Author(s): Bob Wurth

MILITARY

The Battle for Australia stemmed the unprecedented Japanese advance from the north. The battle became a precarious fighting comeback at a time when Australia was naked to invasion. It loosened subservient ties to Britain and strengthened co-operation and dependence on the US. It was fought in Malaya, Singapore, the East Indies, Borneo, Timor, Ambon and across New Guinea at places like Rabaul, Port Moresby, Kokoda, Milne Bay and Lae. It spread southward to the skies over in northern Australia and to the seas around the Australian continent. Merged as one composite battle, it is now commemorated on the first Wednesday of each September. This also is the story of Australia's war Prime Minister John Curtin, a flawed, sensitive leader haunted by the prospect of disaster and plagued by depression and anxiety. By early 1942, Australia was at its most vulnerable. Yet Britain had far greater priorities. Remarkably, at the worst possible time in January 1942, Curtin abandoned defence headquarters in Melbourne and took a slow train home across the Nullabor. The question was: could Australia's new Prime Minister carry on his enormous responsibilities?