Aborigines back to Original

After enduring two centuries of disease, displacement and violent death, Australia's Aboriginal population is back to the level it was when Britain first settled the continent.

A high birth rate and reduced infant mortality have boosted the indigenous population to an estimated 500,000. "This brings us symbolically full circle in terms of original numbers," Dr John Taylor, from the Australian National University's Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, wrote in a paper.

Aboriginal people inhabited the continent for 50,000 to 60,000 years before the arrival of the First Fleet of British convicts in 1788.