Australian Population Statistics Years ago I studied number
theory, and I still find patterns of numbers fascinating,
especially when they suggest underlying explanations. On first
glance the Australian Historical Population Statistics on the
website of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Table 1,
‘Population by sex, states and territories, 31 December 1788,
onwards’) – well maybe it didn’t look fascinating at first
glance. In fact all those numbers look a bit intimidating.
However I am writing a course on Australian Family History (for
the National Institute of Genealogical Studies – NIGS) and I
started looking more closely at the population numbers,
considering them within regions and then within decades. And
then patterns began to emerge as the population trends reflected
what was happening at the time. I mean – look at Victoria. It
didn’t become a separate colony until 1851 (before that the area
was known as the ‘Port Phillip District of NSW’) so there are no
statistics for the Victorian colony until 185