The Early History of British Colonization in Australia

The white settlement of the country over the following decades led to a sharp drop in the country's Aboriginal population, with many dying of disease or programs offering bounties for dead Aborigines.

Historians believe there were nearly 250 000 Aboriginal people in NSW in 1788. This population had dropped by an estimated 90 per cent by the 1900s.

It was Captain Arthur Phillip, by whom the First Fleet was led and he was the first governor of New South Wales. It is reckoned that there were more or less 1,500 Aborigines in Sydney when he first reached there. All but half of Sydney's Aboriginal population are believed to have deceased in a 1789 smallpox epidemic.

Britain decided to set up a penal colony in Australia to relieve its overcrowded prisons. The eleven ships that made up the First Fleet included 850 convicts and their Marine guards and officers.

But historians continue to dispute whether or not the settlement should be termed an invasion.

"Each [camp] has legitimate reasons for their preferred choice and it would be better to understand the reasons for these differences than argue over the terminology," Melbourne University historian Stuart Macintyre told The Australian newspaper. "The traumatic consequences seem to me to make it important to respect the indigenous concerns." Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia about 40 000 to 50 000 years ago. Most lived a nomadic life among nearly 70 different language groups and tribes.

There are now about 470,000 Aborigines across Australia, from a population of about 22 million.