The first Buddhist Temple in Australia was established in Victoria Parade on Thursday Island (TI) by Sri Lankan boatmen, mainly from Galle and Matara, working in the Torres Strait Islands in the late twentieth-century. A Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka inaugurated the temple, and a Sri Lankan priest is said to have visited it ‘from time to time’. Vesak, the birth of the Buddha, was celebrated annually in the temple, and the community also planted the first bodhi tree in Australia, descended from the tree the Buddha is said to have become enlightened under, near the temple in TI’s ‘Cingalese quarter’.  They also owned and operated shops, and boarding and billiard-room houses for the boatmen there.ⁱ   

The majority of the Sri Lankans on TI were devout Buddhists, and a small number were Muslims. Among them were notable pearl merchants and jewellers, including Yanandaygoda Buddalegay De Costa Saranealis, whose second store remains standing on Douglas Street, and P. H. (Punchi Hewa) Mendis. Mendis also operated a large store on Douglas Street, until he left for Darwin in 1940, where he opened a department store, and then another in Brisbane, where he and his family lived during World War II.ⁱⁱ  

In 1946, after the war, Mendis returned to TI and ran several businesses, including a jewellery-shop and cafes, in Douglas Street for another twenty years. His younger son Nissanka (Nissi) and his wife Amara helped him to run his stores there. His eldest son, Siripala (Siri) Mendis and his wife Swarma Mendis, continued to operate the Brisbane store, after PH Mendis returned to TI, and another in Toowoomba and later in Wynnum in Southern Queensland. PH Mendis had close relationships with European, Chinese and Malay TI business owners and was highly respected. He died on Thursday Island in 1965 and is buried in the cemetery there. His funeral was well-attended by the TI community.ⁱⁱⁱ  

Siri and Swarma later established the first Theravadan Brisbane Buddhist Vihara in Highgate Hill in 1982, Their two sons, Duleendra and Haeman Mendis, still live in Brisbane, and Haeman owns a jewellery store there. The Mendis family was also involved in establishing the Theravadan Dhammagiri Buddhist Monstery, in 2007, just outside of Brisbane in the Thai Forest tradition. They have made a significant contribution to Buddhism in. Australia, over three generations.^iv   

Author: Anna Halafoff, Sioh Yang Tan 

Keywords: Sri Lankan Buddhism, Buddhist temples, Bodhi tree,  Pearling, Theravada Buddhism