In 1789 there was a sudden outbreak of smallpox in an area of Australia called Sydney by the British colonizers who had just settled there, with horrific consequences for the Aboriginal Australian population. Did the British use smallpox against Aboriginal Australians? This video shows there is strong evidence that the colonizers infected the Aboriginal people deliberately.
Ashcroft, Bill. “Colonialism and Disease: Smallpox in the Aboriginal Population.” Covid-19 in India, Disease, Health and Culture: Can Wellness Be Far Behind? Edited by Anindita Chatterjee and Nilanjana Chatterjee. Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series. Taylor & Francis, 2023.
Bennett, Michael J. “Smallpox and Cowpox under the Southern Cross: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1789 and the Advent of Vaccination in Colonial Australia.” Bull Hist Med 83.1 (2009): 37–62. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.0.0167.
Butlin, N.G. “Macassans and Aboriginal Smallpox: The ‘1789’ and ‘1829’ Epidemics∗.” Historical Studies 21.84 (1985): 315–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314618508595710.
Campbell, Judy. Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and Other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia, 1780-1880. Carlton South, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 2002.
———. “Smallpox in Aboriginal Australia, 1829–31.” Historical Studies 20.81 (1983): 536–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/10314618308682899.
Carmody, John. “Chicken Pox or Smallpox in the Colony at Sydney Cove in April, 1789.” ABC Listen, 18 September 2010. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/ockhamsrazor/chicken-pox-or-smallpox-in-the-colony-at-sydney/2972652.
———. “The ‘Myth’ of Smallpox at Sydney Cove in April 1789.” Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. The Australian National University, 3 August 2013. https://caepr.cass.anu.edu.au/events/myth-smallpox-sydney-cove-april-1789.
———. “Was Sydney’s Smallpox Outbreak of 1789 an Act of Biological Warfare against Aboriginal Tribes? | Comment from Dr John Carmody.” ABC Listen, 17 April 2014. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/ockhamsrazor/was-sydneys-smallpox-outbreak-an-act-of-biological-warfare/5395050.
Collins, David. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales,: From Its First Settlement in January 1788, to August 1801: With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, &c., of the Native Inhabitants of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars of New Zealand; Compiled, by Permission, from the Mss. of Lieutenant-Governor King; and an Account of a Voyage Performed by Captain Flinders and Mr. Bass; by Which the Existence of a Strait Separating Van Diemen’s Land from the Continent of New Holland Was Ascertained. Abstracted from the Journal of Mr. Bass. T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1804.
Cumpston, J. H. L, Australia, and Quarantine Service. The History of Small-Pox in Australia, 1788-1908. Melbourne: Govt. Printer, 1914.
Curson, Peter. “Smallpox Redux: An Australian Perspective.” Security Challenges 4.3 (2008): 17.
Day, David. Claiming a Continent: A New History of Australia. Angus & Robertson, 1997.
Dowling, Peter J. “‘A Great Deal of Sickness’ Introduced Diseases among the Aboriginal People of Colonial Southeast Australia 1788-1900.” PhD, Australian National University, 1997.
Farid, Lily Yulianti. “An Alternate History of Makassan Trepangers in Modern Australia: Rice Cooker, Makassan Town and a Business Council.” Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, 20 August 2021. https://www.monash.edu/arts/monash-indigenous-studies/global-encounters-and-first-nations-peoples/news-and-blog/an-alternate-history-of-makassan-trepangers.
Fenn, Elizabeth A. “Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond Jeffery Amherst.” The Journal of American History 86.4 (2000): 1552. https://doi.org/10.2307/2567577.
Fenner, Frank, Donald Ainslie Henderson, Zdenek JeZek, Ivan Danilovich Ladnyi, and Isao Arita. Smallpox and Its Eradication. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1988.
Finzsch, Norbert. “‘[…] Extirpate or Remove That Vermine’: Genocide, Biological Warfare, and Settler Imperialism in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century.” Journal of Genocide Research 10.2 (2008): 215–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520802065446.
———. “Biological Warfare in North America and Australia: Smallpox and Colonial Violence.” Zeitschrift Für Australienstudien / Australian Studies Journal 35 (2021).
Ford, Geoff E. “Darkiñung Recognition An Analysis of the Historiography for the Aborigines from the Hawkesbury-Hunter Ranges to the Northwest of Sydney.” Masters, University of Sydney, 2010.
Littleton, Judith. “Time and Memory: Historic Accounts of Aboriginal Burials in South-Eastern Australia.” Aboriginal History 31 (2007): 103–21.
Macknight, Campbell. “The View from Marege’: Australian Knowledge of Makassar and the Impact of the Trepang Industry across Two Centuries.” Aboriginal History Journal 35 (2011). https://doi.org/10.22459/AH.35.2011.06, http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p148271/pdf/ch051.pdf.
McWhirter, Rebekah. “‘Lymph or Liberty’: Responses to Smallpox Vaccination in the Eastern Australian Colonies.” University of Tasmania, 2008. https://eprints.utas.edu.au/8077/2/02Whole.pdf.
Mear, Craig. “Smallpox in Sydney: 1789.” ABC Listen, 2 May 2009. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/ockhamsrazor/smallpox-in-sydney-1789/3145560.
———. “The Origin of the Smallpox Outbreak in Sydney in 1789.” Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 94.1 (2008): 1–22.
Michael J. Bennett. “Smallpox and Cowpox under the Southern Cross: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1789 and the Advent of Vaccination in Colonial Australia.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 83.1 (2009): 37–62. https://doi.org/10.1353/bhm.0.0167.
Rusden, George William. History of Australia from Pre-Historic Times to the Federal Convention of 1897. Vol. 1. Chapman and Hall, 1883.
Short, Bruce H. “Surgeon John White: Australia’s First Surgeon-General.” United Service 64.4 (2013).
Stirling, Edward Charles. Preliminary Report on the Discovery of Native Remains at Swanport, R. Murray: With an Inquiry into the Alleged Occurrence of a Pandemic among the Australian Aboriginals, 1911.
Tench, Watkin. A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson: In New South Wales, Including an Accurate Description of the Situation of the Colony; of the Natives; and of Its Natural Productions: Taken on the Spot. G. Nicol, 1793.
Veracini, Lorenzo. “Book Review: Judy Campbell, Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and Other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia 1780-1880, Melbourne University Press.” Journal of Australian Studies Review of Books 7 (2002).
Warren, Chris. “1789 – British Smallpox Warfare?” Australian Socialist 18.4 (2010): 11.
———. “Australian Capitalism 1789 – a Crime against Humanity.” Australian Socialist 22.2 (2016): 13.
———. “Was Sydney’s Smallpox Outbreak of 1789 an Act of Biological Warfare against Aboriginal Tribes?” Current. ABC Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 17 April 2014. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/was-sydneys-smallpox-outbreak-an-act-of-biological-warfare/5395050.
Warren, Christopher. “Could First Fleet Smallpox Infect Aborigines? – A Note.” Aboriginal History 31 (2007): 152–64.
———. “Smallpox at Sydney Cove – Who, When, Why?” Journal of Australian Studies 38.1 (2014): 68–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2013.849750.
Wright, Barry. “Aborigines – Was It Smallpox?” The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 15.5 (1987): 45–48. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0310582200015157.
“Could First Fleet Smallpox Infect Aborigines? – A Note Authors(s): Christopher Warren.” Aboriginal History 3 (2007): 152–64.
“Smallpox: 1789 Biological Warfare against First Nations | Sovereign Union – First Nations Asserting Sovereignty,” n.d. http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/smallpox-1789-biological-warfare-against-first-nations.
