Aboriginals in Banyule - Essay Example

The 2006 Census indicated a population increase of 1,653 (in 2001) to 120,349 (Banyule City Council, 2008).Of the 517,200 aboriginal people in Australia (2006) comprise 2.5 percent of the total population (Summary of Australian, 2009) with more than 500 individuals living in Banyule (Banyule Inclusion, n.d.). Long settlers include Italians, Greeks, German, Serbian and Macedonian with Chinese (from mainland), Sri Lankans, Indians, and other Asians groups as the recent migrants (Banyule City Council, 2008).

Somali refugees began to settle in Banyuli from the 1990s (Banyule City Council, 2008). Indigenous population according to the 2006 Census is 518 (from 348 in 1996) but the figures could be as high as 1,100 since not everyone chooses to nominate as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (Banyule City Council, 2008).The Victorian Burden of Disease Study (2001) listed the following as responsible for 73 percent of the causes of death for males and females: a) cardiovascular disease (cause of death in 40 percent above 75 years old), b) cancer (relevant cause for persons below 75 years old), and c) injuries (primary cause of death in young adults) (Banyule City Council, 2008).

According to the (Public Health Information Development Unit (2004, as cited in Banyule-Nillumbik Community, n.d.), Banyule has a total population of 117,091. The six top causes of deaths for males in 1996 were: ischaemic heart disease (100.5 or 24.2 percent of the 50 top causes of death), lung cancer (32.5 or 7.8 percent), stroke (30 or 7.2 percent), COPD (29.9 or 7.2 percent), prostate cancer (17.5 or 4.2 percent) and colon/rectum cancer (16.9 or 4.1 percent) (State Government, n.d.). On the other hand, the top six causes for females were: ischaemic heart disease 97.8 or 23.4 percent, stroke (56.3 or 13.5 percent), breast cancer (23.6 or 5.7 percent), colon/rectum cancer (17.9 or 4.3 percent), lung cancer (16 or 3.8 percent) and dementia (15 or 3.6 percent) (State Government, n.d.).