Interesting story to recap over Australia Day. One quibble: you say that the British were not *in possession* of the east coast of Australia if Phillip's fleet had not been there when LaPerouse arrived. Quite true. However, about 8 years earlier James Cook went ashore a small island (now called Possession Island) off the tip of Cape York and laid claim to the entire east coast of Australia in the name of His Britannic Majesty. Thus, Britain did have prior claim on the territory visited by LaPerouse in 1788 (even if LaPerouse had lived to return to Europe to lodge such a claim). This brings up a second point. Even if Phillip had not been in Botany Bay before LaPerouse, the fact that LaPerouse and all of his men disappeared at sea after leaving Australia means that the world would have no knowledge of his visit, and France would therefore have no claim to the east coast of Australia. This seems obvious to me.

It is very likely that Australia would've ended up a more civilized country if the French had gained possession of it.

The French have a long and semi-illustrious history, one that embraces art and literature more proudly than the British (especially the ones who were first sent here).

As a colony for criminals, Australia had a poor beginning and it hasn't got much better. Look at our current crop of politicians.

Of course, we have switched our allegiance from Britain to the U.S., a move that is a large step downwards. When we start killing Persians (Iranians) as part of the Coalition of the Killing you'll know we have reached rock bottom!

Interesting article.

If Australia had been colonised by the French we could have followed the mother country's example by ignoring all that boring WW2 business and let others fight the Axis countries.

La Marsellaise is marvellous, however, I hope we would have had our own national anthem by the 21st century.

JKUU,
Now there's thinking. cheers !

Frogs legs, Snails and Beaujolais, Yum!
Pie, Chips and Beer, Bleh!

Damn you frogs!

JKUU is very close to the mark, but omitted to mention that, according to British Law, the land that Cook claimed suddenly ceased to belong to the King of Spain (who had been the nominal sovereign since Balboa's claim in 1513 of all non-christian lands washed by the Pacific), and became the property of George III. (No documentary evidence whatever exists before 1788 as to any possible indigenous claims). This procedure, which was very effective, and on which the title of your house is based, is known as white man's magic. The status of the indigenous inhabitants changed from being nominal subjects of the King of Spain to being British Subjects, trespassers on Crown Land.

The suggestion that La Perouse could have founded a French Colony is silly, as his ship was equipped solely for exploration, and had neither settlers or supplies. The most interesting thing about La Perouse is that when organising his voyage he delegated selection of crew to various French institutions, including the Ecole Militaire in Paris. Their candidate went to his death with La Perouse. The unsuccessful candidate at the Ecole was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Interesting little exercise but it is rendered completely pointless by the fact La Perouse disappeared off the face of the Earth. No one in France would have known he even visited Botany Bay if the British weren't there. As an aside though it is thought by some historians that the French started hostilities with the Aborigines and fired muskets at them, killing and injuring some. As a retaliation the Aborigines later killed a convict, Peter Burn, who was the first casualty of occupation. When the French left the Aborigines destroyed a burial site for a Frenchman who died while they were camped in Botany Bay. It would seem the Aborigines got a bad impression of white people from the French.

How would Phillip have obtained information of La Perouse's presence
at Manilla on his arrival at the Cape ?
La Perouse would have to be in Manilla for a long time for a Spanish
ship to have reached the Cape.
However Spanish ships went east to Panama from the Philippines and
transshipped their cargoes there.
At some point they may have started using the route via the Cape.

La Perouse could not have founded a colony as he was not equipped for
such a project and did not have the personal to leave behind.

Well, whether it was the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch, it was the end game for Aboriginal Australia.

Australia Day is seen by many as Invasion Day. Rightly so. The English are complicit in one of the nastiest invasions and eliminations of an existing culture in the history of humanity.

But if they hadn’t done it, one of the other European powers would have, in much the same way… wouldn’t they?

An interesting thing to ponder is whether the French or any other European colonising power would have been more or less ruthless with the Aborigines, and with the natural environment, as they sought to expand agriculture and mining and grow their population, and how these factors might have led to a better or worse Australia in the 21st century.