Craig Cormick (text) and Cheri Hughes (illustrator) Colonial Settlement: France vs Britain (What If History of Australia) Big Sky Publishing, May 2022, 254 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922615763
I’m all in favour of encouraging students to think laterally and ‘outside the square’. This zany alternative history book does exactly that by pondering a whole lot of ‘what if’ questions about the colonisation of Australia.
However, this book covers more than just asking what Australia might be like if the French had set up the colony first. It begins by contemplating what may have occurred if Captain Cook’s Endeavour had sunk on the Great Barrier Reef instead of being repaired and being made seaworthy enough to be sailed back to England. Several alternatives are suggested.
The reader is also introduced to John Batman and his establishment of Melbourne. What if his ‘treaty’ with the indigenous residents had been legitimate and led to other formal treaties around the country? The bulk of the book then progresses to look at the establishment of New New France where aristocrats escaping the French Revolution arrived, including the king and Marie Antoinette, and took up residence. Napoleon also enters the scene, along with the British eventually.
It does tend to be quite confusing in parts but is very funny. Little conversational comments by the author litter the text and the black-and-white drawings also add to the humour. At the end of the book is a table comparing real history with What If history, just to set things straight. I just hope that all the grammatical mistakes in the ARC review copy are corrected before it goes to press.
Reviewed by Lynne Babbage
