Tongans in Australia as scholarship recipients, undertaking tertiary-level education.²

Some Tongans have reported that living in Australia presents a cultural challenge, as Polynesian identity is not as widely celebrated in Australia. For instance, Tongans who come to Australia through New Zealand have noticed a greater emphasis on learning and continuing Tongan culture and language in the latter. Tongan children in New Zealand may participate in cultural and language classes to help maintain Tongan traditions.