Flinders University

Stories

Study: 93% of Australia's Indigenous population lost within 73 years of colonisation

Led the demographic modelling for the study

Australia's Indigenous population before European colonisation was about 2.22 million people — not the 250,000 to 1 million historians long assumed, a new study in Nature Human Behaviour finds. Within 73 years of the First Fleet's 1788 arrival, researchers estimate 93 percent of that population was gone, an average of about 28,200 excess deaths per year.

Updated Oct 15

Flushing toilets spray microbes into the breathing zone, new review finds

New Capabilities

As of September 2026: Publisher of the systematic review

Every toilet flush hurls a cloud of microscopic droplets into the air. A systematic review by Flinders University researchers, released this week, found those droplets reach 1.5 meters above the floor, the breathing zone of adults, and stay suspended for at least 20 seconds after the flush.

Updated Sep 8