Impact of European settlement on Aboriginal people

Question 1

Impact on the Eora people of Sydney:

Answer 1

The arrival of the British brought
competition for clean water and food, and introduced fatal European diseases. The new arrivals cut down
trees, desecrated sacred sites, stole Aboriginal spears and fishing lines, polluted waterholes and rapidly
extended their control of the land.

Question 2

A battle for survival

Answer 2

By the first winter of 1788 the Eora communities were beginning to experience hardship and hunger as the colonists took the best land and the Eora were forced onto the lands of neighbouring clans to hunt and gather food.
The battle for survival had begun.

Question 3

The spread of disease

Answer 3

Smallpox spread rapidly and devastated the Eora people. Convict work gangs reported seeing the effects
of the disease in April, 1789. Bodies covered in sores were being found in caves or lying unattended at
abandoned camp sites. In May, Captain John Hunter noted the absence of the usual signs of Eora daily life
around Sydney Cove.

Question 4

European settlement expands

Answer 4

The British government continued to give land grants to settlers and to big pastoral companies, because
sheep farming and wool made huge profits. European settlers intended to:
* take possession of the land
* deny Aboriginal people access to the waterholes
* destroy traditional hunting and gathering grounds
* disregard traditional law and sacred sites.

Question 5

Losing the land

Answer 5

The Kamilaroi people were given no compensation or payment for the 223 000 hectares of their land taken
by the Australian Agricultural Company in the 1830s. The Kamilaroi were allowed to stay on their land
only if employed by the company as stockmen or as domestic servants.
By 1860, the European settlement covered over 400 million hectares of Aboriginal land. As immigrant
populations expanded across Australia, Aboriginal people were increasingly left on the outskirts of
settlement.