How many people lived in Australia before colonisation? For nearly a century, many answers to that question have been influenced by a figure developed by anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, who estimated the population at 250,000.

But new research from a national team of academics suggests there could have been about 2.2 million Indigenous Australians living on the continent before the British colonisation in 1788.

Based on the revised population figure and comparisons with early Census records, researchers estimate the Indigenous population declined by more than two million people between 1788 and 1861.

Read the full story at SBS News - Latest.