Minorities Down Under feeling the pressure from distant disputes

War, geopolitical tensions and religious strife far from Australia's borders have shaken the cohesion of the country's Chinese, Indian and Muslim communities. How are these resilient, fast-growing groups weathering the storm?

- Wing Kuang

On a Sunday afternoon in January, Mr Henry Luo, a 42-year-old first-generation immigrant from China, was strolling through Sydney's "second Chinatown" in the suburb of Burwood when he stopped to point out the red clock tower of a building across the street.

The building was a former post office that opened more than 130 years ago, when the suburb was home to about 7,000 mostly Anglo-Australian residents. Today, the iconic structure houses a Lanzhou noodle shop in a bustling precinct filled with Asian eateries and stores, far from Australia's original Chinatown in central Sydney.

Burwood now has 15,942 residents, of whom 49.8 per cent have Chinese ancestry, while 29.9 per cent were born in China.

For Mr Luo, the president of Reid Business Community, a local business network, the tower is a symbol of how much the area has changed. And it is a monument to the contribution of the growing Chinese-Australian community to the area's cultural and culinary life.

"The 'second Chinatown' here attracts people from across Sydney and is a source of pride for the local Chinese community," Mr Luo said.

Burwood's evolution represents the growing influence of migrant communities as they grow and thrive in Australia's welcoming sunlight.

But they have also found themselves vulnerable in the last few years to the external forces of geopolitics far from the nation's shores, which have sometimes exposed them to suspicion and discrimination.

Now these tensions have caused a political awakening in some local communities, which have begun to organise themselves and dip into politics to ensure their voices and needs are heard. As Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's ruling Labor Party prepares for a federal election due to be held by May, geopolitics are not just challenging Australia's social cohesion but redrawing the nation's political map.