1789: SMALLPOX BREAKS OUT
N APRIL 1789, only 15 months after the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay, a major smallpox epidemic broke out. The Europeans who’d arrived in 1788 had some resistance to the disease through earlier exposure, but local Aboriginal people had none and its impact on them was devastating. Smallpox is one of humanity’s most deadly diseases. Throughout history, it has killed tens of millions and infected hundreds of millions more. Those who survived
