How did the arrival of the British in Australia harm the indigenous people?

Answer 1

One of the major impacts of the British was that they dispossessed the indigenous Australians of their land. The Aborigines were pushed back from their fertile lands along the coast, into the deserts, and in Tasmania they were exterminated entirely. With loss of land came loss of hunting grounds and fewer food sources.

Disease was a major problem. Aborigines had no resistance to British diseases, from measles to the 'flu. Thousands of Aborigines died when epidemics of these diseases swept through their camps. The British also introduced venereal diseases when they took the aboriginal women for their own use.

Loss of culture resulted from the British taking over. No longer were the Aborigines free to live as they had lived for centuries. The British ripped families apart, took children away from their families, and forced them to adapt to white culture. Stories of the aboriginal Dreamtime were lost, as was their heritage.

There were also massacres of aboriginal people, usually with very little provocation. Australian history sadly abounds with stories of landowners, settlers and squatters organising the slaughter of groups of Aborigines, often women, children and even older men.

Answer 2

They killed many of the indigenous peoples.

They took many children from indigenous peoples.

They moved indigenous peoples into regions with inferior land.