Misplaced Pages

In April 1789, Sydney, Australia, experienced one of its most violent outbreaks of smallpox when the disease swept through Aboriginal and colonial Australians on the coast. The outbreak began in early March with the first cases appearing in tribes living near Port Jackson. Aboriginal communities had no preexisting immunity to smallpox, and suffered mortality rates of around 70%.

Smallpox in Sydney

Aboriginal tribes on Arnhem Land first contracted smallpox when they made infectious contact with fishermen from southeast Asia. Governor Arthur Philip estimated that around half of the Aboriginal population around Sydney harbor died in the outbreak.

References

1. "Smallpox epidemic". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
2. Chris Warren. Smallpox, the First Fleet, and Port Jackson Tribes. Event occurs at 2:14.
3. "Sydney's smallpox outbreak of 1789 - Biological warfare against Aboriginal tribes". nationalunitygovernment.org. 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
4. "National Museum of Australia - Smallpox epidemic". nma.gov.au. National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
5. Peter Hiscock (12 December 2007). Archaeology of Ancient Australia. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-134-30440-0.
6. ^ Hiscock, Peter (2008). Archaeology of Ancient Australia. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-203-44835-9.

This article related to the history of Australia is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This epidemic- or pandemic- related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Smallpox epidemics
• 1789 in Australia
• 18th-century disasters in Oceania
• Australian history stubs
• Epidemic stubs