Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-aboriginal peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today.
For much of the twentieth century it was used by the Queensland Government as a settlement for Aboriginals considered guilty of such infractions as being "disruptive", being pregnant to a white man or being born with "mixed blood".
Archaeological evidence indicates that, for some 3,000 years before the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century, the area around what is now Edmonton, in the North Saskatchewan River valley, was the site of seasonal settlement by aboriginal hunting peoples.
Prior to European settlement, relatively dense populations of Aboriginal people lived close to the rich resources of the coast, and other groups concentrated around the major inland rivers.
Although First Nations people were present in valleys to the east and west, evidence of aboriginal settlement in the Illecillewaet area has not been found.
Born in Sydney and now based in Melbourne, he has explored the effects of European settlement on the Aboriginal population in Milikapiti on Melville Island off the northern coast of Australia.
Analysis of pollen deposits has revealed that other trees and shrubs, among them the giant Chile palm (Jubaea spectabilis), were formerly present on the island until exterminated by extensive fires occurring at the time of aboriginal human settlement.
The name of the band derives from the honey-ant dreaming site near the Aboriginal settlement of Papunya, 260km west of Alice Springs, where the band originated in the early 1980s.
It is clear that at the time of European settlement Aboriginal hunting and burning had major effects on animal numbers, but a balance seems to have been maintained, possibly assisted by a system of social prohibitions that protected important species under certain conditions.
Meanwhile, by some estimates at least 2,000 early soldiers, police and settlers died at the hands of Aboriginal raiders who resisted the pastoral settlement on traditional lands, stole livestock and carried out retaliatory raids, sometimes on the innocent.
The mean people included remnants of aboriginal groups who had survived Chinese expansion and settlement and certain occupational groups, including prostitutes, musicians, actors, and local government underlings (e.g., jailers and gatekeepers).
