The numbers that at the first coming of the white man occupied the area now known as Victoria cannot be ascertained nor even estimated with precision, but enough is known of Victoria and of other parts of Australia, some but lately explored, to admit of a rough estimate being made.

The late Sir Thomas Mitchell, whose accurate observations are justly valued by men of science, and whose works even now are the best to which reference can be made as regards Eastern Australia, formed a very low estimate of the numbers of the Aborigines:–“The native population is very thinly spread over the regions I have explored, amounting to nearly a seventh part of Australia. I cannot estimate the number at more than 6,000; but, on the contrary, I believe it to be considerably less. They may increase rapidly if wild cattle become numerous, and, as an instance, I may refer to the number and good appearance of the Cudjallagong tribe, near Macquarie Range, where they occasionally fell in with a herd of wild cattle.”

If the reader will cast his eye over the map of the vast extent of country explored by Sir Thomas Mitchell, this estimate will probably strike him with astonishment.