Australia’s Indigenous population estimated at 2.2m before ‘demographic catastrophe’ of colonisation

Study finds earlier numbers were underestimated, suggesting impact of diseases and massacres were much greater than previously thought

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The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia before colonisation was dramatically underestimated, according to new research that suggests many more of them were killed.

Modelling by a national research group puts the population levels before the 1788 first fleet arrived at 2.2 million, compared with early estimates of 250,000 people.