Corey Bradshaw

Stories

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

Co-author of the population estimate 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

Notable Quotes

There's another component here that's essentially greed and racism – the entire concept of terra nullius was based on not many people being here. If there's a systematic desire to take land, fewer people means a better justification for imperialism.

from Study: 93% of Australia's Indigenous population lost within 73 years of colonisation · Updated Oct 15

Understanding the size of Indigenous populations in Australia before European invasion in 1788 is essential to truth-telling and reconciliation.

from Study: 93% of Australia's Indigenous population lost within 73 years of colonisation · Updated Oct 15