# Australia: History of the Baha'i Faith

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Graham Hassall, Australia: History of the Baha'i Faith, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Australia: History of the Bahá'í Faith
> 
> Graham Hassall
> 
> 1998
> 
> The seed of all Bahá'í communities is the call to unity
> proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh. It was planted in Australia by Clara and Hyde Dunn, who arrived in Sydney
> on 10 April 1920. The Dunns travelled through all states of
> Australia and to New Zealand, and were successful in establishing
> Bahá'í communities in the major cities. "It is always an
> indescribable joy", Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá'í
> Faith from 1921 to 1957, wrote to the Dunns in April 1925,
> "to receive your letters & learn of the marvellous
> progress of your work, your cherished names are graven in letters
> of gold upon my heart & the memory of your unremitting and
> selfless labours is an inspiration to me in the discharge of my
> manifold & arduous duties....". At another time he
> wrote: "The sweet savours of your most welcome letter
> refresh my soul & ease the burden that weighs often heavily
> upon me. You are always close to my heart, ever the object of my
> prayers & my constant companions in spirit...."; and
> later, "The record of your glorious work is
> imperishable".
> 
> In addition to attracting adherents, the Dunns assisted in
> establishing local administrative institutions, known as Local
> Spiritual Assemblies. In 1934 delegates from three Local
> Assemblies (Sydney, Auckland and Adelaide) elected the first
> National Spiritual Assembly. Hyde Dunn died in 1941. Shoghi
> Effendicalled him "great-hearted and heroic" in his
> work God Passes By. Clara Dunn continued this work for a
> further twenty years. She died in 1960. Shoghi Effendi said in
> his essay Advent of Divine Justice the Dunns had "won
> the eternal distinction of being the first to raise the call of
> Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá in such highly important and widely scattered
> centres and territories as ....the Islands of the Pacific
> ...Australia and New Zealand ...". He named both as
> "Hands of the Cause", in recognition of their special
> station in the advancement of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> Australians first accepted the Bahá'í message in 1922:
> Sydney optometrist Oswald Whitaker became first vice-chairman of
> the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and
> New Zealand, and served on this body until his death in 1942;
> Melbourne artist Euphemia ("Effie") Baker travelled to
> various centres in Australia and New Zealand with international
> Bahá'í traveller and Esperantist, Martha Root in 1924, and made
> the first pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1925 together with some
> of the first New Zealand Bahá'ís. She remained in Haifa as
> hostess at the Western Pilgrim Hostel until 1936, assisting
> Shoghi Effendi, in addition, as photographer, and as first keeper
> of the International Archives. Early volumes of The Bahá'í
> World include numerous of her photographs of the Bahá'í
> monument gardens on Mt. Carmel. During 1930-31 Miss Baker
> travelled through 'Iraq to Persia, to make at Shoghi Effendi's
> request a photographic record of sites and relics associated with
> the origins of the Babí and Bahá'í religions, published
> shortly after with Shoghi Effendi's translation into English of Nabil's
> Narrative.
> 
> Within a few years the Dunns had attracted small communities
> of Bahá'ís in cities around Australia, as well as in New
> Zealand. There was little awareness at first of how the
> nine-member "Assemblies" functioned, and many of the
> first Bahá'ís had only a partial understanding of the
> fundamental beliefs and ideals of their newly-adopted Faith. The
> community included, on the other hand, such devoted and capable
> members as Gretta Lamprill, Perce and Maysie Almond, Bertha and
> Joe Dobbins, Harold and Florence Fitzner, Hilda Brooks, Rose
> Hawthorne, and Stanley and Mariette Bolton. These and other early
> Bahá'ís worked at holding public meetings and conducting public
> teaching campaigns, printing newsletters, presenting the Bahá'í
> message to public officials and prominent people, and consulting
> on the administrative affairs of a slowly expanding community.
> Shoghi Effendi observed many admirable qualities in the
> Australasian Bahá'ís. At one or another time he noted their
> perseverance, unity, determination, fidelity, diligence,
> thoroughness, courage, constancy, tenacity, zeal, loyalty,
> devotion, steadfastness, vitality, vigilance, and self-sacrifice.
> His observation of these qualities carried not only praise, but a
> responsibility to ensure their continuation. He referred not
> merely to evidences of "unity" amongst the friends, but
> to the need to "remain united". Repeatedly, when
> acknowledging the letters of individuals and institutions, he
> urged them to "Persevere, be happy and confident".
> 
> The activities of the Australian Bahá'ís have not been
> without their struggles, and their limitations: whether these be
> lack of resources, capacity, or know-how. But Shoghi Effendi, all
> too aware of such limitations and obstacles, and having
> acknowledged them, pointed out to the Bahá'ís their
> accomplishments - which he so often referred to as
> "remarkable". He also placed their present labours in
> the context of tasks that lay ahead:
> 
> "The work in which your National Assembly is
> engaged," he wrote on one such occasion, "and
> which it is prosecuting with such fidelity, diligence and
> perseverance is near and dear to my heart. You are laying an
> unassailable foundation for the erection of mighty Bahá'í
> institutions which future generations are destined to extend and
> perfect. Your pioneer work is arduous and highly meritorious. I
> feel proud of your achievements, realising as I do the
> circumstances in which you labour. 'Abdu'l-Bahá is watching over
> you and is well-pleased with your service. Persevere and rest
> assured, Affectionately, Shoghi."
> 
> Viewed retrospectively, the achiements of seventy-five years
> of labour by the Australian Bahá'ís are indeed impressive, and
> can only be referred to in summary here. They result from the
> initiative of both individuals and groups; and they relate not
> only to the geographic and numeric expansion of the Bahá'í
> community, but to the development of the quality of Bahá'í life
> and to the gradually emerging location of the Bahá'í community
> in Australian society.
> 
> Geographically, the Bahá'í community spread only slowly in
> Australia, but these steadily emerging communities were
> themselves responsible for taking the Bahá'í message elsewhere,
> including countries of the Pacific Islands. There were some
> seventy Bahá'ís in 1934, and approximately 180 in 1947. By
> 1953, when the National Assembly commenced one of twelve
> "Ten Year" plans undertaken by the Bahá'ís
> world-wide, there were 60 Bahá'í centres in Australia, New
> Zealand and Tasmania. Through a series of systematic plans
> undertaken since then, the Bahá'í community had grown by August
> 1994 to comprise 417 localities, including 193 Local Spiritual
> Assemblies. More than 80 ethnic and racial backgrounds are
> included in its membership of some 9,000 adults and 4,000
> children.
> 
> Expansion of the community's administrative capacity and needs
> led in time to the acquisition of properties as local and
> national secretariats. In 1944 the National Assembly acquired its
> first head-quarters (Hazirat'ul-Quds) in Sydney. In the 1970s the
> National administrative offices were relocated to Mona Vale, in
> the grounds of the Bahá'í House of Worship.
> 
> The acquisition of a site for a future House of Worship (Mashriqu'l-Adhkár)
> had been one of the community's major objectives in the 1950s.
> When plans to construct a House of Worship in Tehran were
> frustrated by a wave of persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran in
> 1955, Shoghi Effendi decided to build two others, in Kampala, and
> Sydney. After four years construction, the House of Worship was
> dedicated in September 1961. Shoghi Effendi's conviction that it
> would "exert a tremendous influence, both locally and
> internationally", was fully confirmed. For one thing, the
> nine-sided, domed building, attracted newspaper and television
> coverage. Construction, Plywood and Products, and
> other building and engineering journal, reported on technical
> aspects of the building, while such newspapers as the Daily
> Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Sydney Morning Herald,
> and Australian Post also carried reports. Most recently,
> the House of Worship featured in news coverage of bushfires which
> surrounded it in the summer of 1993-94.
> 
> The Australian Bahá'ís have been tireless in taking the
> Bahá'í message to leaders of thought, as well as to the
> Australian public, and publicity resulting from the construction
> of the House of Worship forms one part of a larger picture. When
> it was first realised that the Australian government was
> completely unaware of the Bahá'í community, Prime Minister
> Robert Menzies and all State Premiers were presented with copies
> of Bahá'í World VII (1936-38). Two pamphlets, "A
> brief statement of the Bahá'í attitude to war" and Emily
> Axford's essay "The non-political character of the Bahá'í
> Faith", were produced in large numbers to explain the
> Bahá'í position at the time of the Second World War.
> Proclamation activities continued in later years. In 1967 a
> nation-wide program of radio, television and newspaper coverage
> of Bahá'í activities, and presentation of books to government
> officials from the Prime Minister and Governor General down, was
> undertaken leading to the observance in 1968 of the centenary of
> Bahá'u'lláh's public proclamation of his mission. In 1985 the
> National Teaching Committee sponsored the "Light up
> Australia" campaign, which included the use of television
> commercials in Queensland. In each successive year the Bahá'ís
> have received extensive publicity, particularly at the initiative
> of local communities.
> 
> The production of Bahá'í literature has always been a vital
> component in sharing the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. When the
> magazine Herald of the South first appeared in 1925,
> Shoghi Effendi called it "the most effective instrument as
> yet devised for the spread of the Cause in that land". He
> encouraged its editors to raise their intellectual & artistic
> standards, as he had "great hopes" for it, and urged
> that it be made "as interesting & as stimulating ... as
> possible", through the inclusion of articles on "a wide
> range of material whether, social, religious or
> humanitarian." Bahá'í Quarterly, the National
> Assembly's news organ, subsequently named the Australian
> Bahá'í Bulletin, was founded in 1936. A Publishing
> Committee established in the 1930s produced additional books and
> pamplets, and evolved in time into the Bahá'í Publishing Trust,
> established in 1975. Bahá'í Publications Australia published 20
> titles in 1994, and has a further 20 titles in preparation. A
> major publication in 1995 is an edition of Shoghi Effendi's
> communications to all Bahá'í individuals and institutions in
> the Australasian region.
> 
> Yet another important activity undertaken by Bahá'í
> communities at all levels has been in the field of education.
> Bahá'í study classes are now held at local level country-wide.
> In a number of cities, weekend Bahá'í "schools" are
> teaching moral education to children and adults, and the National
> Bahá'í Education Committee has published two volumes of a
> curriculum for Bahá'í Education. In the public school system,
> more than one thousand children are choosing to attend Bahá'í
> scripture classes. At Yerrinbool, south of Sydney, facilities at
> the Yerrinbool Bahá'í School are being upgraded. A "summer
> school" was first held on the property of Stanley W. and
> Mariette Bolton in January 1938, and such schools have been held
> - whether in summer, winter, autumn or spring - each year since.
> In the 1970s the school established itself a "deepening,
> regenerating and teacher training centre". Special programs
> for children and youth were now offered, and the first Bahá'í
> Studies Conferences convened at Yerrinbool in the early 1980s.
> The Yerrinbool School and Institute Committee now also conducts
> such specialist courses as an "Education for Peace
> Certificate" for young people, and, commencing in 1995, a
> three year distance education "Certificate in Bahá'í
> Studies".
> 
> A further vital aspect of the growth of the Bahá'í community
> has been administrative consolidation. This has included - in
> addition to the multiplication and legal establishment of
> Bahá'í centres and Local Assemblies, the official recognition
> of Bahá'í holy days, and Bahá'í marriage certificates, the
> maturation of the various committees appointed by the National
> Spiritual Assembly to take responsibility for diverse activities
> that made up the work of the Bahá'í community. By the 1980s,
> there were committees responsible for the Australian Bahá'í
> Bulletin, the Association for Bahá'í Studies, Australian
> International Pioneering Goals, for services and teaching at the
> Bahá'í House of Worship, for the publication and distribution
> of literature, for Children's Education, the "Herald of the
> South", and for the National Bahá'í Archives. There were
> also a National Aboriginal and Islander Committee, a National
> Bahá'í Information Office and State Information Offices, and
> Bahá'í Regional Offices (now Regional Teaching Committees) for
> all parts of Australia. There were, in addition, National
> committees responsible for Bahá'í Radio, for Teaching, Temple
> Property Development, and the Yerrinbool Bahá'í School. A
> National Community Development Committee was established to
> foster the strengthening of Local Spiritual Assemblies, and
> foster the equality of men and women, the quality of marriages,
> and the development of child education.
> 
> Another element in administrative consolidation involves
> development of the institutions of the "learned" -
> whose members have been appointed rather than elected, at
> national and regional levels. The institution of Auxiliary Board
> Members was established first, to advise on issues relevant to
> the development and promotion of the Bahá'í community. In 1954
> Clara Dunn, in her capacity as a Hand of the Cause, appointed two
> Auxiliary Board Members, Thelma Perks, and H. Collis Featherstone
> (himself appointed a Hand of the Cause in 1957). In 1964 the
> number of Auxiliary Board Members in the Australasian Region
> increased from four to nine, including members appointed for New
> Zealand, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Hawaii,
> and Saipan and the Mariana Islands. The number of Australasian
> Auxiliary Board members increased from 9 in 1968, to 63 in 1980,
> and 81 in 1986. In 1995 there are ... Auxiliary Board Members in
> Australia.
> 
> The first three members of the Continental Board of
> Counsellors for Australasia were appointed in 1968: 1995, the
> region is served by nine Counsellors: Ben Ayala, Tinai Hancock,
> Sirus Naraqi, Gayle Morrison, Kamran Eshraghian, Violette Haake,
> Elizabeth Benson, Betra Majmeto, and Bruce Saunders. The
> Counsellors, as well as the Auxiliary Board Members, in their
> capacity as advisors to the elected institutions of National and
> Local Assemblies, contributed considerably to the maturation and
> effective functioning of Bahá'í communties not only in
> Australia, but throughout the Pacific Islands.
> 
> In the 1970s the Auxiliary Board Members appointed assistants
> for the first time, primarily for the purpose of encouraging
> local communities in their activities. In 1977 a system of
> "Unit Conventions" was introduced, for election of
> delegates to National Convention. The Continental Board of
> Counsellors sponsored "Covenant Institutes" designed to
> strengthen and deepen allegiance and service to the Bahá'í
> cause. The National Assembly cooperated with the Counsellors and
> Auxiliary Board Members in running workshops in each state on the
> functioning of the Local Spiritual Assembly. In the 1980s Local
> Assemblies increasingly took the initiative in planning
> large-scale activities. From 1983 the Kentish community sponsored
> a series of annual "alternatives" weekends,
> highlighting alternative technologies and lifestyles. Newcastle
> community fostered a sister city relationship with Ube, in Japan.
> Tasmanian communities sponsored "health and healing"
> seminars. Other "grass roots" initiatives included the
> formation in 1984 of the Bahá'í Business and Professional
> Association. Seminars promoting social and economic development
> were held in South Australia.
> 
> Bahá'í Youth played an important role in teaching activities
> during the plan. In April 1969 they held a first National Youth
> Conference at Yerrinbool. Larger conferences were later held in
> all the capital cities. Increasingly, youth have communicated
> their ideas through visual and performing arts. Musical and
> literary skills within the Bahá'í community have always been
> appreciated and encouraged, and the first Bahá'ís frequently
> included recitals in their progams. The House of Worship choir,
> established in the 1960s, has earned a reputation for excellence.
> In 1994 it participated in a choral eisteddford. Other forms of
> music have also been used to take the message of Bahá'u'lláh to
> ever wider audiences. Groups including "1844", the
> Western Australian Bahá'í Singers, and Galimaufery, performed
> widely in the 1970s. In the 1980s, annual tours by the
> "Wildfire" theatre group took the Bahá'í message
> through performance of drama and music to audiences in Australia,
> Asia, and Eastern Europe.
> 
> All Bahá'í activities, whether at local or national level,
> and whether by members young or old, are focussed on the
> achievement of peace. In the early 1980s concern at the threat of
> global nuclear conflict brought a new level of pessimism to
> Australian society, and the response of many was a turn to
> materialism and individual concerns. The challenge facing the
> Bahá'ís, wrote the Universal House of Justice at the time, was
> to "consolidate and deepen its own Bahá'í community and,
> in the face of the forces of materialism engulfing modern
> society, seek out the pure hearts who are ready to embrace the
> Faith of Bahá'u'lláh..." To implement this, a National
> Community Development Committee prepared a program for the
> development of children, youth, adults, families, and
> communities.
> 
> In 1984 the National Assembly submitted a statement on peace
> to a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and
> Defence. The statement by the Universal House of Justice to the
> peoples of the world, The Promise of World Peace, was
> presented to the Governor General, Sir Ninian Stephen in October
> 1985, and the following year Sir Ninian attended a service in the
> House of Worship observing the International Year of Peace. To
> mark that year the Bahá'ís held a "Peace Exposition"
> in the Temple grounds, which attracted 10,000 visitors. Peace
> Festivals also sponsored by the Bahá'ís of Atherton,
> Caboolture, and Fremantle. The National Assembly received a
> "Peace Messenger" award from the United Nations for
> activities throughout the Australian Bahá'í community during
> the International Year of Peace. The Universal House of Justice
> summarised the achievements of the Australian Bahá'í Community
> in a cable to a National Teaching Conference held in Tweed Heads
> in September 1986:
> 
> ...We have been greatly heartened by the response
> of the Australian Bahá'í community to the pressing
> calls upon it. Not only are your goals being won, they
> are being surpassed. We have witnessed an abundance of
> other victories following upon each other in quick
> succession: the establishment of a network of Local
> Spiritual Assemblies over the entire continent; the
> marked success in bringing the Faith to the Aboriginals
> and their warm response as evidenced by the recent
> happenings in Western Australia; the revival of the
> "Herald of the South" in colllaboration with
> the New Zealand Bahá'í community; the success of the
> Australian community in bringing to the attention of the
> Australian Parliament and media, the plight of the
> oppressed Bahá'ís in Iran which has been such an
> important factor in the emergence of the Faith from
> obscurity; the exemplary display of brotherhood and
> hospitality of Australian Bahá'ís in welcoming large
> numbers of the Iranian fellow-believers to their
> community - these are but a few of the accomplishments
> which have brought joy to our hearts and a feeling of
> great assurance to our souls.
> 
> The persecution of Bahá'ís that followed the Islamic
> Revolution in Iran in 1979 prompted extensive contact with
> government officials and the mass media in Australia, and
> resulted in the arrival of many Persian Bahá'ís in Australia as
> refugees. Although immigration policy made entry into Australia
> difficult into the 1960s, some Persian Bahá'í families had
> arrived from Indonesia and elswhere at the end of the 1950s. In
> the 1960s the National Assembly consulted with the Department of
> Immigration on the requirements for bringing additional Bahá'ís
> into Australia, and the eventual easing of policy restrictions
> resulted in successful migration.
> 
> The Australian government actively defended the rights of the
> Bahá'ís in Iran. In February 1981 the Senate of the Australian
> parliament adopted a resolution deploring their persecution, and
> in August a similar resolution was adopted by the House of
> Representatives. In March 1982 the government established a
> special humanitarian assistance program, under which Persian
> Bahá'í refugees were eligible to migrate to Australia. The
> Australian Bahá'í community worked hard to raise awareness of
> the plight of the Bahá'ís in Iran. It made representations to
> the heads of Commonwealth Governments when they met in Australia
> in September/October 1981, and in 1982 extensive media coverage
> was gained on government television programs (ABC) and "60
> Minutes" (Iran's Hidden Holocaust). In the next
> decade more Persian refugees per capita were received in
> Australia than in any other Bahá'í community; by 1988 Persians
> comprised 38% of the Australian Bahá'í community. Although the
> years of persecution, and the sacrifice of the martyrs is not
> forgotten, the story of the arrival of Persian Bahá'ís in
> Australia is at the same time one of re-birth into a new culture,
> and a new land. By spreading through the Australian continent,
> into the remotest country towns and even to the islands of the
> Pacific, Persian Bahá'ís have added an unimagined dimension to
> the emerging "World Order" of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> Another significant activity within the Australian Bahá'í
> community has been its reception of Aboriginal members.
> Aboriginals first became Bahá'ís in South Australia and the
> Northern Territory in the 1950s. Bahá'ís involved in Aboriginal
> teaching at this time included Greta Lake in Sydney, Kath Harcus
> and Ann Pearce in South Australia, and Frank Saunders in the
> Northern Territory. In a letter of 24 July 1955, Shoghi Effendi
> reminded the National Spiritual Assembly of "the importance
> of increasing the representation of the minority races, such as
> the Aborigines and the Maoris, within the Bahá'í Community.
> Special effort should be made to contact these people and to
> teach them; and the Bahá'ís in Australia and New Zealand should
> consider that every one of them that can be won to the Faith is a
> precious acquisition." An Aborigine Committee was
> established in 1956. Fred Murray (1884-1963) of the Minen tribe,
> and Beryl and Marjory Tripp, became in Bahá'ís in 1961. Fred
> Murray attended the 1963 London World Congress. By 1968 the
> Bahá'í community included members of the Andilyaugwa (Groote
> Island), Bunanditj, Jirkia Minning, Junjan, Minen, and Narrogin
> tribes, and by 1983 there were four Local Assemblies in
> Aboriginal areas. In 1985 an important meeting took place in
> Onslow, Western Australia, between members of the National
> Assembly, the Carnarvon Bahá'í community, and Onslow Aboriginal
> elders, which resulted in acceptance of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings
> by tribal elder Herbert Parker. Jack Malardy, leader of the
> Karradjarrie people at La Grange, also became a Bahá'í,
> together with more than one hundred of his people Similar events
> have occured in North Queensland.
> 
> In October 1993, during the United Nations Year of Indigenous
> People, Bahá'ís from Australia and the Pacific participated in
> an International Cultural Festival, Bahá'í Heart of
> Australia Calling, held in Alice Springs in collaboration
> with the Arrente Council, and in 1994 the National Spiritual
> Assembly presented a statement on the reconciliation process to
> the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Year by year, through
> quiet activities and with sincere purpose, Bahá'í individuals
> and Assemblies have cemented friendships with Aboriginal
> communities, and sought to expresss in action the principles of
> unity in diversity, and the oneness of humankind, that inform
> their Faith.
> 
> At different stages in the evolution of the Australian
> Bahá'í community major conferences have been held to celebrate
> victories won, and to consult on the requirements of the time. In
> addition to such national conferences, four major international
> Bahá'í gatherings have been held in Australia. In March 1958,
> mid-way through the Ten Year Crusade, one of four
> "inter-continental" conferences was held in Sydney,
> attended by Bahá'ís from across Asia and the Pacific. A second
> conference in Sydney, in 1967, marked the mid-point of the nine
> year plan, and coincided with the centenary of the proclamation
> of Bahá'u'lláh. A third major conference in Canberra, in 1982,
> attracted 2,400 Bahá'ís from 45 countries. It was one of five
> international conferences held at this time, announced the
> Universal House of Justice, "to commemorate the fiftieth
> anniversary of the passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf (Bahiyyih
> Khanum, daughter of Bahá'u'lláh), to discuss anew the present
> condition of the Faith in a turbulent world society, to examine
> the great opportunities for its future growth and development,
> and to focus attention on the unfulfilled goals of the
> plan." In November 1992, 2,000 Bahá'ís attended the Sydney
> conference, a satellite conference of the second World Congress,
> held in New York. "A full century has gone by",
> commenced the message to the World Congress by the Universal
> House of Justice, "since the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh was
> established and set in motion... We are particularly pleased that
> we have been afforded a special opportunity to pause for a
> moment, together with our fellow-believers, to gather our
> thoughts, to see how we have fared since 1892, and to consider
> where we are now headed."
> 
> The diversity of these and other International conferences
> have provided emphasis to the international character of the
> Bahá'í community, and to the contribution that Bahá'í
> pioneers have made to the development of Bahá'í communities in
> other countries. Australian Bahá'ís first pioneered to the
> islands of the Pacific in the 1950s. In the 1970s, a new
> generation of pioneers departed for Fiji, Gilbert and Ellice
> Islands, Laos, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
> Tonga, Vietnam, and other countries in Asia, the Pacific, and as
> far afield as Africa. Now, in 1995, the countries in which
> Australian Bahá'ís are pioneering include China, Macau, Taiwan,
> Poland, Hungary, Japan, Hong Kong, and Vanuatu.
> 
> This article has sought to highlight some major themes in the
> progress of the Australian Bahá'í community during its first
> seventy-five years. It can only hint at the work of so many
> individual Bahá'ís, working in families and in local
> communities, to create communities in accordance with the laws
> and principles of their Faith: fostering good character;
> developing spiritual qualities through individual effort, and
> prayer; recognizing and developing of the unique talents and
> abilities of each person; and establishing interactive relations
> between the spiritual and practical requirements of life; and
> playing an increasingly active role in public life. It can refer
> only in brief to the way in which observance of the Bahá'í
> calendar is promoting harmony, through bringing diverse peoples
> and families together each nineteen days for the
> "Feast", at which the spiritual, administrative and
> social life of the community is nourished; and it can only note
> how Local Assemblies are growing in strength and maturity, as
> they observe the Bahá'í calendar and holy days, organise study
> classes for children, youth and adults, provide counsel to those
> in distress, and turn their attention to the welfare of the needy
> in their midst. In 1992 the Universal House of Justice called on
> this community to devote "prayer, dedicated consultation,
> and intelligent analysis" to its current circumstances and
> opportunities. The results of these processes are yet to be
> assessed. Whatever its continuing challenges and urgent needs,
> the Australian Bahá'í community can nonetheless be held in high
> regard as one community in which people of diverse cultural,
> racial, national, and social backgrounds are meeting in common
> purpose, aware of Bahá'u'lláh's call to humanity to unite in
> its diversity, and wanting to assist in the establishment of His
> emerging World Order.
> 
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> — *Australia: History of the Baha'i Faith (Used by permission of the curator)*