Impact of colonisation on First Nations people far greater than previous estimates, research finds
Australia's Indigenous population was up to seven times larger before colonisation than previously estimated, but was devastated following the arrival of Europeans, new research reveals.
Australia's Indigenous population prior to European colonization was at least twice as large as previously believed, according to new research. Diseases, settler violence and displacement resulted in an estimated 2.06 million deaths among First Nations Australians following the arrival of the First Fleet. The researchers, from various institutions across Australia, utilized computer modeling in addition to ethnographic observations, archaeological findings and genetic reconstructions to develop these revised population estimates.
They contend that the scale of Australia's demographic catastrophe during and after colonialism has been significantly underestimated. Even just 70 years after the First Fleet landed in 1788, only 7% of the pre-colonial Indigenous population remained. Australia's Indigenous population has grown modestly since the 1950s, but it would take until 2047 to return to pre-colonial numbers assuming consistent growth rates.
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