SOURCE E: Arabanoo, an Eora man, who died from smallpox 18 May, 1789.

Question 1

Determine what kind of source it is?

Answer 1

typed extract

Question 2

Find out when the source was created?

Answer 2

1789, because that’s when smallpox broke out among the Aboriginals

Question 3

Find out who created the source?

Answer 3

Arabanoo, an Eora man

Question 4

Determine the context in which the source was created?

Answer 4

Secondary source because things in 1789 couldn’t be typed. 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. Arabanoo, an Eora man who had been taken captive and learned to speak English, was
taken down to the harbour to make contact with his family. He found no-one. According to the eyewitness
report of David Collins:

Question 5

Which history subtopic does this relate to?

Answer 5

Impact of European settlement on Aboriginal people

Question 6

What years was the early european settlement?

Answer 6

The early european settlement was from 1788 to 1810

Question 7

What did Arabanoo do and what was the result during the smallpox pandemic?

Answer 7

Then a severe epidemic of smallpox broke out among the Aboriginals in April 1789, several who had been found in great distress were brought to Sydney where Arabanoo helped to care for them; he caught the disease himself and died on or about 18 May.

Question 8

Who was Ball, Henry Lidgbird

Answer 8

Ball, Henry Lidgbird took part in exploring parties around Port Jackson, was one of those who captured Arabanoo on 31 December 1788

Question 9

How many people were infected with smallpox?

Answer 9

Smallpox infected hundreds of millions of people. Tens of millions of people died. Those who survived were often badly scarred, blinded or both.

About three out of 10 people infected with the smallpox virus died.
Without previous exposure to the smallpox virus, First Nations peoples had no resistance, and up to 70 per cent were killed by the disease.

Question 10

What were the symptoms of smallpox?

Answer 10

Symptoms progress quickly and include fever, headache and backache as well as a severe pustular rash. Death can follow in a day or two.

Question 11

Has there ever been a cure for smallpox?

Answer 11

No cure for smallpox has ever been found

Question 12

Why were convicts transported to australia?

Answer 12

The convicts were transported as punishment for crimes committed in Britain and Ireland.

Question 13

What types of crimes and/or people were transported?

Answer 13

Minor crimes such as stealing items worth more than 1 shilling (about a day’s wages for a working person), cutting down a tree in an orchard or stealing livestock were punishable by transportation. The prisons quickly became full and prisoners were kept in old, rotting prison ships called hulks.

Question 14

What were the conditions on the ships (hulks) like?

Answer 14

These ships were usually an old naval or merchant ship that could not go to sea anymore but could still float safely in the harbour. The hulks were over-crowded and cramped, often there wasn’t even room to stand up! A hulk could be up to 65 metres long. On board each hulk there could be up to 300 convicts. All convicts were sentenced to hard labour as part of their punishment and could be forced to work at just about any manual task such as timber cutting, brick making or stone cutting.

Question 15

What was a ticket of leave?

Answer 15

A ticket of leave allowed convicts to work for themselves on condition that they remained in a specified area, reported regularly to local authorities and if at all possible, attend divine worship every Sunday.

Question 16

record 3 common experiences of convicts during transportation

Answer 16

• The convicts were not fed very well.
• The daily diet was often made up of ox-cheek, either boiled or made into soup, pease (peas), bread or biscuits. The biscuits were often mouldy. Tobacco could be supplied as part of their ration as a reward for a job well done or for good behaviour.
• Convicts got up at sunrise and worked hard for up to 10 hours a day.

Question 17

Why did the population of Indigenous people decline so rapidly?

Answer 17

The impact of early colonisation on Indigenous People: 1778 - 1900

It is estimated that between 1788 and 1900, the Indigenous population of Australia was reduced by
90%.
Three main reasons for this dramatic population decline were:
* The introduction of new diseases
* Settler acquisition of Indigenous lands
* Direct and violent conflict with the colonisers.

Question 18

What was a consequence of colonisation, and what was the effect of this?

Answer 18

The impact of early colonisation on Indigenous People : Disease

The most immediate consequence of colonisation was a wave of epidemic diseases including smallpox, measles and influenza, which spread ahead of the settlement frontier and annihilated many Indigenous communities.

Governor Phillip reported that smallpox had killed half of the Indigenous people in the Sydney region within fourteen months of the arrival of the First Fleet.

Question 19

What was the result of the expansion of British settlements?

Answer 19

The impact of early colonisation effects on Indigenous People : Dispossession

The expansion of British settlements, including the establishment of colonies in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Adelaide, Moreton Bay (Brisbane) and Port Phillip (Melbourne), resulted in competition over land and resources, and quickly lead to violence.
“The Government is fast disposing of the land occupied by the natives from time immemorial. In addition to which settlers under the sanction of government may establish themselves in any part of this extensive territory and since the introduction of the numerous flocks and herds… a serious loss has been sustained by the natives without an equivalent being rendered. Their territory is not only invaded, but their game is driven back, their marnong and other valuable roots are eaten by the white man’s sheep and their deprivation, abuse and miseries are daily increasing.”
Francis Tuckfield, Wesleyan Missionary, 1837

Question 20

The impact of early colonisation effects on Indigenous People : Violence

Answer 20

It is important to recognise that throughout the colonisation process, Indigenous Australians continually resisted the infringement of their rights to their lands, and its impact on their cultures and communities.
It is estimated that at least 20,000 Aboriginal people were killed as a direct result of colonial violence during this era of shared Australian history. Between 2,000- 2,500 settler deaths resulted from frontier conflict during the same period.
* Historical records do document numerous occasions on which Indigenous people were hunted and brutally murdered .
* Massacres of Indigenous people often took the form of mass shootings or driving groups of people off cliffs.
* There are also numerous accounts of colonists offering Indigenous people food laced with arsenic and other poisons.

Question 21

What were the impacts of early colonisation effects on Indigenous People

Answer 21

• Violence
• Dispossession
• Disease
• Between 1788-1900