More Nepalese Australians are coming to Canberra, Gaurab Dahal has a few theories why

The 2021 census results indicated 5689 Canberrans' country of birth was Nepal, making up 1.3 per cent of the population, overtaking New Zealand and coming after India, England and China.

This did not surprise Mr Dahal, who came to the ACT in 2019 to study a masters of business informatics at the University of Canberra, saying the capital had more opportunities than other Australian cities.

"I was always thinking about going to Sydney or Melbourne in the initial days because that's what you see from the outside, the major cities and everything," he said.

Mr Dahal had to complete his entire masters degree during lockdown in Australia, but despite the setback found Canberra had many supports available for him to excel, including a job from the ACT government for students in lockdown.

"I applied for the jobs for Canberran program, which was really good ... the support that I got from the government employees during the COVID times was really good for me and then it actually helped me explore myself professionally and then understand how the job market worked," he said.

"That's what allured me with this territory, so even if now I had to choose between Sydney or Melbourne or stay in Canberra, I would prefer to stay in Canberra itself," he said.

Since lockdowns, Mr Dahal found the Nepalese community has grown and gives back as secretary of the Australia Nepal Friendship Society.

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"When [the society] started off we didn't have much population here back then but now we have a lot of Nepalese moving in from Sydney and Melbourne over the past two years and the community has really grown and we have a lot of community programs," he said.

Nepali became the second most popular language other than English used at home, making up 1.3 per cent of the Canberra community, after Mandarin which makes up 3.2 per cent.

Community sport, language programs and social events are regularly organised by Mr Dahal and others in the Friendship Society which is part of the reason he believes more people have come over the years.

"My parents are in Nepal but my maternal uncle and my brothers and sisters, they're all here. They actually moved in from Sydney as well because when I came here I told them to come to Canberra, it's much better here and they all moved," he said.

"I personally always believe in community itself and I believe in giving so I have been fortunate enough to come here and then do as much as I have done in a short time, but what I would really want is to help the community grow in Canberra itself."

President of the Nepalese Friends Society Ashish Devkota has lived in the territory for nine years and only expects the population to go up. "The census says about 6000 [Nepalese] but I reckon there would be more than that ... I would say this is wildly going up and never going down," he said.

"When I first moved in, there were about 300 Nepalese that I knew and they were involved in the community." The growing community in Canberra made the capital more attractive for Nepalese looking to migrate to Australia as "they would think there is our community" when deciding between cities.

"Even a couple of my nieces are coming, my brother's son is coming too and it's not stopping at the moment," Mr Devkota said.

"People are connected to each other, so that's what brings them here."

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