Baháʼí Faith in Australia

The Baháʼí Faith has a long history in Australia. The first known mention of events related to the history of the religion was several reports in Australian newspapers in 1846. After sporadic mentions a turning point was a mention of Australia by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the religion, in 1916 following which United Kingdom/American emigrants John and Clara Dunn came to Australia in 1920. They found people willing to convert to the Baháʼí Faith in several cities while further immigrant Baháʼís also arrived. The first Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in Melbourne followed by the first election of the National Spiritual Assembly in 1934. Iranian Baháʼís had first tried to emigrate to Australia in 1948 but were rejected as "Asiatic" by Australia's White Australia policy. Though the situation was eased in the 1960s and 70s, on the eve of Iranian revolution, in 1978, there were approximately 50-60 Persian Baháʼí families in Australia. Persians, including Baháʼís, arrived in number following the revolution. See persecution of Baháʼís in Iran. Since the 1980s the Baháʼís of Australia have become involved and spoken out on a number of civic issues - from interfaith initiative such as Soul Food to conferences on indigenous issues and national policies of equal rights and pay for work. Baháʼís in Australia include some well known people (see below - National exposure).

The 1996 Census had an optional question on religion that 74% of respondents answered, and of those, 8,947 indicated Baháʼí. The community was counted by census in 2001 to be about 11,000 individuals. Census data from 2016 reported 13,988. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Database) estimated some 19,365 Baháʼís in 2010.