Monash University

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

Co-led the study's historical analysis

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

Microscopic plant traces reveal 25,000 years of ritual burning in Australian cave

New Capabilities

As of September 2026: Lead research institution

Microscopic silica particles left by plant cells show that GunaiKurnai ancestors carried whole grass plants into Cloggs Cave in southeastern Australia and burned them in thin layers. The practice spans at least 25,000 years, covering a thousand generations of ritual use at a single site.

Updated Sep 15

Copper drug repairs the brain's waste-clearance pumps in Alzheimer's mice

New Capabilities

As of June 2026: Ran the preclinical study

Alzheimer's disease clogs the brain's drainage system, letting toxic proteins pile up. A copper compound called Cu(ATSM) repaired that drainage in mice and cut the buildup by about 42%.

Updated Jun 17

Monash University

Stories

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

Microscopic plant traces reveal 25,000 years of ritual burning in Australian cave

Copper drug repairs the brain's waste-clearance pumps in Alzheimer's mice