This question is now directed at new zealand (can't edit the title :P). Why didn't the maori get small pox and die like the australians and north, central and south american natives?
I know that cape town africans had pretty much the same fate, but that eastern and northern africans were more exposed to the outside world, and didn't suffer (as much?) as a result.
Yet, the central africans were also cattle and sheep herders, like the europeans, and weren't as vulnerable to disease either. It's only recently with the growth of big cities that these people have become highly vulnerable to malaria and other african diseases.
The people I don't know about, however, are the maori of new zealand, who seemed not to be impacted quite as much. Were they a herding culture? Did they have a lot of interaction with the outside world, somehow?
How did they avoid the fate of so many others like them?
They absolutely did!
It is estimated that the Australian Indigenous population was reduced by 90% between the years of 1788 and 1900 as a result of British invasion - disease played a large part, as did loss of land, and conflicts with the colonists. Source.
This doesn't take into account the other later effects of the British invasion and the white Australian government's policies when it came to Indigenous people. The purpose of various Aboriginal Protection Acts in taking mixed-race children away from their Indigenous families was ostensibly to protect against child abuse, but in reality was a way to eventually 'breed out' Indigenous blood. That's why you have the Western Australian Chief Protector of Aboriginies writing articles stating that "Eliminate the full blood and permit the white admixture and eventually the race will become white." Source. An estimated 20,000 mixed-race children were taken from their Indigenous families over a 70 year period, doing untold damage to the rights and self-identity of the Indigenous community. Source
The collateral damage of the British invasion on the Indigenous population is ongoing.
Hi, here's some more info
on Australian and New Zealand aboriginal populations Did Australian natives suffer from European diseases in the same way native Americans did?