1789 Sydney smallpox outbreak
File:SLNSW 826105 Botany Bay New South Wales ca 1789 watercolour by Charles Gore.jpg in 1789.]]
{{Main|Smallpox in Australia}}
In April 1789, Sydney, Australia, experienced one of its most violent outbreaks of smallpox when the disease swept through Aboriginal and colonial Australians on the coast.{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic|title=Smallpox epidemic|website=National Museum of Australia|access-date=9 July 2021}}{{cite AV media| url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=391&v=ZDQtUeTIHho | time= 2:14 | author= Chris Warren | title= Smallpox, the First Fleet, and Port Jackson Tribes }} The outbreak began in early March with the first cases appearing in tribes living near Port Jackson. {{cite web| url= http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/was-sydneys-smallpox-outbreak-1789-act-biological-warfare-against-aboriginal-tribes | website= nationalunitygovernment.org | title= Sydney's smallpox outbreak of 1789 - Biological warfare against Aboriginal tribes | date= 2014 | accessdate= 24 June 2019 }} Aboriginal communities had no preexisting immunity to smallpox, and suffered mortality rates of around 70%. {{Cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic|title=National Museum of Australia - Smallpox epidemic|publisher=National Museum of Australia, Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula|website=nma.gov.au|language=en|access-date=2020-03-24}}
Smallpox in Sydney
Aboriginal tribes on Arnhem Land first contracted smallpox when they made infectious contact with fishermen from southeast Asia.{{cite book|author=Peter Hiscock|title=Archaeology of Ancient Australia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJPbwmo8gGoC&pg=PA14|date=12 December 2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-30440-0|pages=14}} Governor Arthur Philip estimated that around half of the Aboriginal population around Sydney harbor died in the outbreak. {{Cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DJPbwmo8gGoC&dq=1789+Sydney+smallpox+outbreak&pg=PA14 | title=Archaeology of Ancient Australia|last=Hiscock|first=Peter|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|isbn=978-0-203-44835-9|location=Abingdon, UK|pages=14}}
{{further|Smallpox in Australia#Outbreak of 1789}}