Australasian Epidemics
In 1789, near Sydney, smallpox devasted the Aboriginal population of coastal New South Wales (NSW). The extent of this outbreak is disputed, but some sources claim that it killed about 50% of all indigenous Australians.
Controversy has long surrounded a popular theory that smallpox was introduced to NSW in 1789 by British settlers. The hypothesis was tentatively put forward in 1914 by the Director of the Australian Quarantine Service, Dr. J.H.L. Cumpston. and most forcefully stated by the economic historian, Noel Butlin, in 1983. This theory was rebutted by Judy Campbell's full length book Invisible Invaders (2002). In particular, Campbell argued that scientific evidence concerning the viability of variolous matter (used for inoculation) does not support the possibility of the disease being brought to Australia on the long voyage from Europe. Some, however, such as Christopher Warren (2007); and Craig Mear (2008); continue to hold that smallpox emanated from the importation of variolous matter on the First Fleet. Warren argued that Campbell's approach was based on the false premise that warm temperatures sterilised the British supply of smallpox. After H. A. Willis (2010) reiterated Campbell's argument, Warren (2011) suggested that Willis had not taken into account research on how heat affects the smallpox virus, cited by the World Health Organization. Willis (2011) replied that his position was supported by a closer reading of Fenner’s WHO Report. and invited readers to consult the report online.
Campbell’s finding that the 1789 outbreak was introduced to Australia by Macassan mariners visiting Arnhem Land follows the opinion of C. C. Macknight, an authority on the interaction between indigenous Australians and the Macassans. Citing the scientific opinion of Frank Fenner (who wrote the forward to her book), and historical documents, Campbell (2002) argued that the 1789 outbreak was introduced to Australia by Macassans, from where it spread overland. More recently, Macknight (2011) has re-entered the debate by declaring: “The overwhelming probability must be that it was introduced, like the later epidemics, by trepangers on the north coast and spread across the continent to arrive in Sydney quite independently of the new settlement there.”
Another major outbreak was observed in 1828–30, near Bathurst, New South Wales. A third epidemic occurred in the Northern Territory and North-West Australia in the mid-1860s.
Elsewhere in the Pacific, smallpox killed many New Zealand Māori, This is a far from reliable source. Alfred Crosby in his major work, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expension of Europe 900-1900AD (CUP), correctly shows that in 1840 a ship with smallpox on it was successfully quarantined. The only other outbreak in New Zealand that spread in New Zealand was the 1913 epidemic among maori in northern New Zealand that was reported on to an Australian and New Zealand medical congress in Melbourne in 1914 by Te Rangi Hiroa (Dr Peter Buck) in what is probably New Zealand's first epidemiological paper and nearly wiped out the native population of Easter Island.
Read more about this topic: History Of Smallpox