Editing History of Australia (section)

===Impact of British settlement on Indigenous population===
{{Further|Smallpox in Australia}}
When the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove with some 1,300 colonists in January 1788 the Aboriginal population of the Sydney region is estimated to have been about 3,000 people.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Broome|first=Richard|title=Aboriginal Australians, A history since 1788|publisher=Allen and Unwin|year=2019|isbn=9781760528218|edition=Fifth|location=NSW|pages=15}}</ref> The first governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, arrived with instructions to:{{sfnp |George |1914 |p=13 }}
{{blockquote |text=endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them.}}

[[File:Alexander_Schramm_-_A_scene_in_South_Australia_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Alexander Schramm's ''A Scene in South Australia'' (1850) depicts German settlers with Aboriginals]]

==== Disease ====
The relative isolation of the Indigenous population for some 60,000 years meant that they had little resistance to many introduced diseases. An outbreak of smallpox in April 1789 killed about half the Aboriginal population of the Sydney region. The source of the outbreak is [[Australian history wars|controversial]]; some researchers contend that it originated from contact with Indonesian fisherman in the far north while others argue that it is more likely to have been inadvertently, or deliberately, spread by settlers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=MacKnight|first=Campbell|date=2011|title=The view from Marege': Australian knowledge of Makassar and the impact of the trepang industry across two centuries|journal=Aboriginal History|volume=35|pages=121–43|doi=10.22459/AH.35.2011.06|jstor=24046930|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-04-17|title=Was Sydney's smallpox outbreak of 1789 an act of biological warfare against Aboriginal tribes?|url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/ockhamsrazor/was-sydneys-smallpox-outbreak-an-act-of-biological-warfare/5395050|access-date=2023-12-21|website=ABC listen|language=en-AU}}</ref><ref name="Warren Christopher-2013">{{cite journal|author=Warren Christopher|year=2013|title=Smallpox at Sydney Cove – Who, When, Why|journal=Journal of Australian Studies|volume=38|pages=68–86|doi=10.1080/14443058.2013.849750|s2cid=143644513}}</ref>

There were further smallpox outbreaks devastating Aboriginal populations from the late 1820s (affecting south-eastern Australia), in the early 1860s (travelling inland from the Coburg Peninsula in the north to the Great Australian Bight in the south), and in the late 1860s (from the Kimberley to Geraldton). According to Josphine Flood, the estimated Aboriginal mortality rate from smallpox was 60 per cent on first exposure, 50 per cent in the tropics, and 25 per cent in the arid interior.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). pp. 153–55</ref>

Other introduced diseases such as measles, influenza, typhoid and tuberculosis also resulted in high death rates in Aboriginal communities. Butlin estimates that the Aboriginal population in the area of modern Victoria was around 50,000 in 1788 before two smallpox outbreaks reduced it to about 12,500 in 1830. Between 1835 and 1853, the Aboriginal population of Victoria fell from 10,000 to around 2,000. It is estimated that about 60 per cent of these deaths were from introduced diseases, 18 per cent from natural causes and 15 per cent from settler violence.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 76–77</ref>

Venereal diseases were also a factor in Indigenous depopulation, reducing Aboriginal fertility rates in south-eastern Australia by an estimated 40 per cent by 1855. By 1890 up to 50 per cent of the Aboriginal population in some regions of Queensland were affected.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 156</ref>

==== Conflict and dispossession ====
{{Main|Australian frontier wars}}
[[File:Mounted police and blacks.jpg|thumb|Mounted police engaging Indigenous people during the Slaughterhouse Creek Massacre of 1838, during the [[Australian frontier wars]]]]

The British settlement was initially planned to be a self-sufficient penal colony based on agriculture. Karskens argues that conflict broke out between the settlers and the traditional owners of the land because of the settlers' assumptions about the superiority of British civilisation and their entitlement to land which they had "improved" through building and cultivation.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788–1822". In Bashford, Alison; MacIntyre, Stuart (eds.). ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1, Indigenous and Colonial Australia''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.&nbsp;106. ISBN 9781107011533.</ref>

[[File:Gov Davey's proclamation-edit2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|Proclamation issued in [[Van Diemen's Land]] around 1828–1830 by [[Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet|Lieutenant-Governor Arthur]], which explains the precepts of British justice in pictorial form for the [[Tasmanian Aboriginals]]. Tasmania suffered a higher level of conflict than the other British colonies in Australia.<ref>[https://socialcorner.co.uk/education/the-amazing-250-year-adventure-of-australian-history/ The Amazing 250-Year Adventure of Australian History] 4 February 2024 ''Adventure of Australian History''</ref>]]

Conflict also arose from cross-cultural misunderstandings and from reprisals for previous actions such as the kidnapping of Aboriginal men, women and children. Reprisal attacks and collective punishments were perpetrated by colonists and Aboriginal groups alike.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). pp. 124–25</ref> Sustained Aboriginal attacks on settlers, the burning of crops and the mass killing of livestock were more obviously acts of resistance to the loss of traditional land and food resources.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 46–47</ref>

There were serious conflicts between settlers in the Sydney region and Aboriginals ([[Darug]] people) from 1794 to 1800 in which 26 settlers and up to 200 Darug were killed.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 66</ref><ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 25–26</ref> Conflict also erupted south-west of Sydney (in Dharawal country) from 1814 to 1816, culminating in the [[Appin Massacre|Appin massacre]] (April 1816) in which at least 14 Aboriginal people were killed.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 70</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Banivanua Mar|first1=Tracey|title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I|last2=Edmonds|first2=Penelope|year=2013|pages=344|chapter=Indigenous and settler relations}}</ref>

In the 1820s, the colony spread over the [[Great Dividing Range]], opening the way for large scale farming and grazing in [[Wiradjuri]] country.<ref name="Kingston-2006a">{{Cite book|last=Kingston|first=Beverley|title=A History of New South Wales|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=9780521833844|location=Cambridge|pages=118–19}}</ref> From 1822 to 1824 [[Windradyne]] led a group of 50–100 Aboriginal men in raids which resulted in the death of 15–20 colonists. Estimates of Aboriginal deaths in the conflict range from 15 to 100.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). pp. 120–23</ref><ref>Broome, Richard (2019). p. 42</ref>

In Van Diemen's land, the [[Black War]] broke out in 1824, following a rapid expansion of settler numbers and sheep grazing in the island's interior. Martial law was declared in November 1828 and in October 1830 a "Black Line" of around 2,200 troops and settlers swept the island with the intention of driving the Aboriginal population from the settled districts. From 1830 to 1834, [[George Augustus Robinson]] and Aboriginal ambassadors including [[Truganini]] led a series of "Friendly Missions" to the Aboriginal tribes which effectively ended the war.<ref>Banivanua Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (2013). "Indigenous and settler relations". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. pp. 346–49</ref> Around 200 settlers and 600 to 900 Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed in the conflict and the Aboriginal survivors were eventually relocated to Flinders Island.<ref>{{Citation|last=Clements|first=Nicholas|title=Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (PhD thesis)|url=http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17070/2/Whole-Clements-thesis.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518103925/http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17070/2/Whole-Clements-thesis.pdf|archive-date=2015-05-18|url-status=live|pages=329–31|year=2013|publisher=University of Tasmania}}</ref><ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). pp. 105–107</ref>

[[File:Skirmish_near_Creen_Creek.jpg|thumb|Fighting near Creen Creek, Queensland in September 1876]]

The spread of settlers and pastoralists into the region of modern Victoria in the 1830s also sparked conflict with traditional landowners. Broome estimates that 80 settlers and 1,000–1,500 Aboriginal people died in frontier conflict in Victoria from 1835 to 1853.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 44–45, 54, 77</ref>

The growth of the Swan River Colony in the 1830s led to conflict with Aboriginal people, culminating in the [[Pinjarra massacre]] in which some 15 to 30 Aboriginal people were killed.<ref>Banivanua Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (2013). "Indigenous and settler relations". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. p.&nbsp;350</ref><ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 44</ref> According to Neville Green, 30 settlers and 121 Aboriginal people died in violent conflict in Western Australia between 1826 and 1852.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 127</ref>

[[File:1870nativepolice.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Australian native police]] consisted of native troopers under the command of white officers that was largely responsible for the 'dispersal' of Aboriginal tribes in eastern Australia, but particularly in [[New South Wales]] and [[Queensland]]]]

The spread of sheep and cattle grazing after 1850 brought further conflict with Aboriginal tribes more distant from the closely settled areas. Aboriginal casualty rates in conflicts increased as the colonists made greater use of mounted police, [[Australian native police|Native Police]] units, and newly developed revolvers and breech-loaded guns. Conflict was particularly intense in NSW in the 1840s and in Queensland from 1860 to 1880. In central Australia, it is estimated that 650 to 850 Aboriginal people, out of a population of 4,500, were killed by colonists from 1860 to 1895. In the Gulf Country of northern Australia five settlers and 300 Aboriginal people were killed before 1886.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019), pp. 125–30, 138</ref> The last recorded massacre of Aboriginal people by settlers was at [[Coniston massacre|Coniston]] in the Northern Territory in 1928 where at least 31 Aboriginal people were killed.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). p. 202</ref>

The spread of British settlement also led to an increase in inter-tribal Aboriginal conflict as more people were forced off their traditional lands into the territory of other, often hostile, tribes. Butlin estimated that of the 8,000 Aboriginal deaths in Victoria from 1835 to 1855, 200 were from inter-tribal violence.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 74–77</ref>

Broome estimates the total death toll from settler-Aboriginal conflict between 1788 and 1928 as 1,700 settlers and 17–20,000 Aboriginal people. Reynolds has suggested a higher "guesstimate" of 3,000 settlers and up to 30,000 Aboriginals killed.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 54–55</ref> A project team at the University of Newcastle, Australia, has reached a preliminary estimate of 8,270 Aboriginal deaths in frontier massacres from 1788 to 1930.<ref>Ryan, L. (2020). Digital map of colonial frontier massacres in Australia 1788–1930. ''Teaching History'', ''54''(3), p. 18</ref>

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==== Accommodation and protection ====
[[File:Augustus Earle Portrait of Bungaree.jpg|thumb|Portrait of [[Bungaree]] at Sydney in 1826, by [[Augustus Earle]].]]

In the first two years of settlement the Aboriginal people of Sydney mostly avoided the newcomers.  In November 1790, [[Bennelong]] led the survivors of several clans into Sydney, 18 months after the smallpox epidemic that had devastated the Aboriginal population.<ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788–1822". In  ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1.'' pp. 106, 117–19</ref> [[Bungaree]], a Kuringgai man, joined Matthew Flinders in his circumnavigation of Australia from 1801 to 1803, playing an important role as emissary to the various Indigenous peoples they encountered.<ref>Broome, Richard. (2019). p. 33</ref>

Governor Macquarie attempted to assimilate Aboriginal people, providing land grants, establishing Aboriginal farms, and founding a Native Institution to provide education to Aboriginal children.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). pp. 69–70</ref> However, by the 1820s the Native Institution and Aboriginal farms had failed. Aboriginal people continued to live on vacant waterfront land and on the fringes of the Sydney settlement, adapting traditional practices to the new semi-urban environment.<ref name="Banivanua Mar-2013">Banivanua Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (2013). "Indigenous and settler relations". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. p.&nbsp;344–45</ref><ref>Karskens, Grace (2013). "The early colonial presence, 1788–1822". In ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 1.'' pp. 117–19</ref>

Following escalating frontier conflict, ''Protectors of Aborigines'' were appointed in South Australia and the Port Phillip District in 1839, and in Western Australia in 1840. The aim was to extend the protection of British law to Aboriginal people, to distribute rations, and to provide education, instruction in Christianity, and occupational training. However, by 1857 the protection offices had been closed due to their cost and failure to meets their goals.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 52–53</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nettelbeck|first=Amanda|date=2012|title='A Halo of Protection': Colonial Protectors and the Principle of Aboriginal Protection through Punishment|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2012.706621|journal=Australian Historical Studies|volume=43|issue=3|pages=396–411|doi=10.1080/1031461X.2012.706621|s2cid=143060019}}</ref>

[[File:Aboriginal farmers at Franklinford 1858.jpg|thumb|left|Aboriginal farmers at Loddon Aboriginal Protectorate Station at [[Franklinford, Victoria]], in 1858]]

In 1825, the New South Wales governor granted {{convert|10,000|acres|order=flip}} for an Aboriginal [[Christian mission]] at Lake Macquarie.<ref>Banivanua Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (2013). "Indigenous and settler relations". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. p.&nbsp;345</ref> In the 1830s and early 1840s there were also missions in the Wellington Valley, Port Phillip and Moreton Bay. The settlement for Aboriginal Tasmanians on Flinders Island operated effectively as a mission under George Robinson from 1835 to 1838.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). pp. 31–32,72</ref>

In New South Wales, 116 Aboriginal reserves were established between 1860 and 1894. Most reserves allowed Aboriginal people a degree of autonomy and freedom to enter and leave. In contrast, the ''Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines'' (created in 1869) had extensive power to regulate the employment, education and place of residence of Aboriginal Victorians, and closely managed the five reserves and missions established since self government in 1858. In 1886, the protection board gained the power to exclude "half caste" Aboriginal people from missions and stations. The Victorian legislation was the forerunner of the racial segregation policies of other Australian governments from the 1890s.<ref>Banivanua Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (2013). "Indigenous and settler relations". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. p.&nbsp;355–58, 363–64</ref>

In more densely settled areas, most Aboriginal people who had lost control of their land lived on reserves and missions, or on the fringes of cities and towns. In pastoral districts the British [[Waste Land Act 1848]] gave traditional landowners limited rights to live, hunt and gather food on Crown land under pastoral leases. Many Aboriginal groups camped on pastoral stations where Aboriginal men were often employed as shepherds and stockmen. These groups were able to retain a connection with their lands and maintain aspects of their traditional culture.<ref>Banivanua Mar, Tracey; Edmonds, Penelope (2013). "Indigenous and settler relations". ''The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume I''. p.&nbsp;355–58, 358–60</ref>

Foreign pearlers moved into the Torres Strait Islands from 1868 bringing exotic diseases which halved the Indigenous population. In 1871, the London Missionary Society began operating in the islands and most Torres Strait Islanders converted to Christianity which they considered compatible with their beliefs. Queensland annexed the islands in 1879.<ref>Flood (2019) pp. 199–200</ref>