Sydney - XINHUA
The amount of Australians being born overseas has hit a 120-year high, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday.
The latest set of figures show that around 6.6 million Australians, or 28 percent of the country's population, have been born overseas.
It is the most since the country's gold rush more than a century ago, with overseas migration labeled as the reason for such a large increase.
"Australia traditionally had a high proportion of migrants, but we've now hit a peak not seen since the gold rushes of the late 1800s," Denise Carlton, from the ABS, said in a statement on Thursday.
"Overseas migration has been a large contributor to the total Australian population growth for several years. It has consistently been the main driver since 2005-06, contributing more than 50 percent of population growth in Australia."