It has happened all over the world, from the Polynesian Islands, to mainland America, to Australia. Whenever a relatively isolated civilization encounters outsiders, they come in contact with more than just another culture.

Indigenous people, who have never experienced certain diseases, have never had the opportunity to build up an immunity to them. History has shown that entire communities were often decimated by ailments that would have had little effect on people in other parts of the world. Measles, influenza, and even the common cold can become deadly to those who have never encountered them. However, smallpox, a killer disease to begin with, was especially disastrous to the indigenous peoples of Australia. Smallpox was easily spread, either through direct contact with someone who had been infected, or by a carrier, someone who had the disease yet never displayed symptoms.

For many years it has been assumed that the first English settlers brought the disease to Australia with them, however, there was no one in the First Fleet that had smallpox, or had knowingly come in contact with it. Never-the-less, in 1789, there was an epidemic, and even more surprising was the fact that there was evidence that the natives had had smallpox before.

It was known that the Macassan traders, from what is now Sulawesi, in the Indonesian Islands, had been making their way to Northern Australia for centuries to harvest sea cucumbers. It was also known that the aborigines sometimes traveled back to the island of Sulawesi with them. The visits of the Macassans was well documented within the aborigine culture for decades before the First Fleet arrived, and these visitors had been in contact with other explorers for two hundred years, and they had come in contact with smallpox.

Once the native Australians met and traded with the Macassans in the north, they traveled to their home regions, carrying smallpox with them, until it finally appeared in the southeast regions. Further epidemics were noted in 1820, 1830, 60 and 70. The influx of smallpox was devastating to the Aboriginal people. It was an ailment that they were not prepared for, and their native medicines couldn’t cure.

While the arrival of the English certainly changed the lifestyles and future of the native indigenous peoples of Australia, it would seem that they weren’t responsible for the smallpox epidemics that plagued the country early on.

“Macassan Traders.” A Biography of the Australian Continent. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. <http://austhrutime.com/macassan_traders.htm>.

Campbell, Judy. Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and Other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia, 1780-1880 [online]. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2007. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2007. xiv, 266 p., [8] p. of plates. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=248035834412189;res=IELHSS> EISBN: 0522849393. [cited 26 Feb 11].