How did British Colonization affect people’s lives in Australia? Get interested Prior to becoming a European colony, Aboriginals were the main occupants of modern day Australia. Historians believe that Aboriginals originated from Maritime South East Asia. They are believed to have arrived to Australia using boats approximately 60,000 years ago (Brown, 1974). The aborigines have a rich culture, which survived during and after colonialism. Spiritual, musical and artistic traditions of aborigines have had a significant impact on the wider Australian culture. It is believed that the first British colonialists arrived at Botany Bay in 1978 in an attempt to test the potential of Australia as a colony (Brown, 1974). Upon realizing that the continent had great potential, the British moved in swiftly and established a solid colony. The colonists had a significant impact on the lives of the indigenous people of Australia. The number of those indigenous people reduced significantly following the emergence of unique diseases that had not been experienced in the land before (Australia. Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs, 2008)