Sweden is a country that many associate with what are arguably its most famous exports, IKEA and ABBA.
But of course there is so much more to Sweden than that, among them its other exports -- the Swedes who have become Australians.
Swedish is one of three Scandinavian languages broadcasting on SBS Radio, which has been celebrating its 40th birthday this year.
In this, the final in our series celebrating the history of SBS Radio, we take a closer look at the Swedish community.
Peggy Giakoumelos has the story.
The procession of Saint Lucia, a name meaning light, is a Scandinavian Christmas tradition also celebrated by Swedish communities abroad.
The Reverend Katja Linn is a priest with the Swedish Church of Sydney.
She describes the meaning of the ritual.
"Swedes have this beautiful and very loved tradition, and that is the Lucia tradition. It is Lucia, the Queen of Light, and she is followed by her maidens, and she's got a few boys with her as well, or men, and they symbolise the three wise men. We have a procession when they walk in, sing traditional songs. And if we we're in Sweden, we would do it in our families. We would have it in our schools, our workplaces. It's a very loved tradition."
It is a community which, in Australia, dates back to 1770, with the arrival of Swedish botanist Daniel Solander on Captain James Cook's first voyage.
An influx of Swedish migrants seeking their fortune raced to join Australia's gold rushes, and the community has been growing ever since.
The numbers increased sharply after the Second World War.
SBS Swedish broadcaster Johan Gabrielsson says the community has changed.
"They came in the '60s, like people working on the Hydro scheme, just labour working in factories, but it changed in the late '80s when more skilled labour came here -- engineers, people like that. It was quite a clear change, I must say."
It was falling in love with an Australian that kept Johan Gabrielsson in the country -- along with the weather.
"I woke up on Bondi Beach and thought, 'What an extraordinary country.' Coming from Sweden, where it's so dark ... I thought it was a great country to live in."
In 2011, there were close to seven-and-a-half thousand Swedish speakers in Australia and just over 34,000 people identifying as having Swedish ancestry.
The communities are concentrated in large cities.
Sweden and its diaspora communities were hit hard by tragedy during the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed more than 500 Swedish holidaymakers who had flocked to Thai resorts.
Johan Gabrielsson says it was a particularly tough time.
"I just remember the horrendous catastrophe and all the people calling SBS. We almost became like a centre for a lot of worried Swedes, telling them where to contact the Foreign Office in Sweden or where to go, and that really stands out. And also, per capita, per country, it was one of the highest (tolls). And Sweden is quite a protected society. So when that happened, it was like nothing had ever happened like that before in the history of the country."
At this event, memories of the Boxing Day tsunami are overlaid with the sound of Swedish Christmas carols.
It is a Germanic language kept alive in Australia's big cities through Swedish community-language schools.
Camilla Jennings is the head of the Swedish School of Sydney.
"In Sydney and greater Sydney, we have 11 schools with 155 students. And they can come from families where both parents speak Swedish, but probably the majority are from families where one partner is either Australian or another nationality and one is a Swedish person."
It is a still small, but soon to be 250 years old, community.
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