For the first time in the history of Afghan-Australia relations, Afghanistan opened a consulate in Canberra with jurisdiction throughout Australia in October 1994.

This established the first resident formal link between the two countries. Until this initiative neither country had had resident consular or diplomatic relations with the other.

The opening of the Embassy in July 2002 holds the promise of furthering those diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Australia and taking them to a new level.

The Afghan-Australia relationship can be traced back to the early Afghan cameleers who came to Australia in the 1860s.

They offered a new mode of transport which played a major role in inland exploration and development. For fifty years camel trains crisscrossed the Australian continent, carrying the necessities of life to settlements in the isolated interior.

Afghan cameleers initiated the Afghan-Australian
relationship in the 1800s.

Today, some of their establishments are still being used. The significant Afghan- built mosques are still the centres of worship for many in Adelaide, Perth and Alice Springs. Some of them have been placed in the Australian heritage list.

During the years of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the communist regimes (1978-1992) thousands of Afghans, forced to leave their country, migrated to Australia and settled mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Today, it is a pleasure to see an active Afghan Embassy in Australia, promoting the development of commercial, economic, cultural and scientific relations between the two countries.

In addition the Embassy will be issuing passports and travel documents to Afghan nationals, and visas to persons wishing to travel to Afghanistan.