Battle for Australia Day

Prime Minister John Curtin used the term 'battle for Australia' the day after Japanese forces captured the island of Singapore on 15 February 1942.

Just as Dunkirk began the battle for Britain, so does Singapore open the battle for Australia … The protection of this country is no longer a question of contributing to a world at war but of resisting an enemy threatening to invade our own shore … What the battle for Britain required, so the battle for Australia demands. That meant service and struggle and complete devotion for Britons in the defence of Britain. It means the same thing for Australians, for the defence of Australia … It is now work or fight as we have never worked or fought before, and there must not be a man or a woman in this Commonwealth who goes to bed to-night without having related his or her period of wakefulness to the purposes of war.

[John Curtin's statement as quoted in 'SINGAPORE, "AUSTRALIA'S DUNKIRK"', The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 February 1942.]

Three days after Curtin's statement to Australians, Japanese aircraft attacked the Australian mainland.

The Bombing of Darwin on 19 February was the first of many attacks. Between 1942 and 1943, the Japanese made 97 air raids across northern Australia. The people of Darwin suffered 64 of these attacks. In May and June, Japanese submarines attacked the eastern coast of Australia.

With a military threat now coming from the Japanese in the north, thousands of Australians were mobilised for war. Australian and United States (US) forces were engaged in multiple actions throughout the region in 1942 and 1943. These battles aimed to defend Australia and stop the Japanese from advancing further south.

Significance of the day's timing

The date commemorates the Allies' first land defeat of Japanese forces during the Battle of Milne Bay.

The Battle of Milne Bay was fought between 25 August and 7 September 1942. The Japanese wanted to take Milne Bay in the Territory of Papua to establish a secure a base of operations with airstrips to launch further attacks on Port Moresby. Fighting between Australian and Japanese forces (with some US troops) was fierce. The Japanese suffered very heavy losses. Japanese forces had evacuated Milne Bay by 7 September 1942.

Victory at Milne Bay was a huge boost for Allied morale.

This day is a time for us to recognise all those who served in the defence of the Australian mainland and in sea, land and air battles across the Pacific region.

Australia at war

After Japan entered the war in December 1941, Australia's economy was fully mobilised towards defence.

Australia's population of over 7 million was living with wartime controls on their daily lives, including rationing, restrictions on movement and with many directed to jobs supporting the war effort. The Australian economy was geared towards the defence of Australia. Industry turned from peacetime production to wartime requirements. Women joined the paid workforce in their thousands, and children volunteered to help too.

Australia was being defended by more than half a million full-time Navy, Army and Air Force personnel and the women's services. The part-time Volunteer Defence Corps was also preparing for the defence of the Australian mainland. As well as 10 Army divisions, the equivalent of one division each was deployed in the Northern Territory and Papua with support from the Navy and Air Force.

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Australia under attack

Between 1942 and 1943, Japanese aircraft attacked Australia's mainland. Cities and towns were bombed and shelled. Vessels of the Royal Australian Navy and merchant ships were sunk in the waters around the mainland and off the islands to the north.

On 19 February 1942, Darwin, with a population of only 2,000, was raided by 188 Japanese aircraft. Japan sought to destroy Darwin's airfields before it attacked the island of Timor. Around 250 Australians and personnel of other nationalities died.

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When the Japanese attacked Broome on 3 March 1942, 88 people were killed, including many Dutch refugees. By November 1943, more northern Australian towns and locales, including Port Hedland, Derby, Katherine, Horn Island and Townsville, had all been attacked.

In late May and early June 1942, Japanese midget submarines launched a surprise attack on Sydney Harbour. They sunk HMAS Kuttabul, and 19 Australians and 2 British sailors died.

Battles around Australia

Often described as the battle that saved Australia, the Battle of the Coral Sea is the largest naval battle ever fought off Australia's shores. It was one of the most significant naval actions of the war and the first definitive naval defeat for the Japanese.

On 4 to 8 May 1942, in the waters south-west of Solomon Islands and east of New Guinea, the Allies prevented a Japanese seaborne invasion of Port Moresby and aircraft raids against airfields in Northern Queensland. No Australians were killed, but the aircraft carrier, USS Lexington, was sunk with more than 600 US fatalities.

Australians and Allied forces fought again to prevent an attack on Port Moresby on the Kokoda Track between July and November 1942. More than 620 Australians were killed, over 1,600 were wounded, and over 4,000 were evacuated due to sickness. Their efforts halted the Japanese attempt to secure Port Moresby.

Australian service personnel also played a key role in the tough battles of Buna, Gona and Sanananda in Papua, and in New Guinea in places like Wau, the Huon Peninsula, Wewak and Bougainville. In battles between November 1942 and January 1943, more than 2,100 Australian and United States troops were killed or wounded, with many others evacuated suffering illness.

Learn more about war in the South-West Pacific area.

Remembering those who served

The war ended on 15 August 1945, but Australia will never forget its significant role in World War II and how it helped shape our nation.

Around 1 million Australians served during the war, mostly in Asia and the Pacific campaigns. Some 22,000 Australians became prisoners of war. More than 39,000 Australians died in the war, including about 8,000 who died in captivity. Many more were wounded in action – some so seriously as to end their service.

Sources

1942 'SINGAPORE, "AUSTRALIA'S DUNKIRK"', The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 February, p 5, accessed 2 Jan 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17788404.