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SACA was set up in Sydney to organise an important exhibition of works by members of the Luginbühl family during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A major work from this exhibition, the “Australian Angel” sculpture, now occupies pride of place at Milson’s Point on Sydney Harbour.

SACA succeeded the Swiss Australian Society and now drives to foster the exchange and understanding of cultural life between Australia and Switzerland in such areas as the visual and performing arts, architecture, history, science, technology and education.

SACA’s also aims to assist members in making their cultural work known to a wider public in New South Wales and Australia..

The purpose of this website is to provide access to information on cultural activities linking Australia and Switzerland and by the Swiss-Australian community. Through the links provided it also assists finding information on cultural life and achievements of Switzerland and ist people.

The cultural link between Switzerland and Australia was first established by Johann Waeber, better known as John Webber, who was the official artist on Cook’s third voyage. Webber was born of Swiss parents and had his training in Switzerland. Swiss immigrants have contributed to the cultural life of Australia from an early time. Abraham-Louis Buvelot and Nicholas Chevalier were professional artists and are known for their great landscape paintings; Hubert de Castella was an early squatter and together with compatriots established the viniculture in the Yarra Valley. He wrote and presented papers on viticulture at international conferences and found time to work as a landscape painter.

Henry Alexis Tardent, journalist and horticulturist promoted scientific agriculture and helped to establish societies with musical, literary, scientific and agricultural interest and contributed greatly to the political life.

Sali Hermann moved to Sydney in 1937 and won the Sulman prize twice and the Wynne price three times. His works are shown by the major Australian galleries.

A number of books tell the story of the Swiss immigrants and their contribution to Australia. To mention a few:

- The Swiss inAustralia, 1989, by Susanne Wegmann.
- Swiss artists in Australia - 1777-1991, 1991 by Barry Pearce.
- The settlement of Swiss Ticino immigrants in Australia by Joseph Gentilli.
- A time to remember: pre-war Swiss migrants in Australia, 1991, by Joseph Brändli.

The Swiss tradition of decentralization is maintained in Australia and a number of other organisations strive to enrich and support the cultural life of their local Swiss-Australian community:

For more information click Swiss Links – Swiss Organizations in Australia. For direction on how to find information on Switzerland and Cultural Life in Switzerland go to Swiss Links – All about Switzerland.