Is it true that at some point, Australia could have been colonized by the French instead of the British? What impact would this have on the Australian 'way of life'?

by [deleted]

I've always been curious about this. Growing up in Australia, I often hear anecdotes about how close we became to being colonized by the French. I am curious about how true this is, and what impact this would have had on the Australian way of life (apart from the fact that we would probably all be speaking French).