There were no Hare Krishna devotees in Australia until March 1970 when two arrived from the United States. In the 1950s Asians, Indians and blacks were banned entry into Australia unless highly educated, spoke English and are Christian but that policy never included blacks.

I met the famous Christian evangelist Billy Graham with my mother in February 1959 in Melbourne Australia, a impressive man, 138,000 people entered a football stadium to see him.

In the 1950s, 96% of Australia were Christian and almost everyone went to Church on a Sunday.

Although our Australian population was only 8 million.

Back then Asians, Indians and blacks were banned entry unless highly educated, spoke English and are Christian but that policy never included blacks.

Even local aborigines were not allowed to vote until 1961 or considered Australian citizens till 1967. These laws were under ''The white Australia policy''.

Only European white Christians and Jews were allowed in to settle.

That all changed between 1964-67 not by Politicians but by young men inspiring us from America like Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles (who came to Australia in 64), Martin Luther King, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and his pranksters etc and a little tablet overlooked by the authorities doing the rounds called LSD.

And of course a new peace chant introduced first by Allan Ginsberg in 1963 called ''Hare Krishna'' and then its true meaning explained in detail through many Books from 1965 written by His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who eventually founded his ISKCON Society in 1966.

1965 was the birth of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's great Sankirtan Movement outside of India beginning with the Americas and England in 1968.

The Australia ABC television was excellent covering what was happening in America and the War in Vietnam, showing all changes happening in America on TV that greatly influenced us.

I first saw the devotees chanting, led by Upendra prabhu in San Francisco during the ''summer of love'' July - August 1967 on TV in Melbourne.

Also over 1 million American servicemen visited Australian cities on leave from the Vietnam War bringing with them with high quality Owsley Stanley LSD on blotting paper, and high quality hash, our naive Customs had no idea what was going on at this time.

By 1970 ISKCON had its first Temple in Australia in Sydney and 1971 in Melbourne but only local white converts because Indians were still banned from being citizens.

Srila Prabhupada and a few others were the exception being highly educated, spoke English and Prabhupada being a world renowned author. Others allowed in were highly qualified Doctors and University professors but at this stage no students to our Universities were allowed.

The white Australia policy was fully abandoned in 1979, before that no Indian devotees in photos.

Today in 2019, 98% of ISKCON devotees in Melbourne are Indian and according to the 2018 Australian census, 43% of the population are Christian.

Although our population in 2019 is nearly 25 million.

It was like being on a different planet 60 years ago when Billy Graham came here and 96% of our our 8 million population were Christian.

PHOTO is of Melbourne Temple January 1975, not one Indian or blacks in those days lived in the Temple, the only dark devotee is a New Zealander Maori.