Aborigines first traveled to Australia about 40,000 years ago. At that time, there was a land bridge between Asia and Australia. Over the years, the sea levels rose and Australia became an island. The Aborigines numbered about 500,000 in 1788, and some 300 different Australian Aboriginal languages were spoken. Within a hundred years, their population declined to 50,000, mainly as a result of loss of land, adoption of European habits such as drinking alcohol, effects of European diseases, declining birthrates, and violence between the Europeans and Aborigines.

The English colonized the east coast and planned to convert the natives to Christianity from what they considered paganism and superstition. Because the Aborigines did not cultivate crops or domesticate animals apart from the dingo (a kind of wild dog), they were essentially nomadic hunter-gatherers. Then the missionaries arrived and, in 1821, the first Wesleyan Missionary Society established a presence, spreading throughout the land.

There was no cohesive element among the Aborigines, so they never came near an established organized national identity. While there was sporadic resistance against the colonists by various tribes, as the English called them, not much came of the efforts and evangelical Christianity became accepted. Today, more than two-thirds of Australian Aborigines are Christians.