<P> Among the early Muslims were the "Afghan" camel drivers who migrated to and settled in Australia during the mid to late 19th century . Between 1860 and the 1890s a number of Central Asians came to Australia to work as camel drivers . Camels were first imported into Australia in 1840, initially for exploring the arid interior (see Australian camel), and later for the camel trains that were uniquely suited to the demands of Australia's vast deserts . The first camel drivers arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, in June 1860, when eight Muslims and Hindus arrived with the camels for the Burke and Wills expedition . The next arrival of camel drivers was in 1866 when 31 men from Rajasthan and Baluchistan arrived in South Australia with camels for Thomas Elder . Although they came from several countries, they were usually known in Australia as' Afghans' and they brought with them the first formal establishment of Islam in Australia . </P> <P> Cameleers settled in the areas near Alice Springs and other areas of the Northern Territory and inter-married with the Indigenous population . The Adelaide, South Australia to Darwin, Northern Territory, railway is named The Ghan (short for The Afghan) in their memory . </P> <P> The first mosque in Australia was built in 1861 at Marree, South Australia . The Great Mosque of Adelaide was built in 1888 by the descendants of the Afghan cameleers . </P> <P> During the 1870s, Muslim Malay divers were recruited through an agreement with the Dutch to work on Western Australian and Northern Territory pearling grounds . By 1875, there were 1800 Malay divers working in Western Australia . Most returned to their home countries . </P>

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