We show that Australian Aborigines living in North Queensland have had
an impressive decline in infant mortality over the past 50 years. Sin
ce the early 1970s, much of the decline can be attributed to preventiv
e and curative medical services. On the other hand, the growth traject
ory of infants and children has improved only slightly since the early
1970s, and mean and median weights are still well below international
standards. In addition, there is no evidence that life expectancy at
birth has improved significantly since the early 1970s. The pattern of
declining infant mortality and stagnant life expectancy is accounted
for by unchanging mortality at older ages. The major contributing caus
es are heart disease and accidents and violence. We suggest that the d
ecline of infant mortality is the result of specific policy decisions
made by the providers of preventive health services that infant health
would be the focus of their efforts. The result was that many other a
spects of health were not dealt with and adult mortality stagnated. We
also suggest tentatively that the reduction in infant mortality coupl
ed with persistent high rates of low birth weight and low weight for a
ge at I year may be related to the high rates of young adult deaths fr
om ischemic heart disease observed in Aboriginal populations.