The arrival of British colonialists in 1788 brought devastating changes to the Aboriginal population of Australia. Those few who survived the introduction of foreign disease suffered from massacres, starvation and poverty resulting from the loss of land and water rights. From the mid-19th Century, and lasting as late as the 1970s, a campaign to “Europeanize” the Aboriginal population and breed them to be “whiter” took place. Over 100,000 Aboriginal children were kidnapped and raised in government-sponsored homes where they had little or no contact with their families of origin, and were often abused. Although the Aboriginal population was under government “Protectorship” in the mid-19th century, they were anything but protected. Placed in desolate parts of the country where resources were scarce and poverty wrought havoc, treated with contempt, subject to total control by the government, Aboriginals were not legally considered Australian citizens, nor did they have the right to vote, hold political office or attend University, until 1967.