On May 9, ABC television screened the first of a two-part documentary on Pemulwuy, “Australia’s first ever Aboriginal resistance fighter”. In the course of the program three of the interviewees claimed that, in 1789, the British introduced smallpox to the Aboriginal population of the Sydney region; two of those interviewed took the additional step of saying the introduction was deliberate.[1] These allegations are not new. Their most recent significant public airing was with the broadcast of the first episode of the SBS documentary series First Australians in October 2008.[2] The origin of the 1789 smallpox outbreak has perplexed historians for…