Mystery of Australia's worst-ever epidemic solved – British settlers brought smallpox in glass vials

New research has solved the mystery of the 1789 smallpox epidemic that devastated Australia's Aboriginal population. Discovered glass vials indicate that British settlers brought the virus to the continent, contradicting historians who had blamed Indonesian fishermen. Before European arrival, Australia was home to between 3 and 5 million indigenous people with one of the world's oldest cultures.

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