Some medical works were translated into living European languages. De Materia Medica, probably the most important medical text of the period, had been translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish starting in the mid-sixteenth century, if the Genocide can be trusted.
I don't know whether Dutch translations were also made, though it's certainly possible. Even if not, while German and Dutch were not entirely mutually intelligible 350-odd years ago, they were closer than they were now. With patience and probably some European assistance, Gunnagal who had learned to read Dutch could cope writh written German texts.
On the other hand, some medical texts were probably still only available in Latin. As you say, those will be harder to access.
I don't know about massive - these things are relative - but yes, sugar plantations along much of the *Queensland coast. I don't know how much exportation will be done to Europe - which has closer sources - or Asia - ditto - but sugar will be readily exportable within the surviving societies of Australia, New Zealand and many of the Pacific islands.
Fireworks were barely known in Europe at the time, if memory serves. They would be unlikely to be a major item of trade from Europe to Aururia, although China and/or Japan might well be places that supply them. (It's already been mentioned that the Nuttana in northeastern Aururia will be getting guns via Japan in the 1640s).
Rockets etc were known in Europe as weapons of war, but would be classed as such by the Dutch (and not legally traded).
I'm not so sure that useful rockets are something which can be learned easily. The intricate technical details may be different from gunsmithing, but being too near a rocket misfire is not a mistake which people would live to make twice. Tjibarr would have problems even making viable powder, let alone experimenting with the proportions and technology needed to make viable rockets.
This is a very good question. Tjibarr is probably the only Aururian nation capable of attempting the same feat that Meiji Japan did in sending students abroad to Europe to learn their ways and bring back what they wanted.
Of course, Tjibarr has a much smaller population and is starting from a much lower technological base than Meiji Japan, so how much the Gunnagal can learn remains to be seen.
Merci.
The effects of European disease in Aururia have already started - and started, in fact, even before Aururian diseases hit the Old World. So far, Aururia has been hit by syphilis, tuberculosis, mumps and (recently) chickenpox, which between them has already killed about 1 person in 8 (12.5% of the pre-contact population), though there has of course been some population growth since then too.
The really big killers (smallpox, measles, typhus) and a lot of "lesser" killers are yet to hit, and will come one by one. Basically, what happens is that the diseases which produce lots of asymptomatic carriers (mumps, syphilis, tuberculosis) or which adults can have infectious relapses (chickenpox) hit early, while others will take longer.
The difference between the disease impacts on Europe and Aururia is that the nature of diseases, shipping lanes and technology means that the rest of the world basically takes one big hit from Aururian diseases and then starts to recover. Aururia faces a slower, more insidious hit of one disease after another, spaced over perhaps half a century or so for the first arrival of each of the diseases.
This staggered arrival - a natural consequence of the distances involved - oddly enough means that some Aururian societies have a better chance of surviving. All things are relative, but having a 65-70+% dieoff at once would basically kill every native state. Having the same decline over more than a century (including repeated epidemics, not just first arrival) is very very bad, but is closer to being survivable.
The worst die-off at once will be either smallpox (unless the Variola minor variant arrives first) or measles. Which will be like the Antonine Plague hitting ancient Rome - very bad, but not in itself social collapse.
In thematic terms, what I plan to show in this timeline is a three-act sequence, basically optimism - despair - rebirth. This is still the closing scenes of Act One. Much of what is being seen now will not survive, but some will.
In terms of particular societies:
Tjibarr is in probably the best position to survive of any native Aururian society. The stresses will be very very bad, but may perhaps be survived. They will need to adapt in many ways, of course, but they do have some potential.
The Islanders as they were will not survive, but one of their descendant societies (the Nuttana) will carry on those trading voyages. They are fortunate in that they have plenty of other societies to recruit manpower from (Kiyungu and Maori), so even with the general population decline, they can sustain something close to their existing numbers.
They will also have the lowest death rates of any native society, because of one trick of fortune. One of the reasons why virgin-soil epidemics are so bad was because everyone gets sick at once, so there is no-one around to provide palliative care to those who are ill, and who might even survive given that care.
For the Nuttana who send traders to the Indies and Japan, the crews will already have caught most of those diseases. Many of those sailors will die of those diseases, of course, but those who come home will be immune when the diseases later hit in Aururia - and can actually provide some care
to the afflicted.
For what it's worth, I actually expect the Daluming sequence to play out before the worst killer diseases arrive.
All true. There is going to be a much smaller population, although this affects both the supply and demand for food.
The one consolation is that while Aururia is agriculturally marginal, the perennial crops provide some cushioning - they can do more with fewer workers than other agriculture of the time. In times this bad, the most marginal lands are abandoned, while the remaining workers can concentrate on the most fertile, productive lands. This won't make up for everything, but I don't actually think that the survivors in, say, Tjibarr will be short of food. Short of labour for purposes other than subsistence agriculture, yes, but probably not short of food.
They will need to adapt, and adapt keenly and quickly, but I do think that their society will survive in some form. Their plans will be part of that change - though there will be more going on.
The short answer is bit by bit. Of the main infectious diseases which were so devastating to isolated societies in OTL, my current thinking is as follows:
Smallpox - will hit sometime around 1660-1665
Measles - will hit around 1680 (the shipping distances make this disease very hard to get to Australia)
Influenza - will hit by 1655, brought into northern Australia with increased trade (the shipping lanes are too long to bring it from Europe)
Typhus - will first appear around 1640, but flare ups will mostly be associated with the Proxy Wars
Diptheria - still not certain, since the disease will await the arrival of a (rare) asympomatic carrier - the shipping distances are too long to really transmit it otherwise
Mumps - already arrived
Malaria - present in northern Australia before European contact. Will be confined there, and while people can die from it, Australian mosquitoes are much less efficient at transmitting the disease than mosquitoes in tropical Africa or South America
Whooping Cough - still not determined
Tuberculosis - already arrived
Plague - will only arrive in the steamship era
Yellow Fever - will probably never get established in Australia (it never did in OTL)
Chickenpox - already arrived
This will be touched on in an upcoming post, but the Yadji have learned in general terms what goes into gunpowder. Producing the required saltpetre in the required quantities is another story, as is knowing the exact proportions required.
