Funeral and burial records gathered over decades on the Tiwi Islands have revealed a decrease in child deaths and a rise in life expectancy.
Professor Wendy Hoy of the University of Queensland describes the data as one of the most complete reports of deaths in any indigenous Australian community, revealing a dramatic improvement in life expectancy over 50 years.
The Tiwi people live in three major communities on Bathurst and Melville Islands off the Northern Territory coast.
Professor Hoy says infants and children made up a majority of deaths during the 1960s as a result of low birthweight.
"With progressively improving health services, most frail and underweight infants and children are now surviving into adulthood, but their poor early start to life has made them at least twice as vulnerable to chronic diseases," she said.
"While it will be a generation or two before this is fully reflected in adult health, we can look forward to further improvements."
The retrospective study was based on data from local clinic, parish, dialysis and birthweight registers collected between 1960 and 2010.
Professor Hoy says the average life expectancy had increased three-fold, with common causes of death being lung and cardiovascular disease and kidney failure.
"Certainly there are problems with obesity, drug and alcohol misuse, and poor nutrition, but these are not problems exclusive to Indigenous communities," she said.
