Aboriginal Deaths After British Settlement: Estimates of Tens to Hundreds of Thousands

No precise count exists, but historians estimate tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were killed directly or indirectly following British colonization (1788 onward). Causes:

• Frontier massacres (documented >400 events).
• Introduced diseases (smallpox, measles, influenza) — no immunity.
• Dispossession of land/water → starvation, malnutrition.
• Forced removals, incarceration, violence.

Pre-contact population: 300,000–1,000,000+. By 1900, reduced to ~60,000–90,000. The term "frontier wars" and "genocide" are debated but widely acknowledged in scholarship. Truth-telling processes (e.g., Yoo-rrook Justice Commission in Victoria) continue.