SYDNEYSYDNEY'S famous harbour crossing could have been a harbour croissant if the French had followed through on an audacious 1802 plan to invade the city, reports The Australian.
Oui, oui, it's true. The French actually planned to claim the fledgling city of Sydney for their own strategic purposes. The audacious plan has been uncovered by historians from the University of Adelaide, who are translating a confidential report from the 1800-1804 expedition of French explorer Nicholas Baudin. Baudin was charting the southern Australian coastline and hadn't originally planned to pull into Sydney, but he had early the usual 1800s seafarer problems with scurvy and lack of supplies, so he made the unscheduled stop in Sydney in 1802. And he was impressed with what he saw. The French had expected the 14-year-old colony to be an unruly outpost. Instead they found a thriving township with good agricultural production and a population of reformed convicts who were establishing themselves as productive citizens.
