Researcher Says Australia Was First Inhabited By 1,000 to 3,000 People

Australia was first populated by about 1,000 to 3,000 people, a new study found. The population of the entire continent decreased during the Ice Age and reached a stable number of about 1.2 million people only a few centuries back, reports AFP.

The study was conducted by Alan Williams of the Australian National University in Canberra, who based his conclusion on the radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal used by ancient settlers.

There have been a lot of doubts over the number of people who first called Australia their home. Some studies suggest it to be around 50 people.

"Typically, the founding population has always been thought to be quite low -- literally a family group or a small band of people accidentally getting here, for example on a raft," said Williams, reports ABC Science."But what this paper suggests is it probably would have taken 1000 to 3000 people to reach the numbers of Aboriginal people observed at time of [European] contact."

According to Williams, the population of people in the continent fell by 60 percent during the Ice Age between 21,000-18,000 years ago, when Australia was much colder and dryer than it is today.

The arrival of the British around 1788 brought new diseases like measles and small-pox that wiped out some of the local population, as these people weren't immune to these diseases. During this time, there was an 8 percent decline in the population.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.