High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The first Russian citizen known to have become a permanent resident of Australia was John Potocki, who landed in Hobart, Tasmania on 18 February 1804. Potocki, arrested in England, was sentenced to hard labor in Tasmania. According to Potocki`s own account, recorded by captain Lazarev in 1820, he served in the Russian Army during the reign of Catherine II. In 1810 Potocki was released by British authorities and settled in Hobart permanently. By 1820 there were four Russian-speaking families of former convicts in Hobart.