Australia

The source of the 1789 smallpox outbreak that devastated the Indigenous population in Australia has been widely debated. Now, a new modeling study uses mathematical modeling, historical records, archaeology, and demographic data to show the disease’s far-reaching impact on Indigenous Australians. The study rejects the long-standing theory that the disease spread southward from Indonesian (Makassan) traders, and argues that the British First Fleet sent to settle Australia brought smallpox to the continent near Sydney Cove soon after British settlement in 1788. Study Shows Riverland Region Aborigines Were Thriving 29000 Years Ago Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories and the Creation Myths of Australia Outbreak Source Was Vials of Dried Smallpox Scabs Alan Williams, an archaeologist at the private firm EMM Consulting and co-author