Jail record of Samuel Dykes, alias Robert Lorando, identified as a Siamese national, 1885, State Records NSW.
Early Migrants & Thai-Australia Relations
(White Australia Policy)
Thai people have been in Australia since 1861, but there are few traces of the early years. Numbers were so small that they are grouped with IndoChinese, Korean and 'other Asian' settlers in the census until 1901, when 37 Siamese were counted.
After 1901 immigration to Australia was restricted by the White Australia policy, which excluded people based on their race. The number of Thais officially counted in NSW stayed under 50 until the 1950s and did not begin to rise in earnest until after the policy ended in 1973.
But Thailand did have some official links with Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1911, the master of the Thai royal stables visited Australia and bought 126 horses. This started a trend of royal envoys from Thailand visiting Australia on horse-buying and other economic missions, producing favourable images of Australians and Australian society.