The highly regarded history of Australia's First Nations people since colonisation, fully updated for this fifth edition.

In the creation of any new society, there are winners and losers. So it was with Australia as it grew from a colonial outpost to an affluent society.

Richard Broome tells the history of Australia from the standpoint of the original Australians—those who lost most in the early colonial struggle for power. Surveying over two centuries of Aboriginal–European encounters, he shows how white settlers steadily supplanted the original inhabitants, from the shining coasts to inland deserts, by sheer force of numbers, disease, technology and violence. He also tells the story of Aboriginal survival through resistance and accommodation, and traces the continuing Aboriginal struggle to move from the margins of a settler society to a more central place in modern Australia.

Broome's Aboriginal Australians has long been regarded as the most authoritative account of black–white relations in Australia. This fifth edition continues the story, covering the effect of the Northern Territory Intervention, the mining boom in remote Australia, the Uluru Statement, the resurgence of interest in traditional Aboriginal knowledge and culture, and the new generation of Aboriginal leaders.

About the Author

Richard Broome is Emeritus Professor of History at La Trobe University. One of Australia's most respected scholars of Aboriginal history, he is the author of 14 books including the prize-winning Aboriginal Victorians (2005), Fighting Hard (2015) and co-author of Mallee Country (2020).