By Olivia Condous
Multicultural and religious diversity is flourishing in Melton as new data has shown many new residents of different cultural backgrounds and religious groups have moved to the area in recent years.
According to the 2021 Australian census data released today, there has been a significant increase in the number of residents of the Melton local government area who were born in India, jumping from 3.8 per cent to 8 per cent.
In the previous 2016 census, the most common ancestries in Melton were Australian, English and Maltese, whereas recent data has shown the most common now are Australian, English and Indian.
There has also been a rise in the number of Vietnam-born residents, increasing from 1868 people in 2016 to 3017 people in 2021.
There has been a 4 per cent increase in the number of residents who identify Punjabi as their second language, making it the most common language other than English.
In 2016, Vietnamese was recorded as the most common second language, but it has only seen a 0.5 per cent increase in the last five years.
More than half of Melton residents responded that both of their parents were born overseas.
The Melton area has also seen a significant increase in the number of non-Western religions in the recent years, with a rise in Islam and Sikhism.
The number of residents who identify their religion as Islam has doubled from 5424 people to 11,419 people, making up 6.4 per cent of Melton residents.
Sikhism has also seen an increase with 5.3 per cent of residents affiliated with the religion.
In 2016, the most common religions in Melton were Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox.
The latest census data reported 31.5 per cent of Melton residents have no religion or did not state their religion, while 27.6 per cent responded they were Catholic.
Khalsa Shaouni Sikh Temple volunteer and Caroline Springs resident Manjit Singh first moved to the area five years ago and said he “absolutely loves” living there.
“The main thing is the community over here is really together, that’s one thing I’ve found,” Mr Singh said.
He said he believed one of the main reasons for the increase in people who identify as following Sikhism moving to the Melton area was they wanted to bring the religious and cultural community together.
“Most of the children who either come from India or are born here are losing their mother tongue, losing Punjabi,
“That’s why it’s grown around here, people want to be close to their community so children can understand their community and their language.”
Mr Singh said the Khalsa Shaouni Temple was working to bring more activities to link the Sikh community so youth could connect with their traditions and religion.
According to the 2021 census, there are 91,745 people in Victoria who identify as following Sikhism.
