The Australian Aboriginals have been the inhabitants of their land for tens of thousands of years, originally coming from the north at a time when there was less sea to cross. The first settlers to Australia arrived 50,000 years ago, which puts a lot of perspective on our knowledge of history when it comes to European and Angelo Saxon times. 50,000 years ago the land was a little wetter and humid than it is today and the wildlife flourished much more. The animals where also greater in size than they are compared to the marsupials and other Australian native animals of today.

The different tribes of the Australian aboriginals spoke around 200 plus languages and there was an estimated 300, 000 native Australian’s at the time of the first European settlers. Unfortunately for the aboriginal people the European settlers took over the land, clearing the forests and killing many more of the animals that they needed to for survival. The introduction of European animals also became a problem with interaction of native animals so the aboriginals started to find their food sources very scarce.

The aboriginal people were instantly outcast and treated very poorly by the European settler, mostly because of the color of their skin. They were treated like savages and were also killed in the thousands for their land and other commodities. Disease from Europe was another major killer of the aboriginal people because they had never been subjected to colds, flu’s, smallpox and other disease like these. In the state of Tasmania the aboriginal population was totally wiped out after many bloody battle with the Europeans. Some stories tell of the aboriginal women and children being killed just so that the land could be 100% free of the natives.

The aboriginals of today claim back their land in the Land Rights movement though technically all of Australia was their homeland because most of the tribes were nomads and traveled to all parts. It was not until the late 1900s that the native aboriginals started to get any kinds of rights and were no longer classed as second-class citizens.