The Japanese first attacked the Australian mainland on 19 February 1942 when they launched a devastating air raid on Darwin in the Northern Territory.
'THE sea-walls crack. ' The invasion of Australia began on January 23, 1942, with the occupation of Rabaul and the attacks on New Guinea.
The reasons that led the British to invade Australia were simple. The prisons in Britain had become unbearably overcrowded, a situation worsened by the refusal of America to take any more convicts after the American War of Independence in 1783.
While Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, and traded with nearby islanders, the first documented landing on Australia by a European was in 1606. The Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline.
Japan's success in the early months of the Pacific War led elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy to propose invading Australia. In December 1941 the Navy proposed including an invasion of Northern Australia as one of Japan's "stage two" war objectives after South-East Asia was conquered.
Between February 1942 and November 1943, during the Pacific War of World War II, the Australian mainland, domestic airspace, offshore islands, and coastal shipping were attacked at least 111 times by aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.
In 1932, Australia Started an 'Emu War'—And Lost.
The two Japanese air raids were the first, and largest, of more than 100 air raids against Australia during 1942–1943. The event happened just four days after the Fall of Singapore, when a combined Commonwealth force surrendered to the Japanese, leading to the largest surrender in British history.
That lasted until December, at which point Meredith and his men were forced to admit defeat and retreat: the Australian army had been defeated by emus. They had used nearly all 10,000 rounds of ammunition, but at the cost of 10 rounds per emu killed.
Australia currently has provisions for conscription, only during times of war if it is authorised by the governor-general and approved within 90 days by both houses of Parliament, as outlined in Part IV of the Defence Act 1903.
From the 1830s British invasion spread rapidly through inland eastern Australia, leading to widespread conflict. War took place across the Liverpool Plains, with 16 British and up to 500 Indigenous Australians being killed between 1832 and 1838.
In 1803, British colonisation began and in 1876, Truganini died. She was the last full-blood and tribal Tasmanian Aboriginal. Within her one lifetime, a whole society and culture were removed from the face of the earth.
One reason behind this large landmass being so desolate is the shortage of rainfall. More than two-third part of the country only receives less than 500 mm annual rain. This arid, uninhabitable part of Australia lies in the middle of the continent (the Outback), away from the coasts.
Aboriginal origins
Humans are thought to have migrated to Northern Australia from Asia using primitive boats. A current theory holds that those early migrants themselves came out of Africa about 70,000 years ago, which would make Aboriginal Australians the oldest population of humans living outside Africa.
After Dutch navigators charted the northern, western and southern coasts of Australia during the 17th Century this newly found continent became known as 'New Holland'. It was the English explorer Matthew Flinders who made the suggestion of the name we use today.
Afghanistan was Australia's longest war, and the past few months have been a painful reminder of the sacrifices made by the men and women of the Australian Defence Force.
Australian troops were still fighting in Borneo when the war ended in August 1945. While Australia's major effort from 1942 onwards was directed at defeating Japan, thousands of Australians continued to serve with the RAAF in Europe and the Middle East.
Analysis of maternal genetic lineages revealed that Aboriginal populations moved into Australia around 50,000 years ago. They rapidly swept around the west and east coasts in parallel movements - meeting around the Nullarbor just west of modern-day Adelaide.
Should we remember January 26 1788 as “Invasion Day”? The colonisation of Australia was an invasion from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective.
World War II 1939 to 1945. Korean War 1950 to 1953. Malayan Emergency 1948 to 1960. Indonesian Confrontation 1963 to 1966.
Often called 'Australia's Pearl Harbour', the bombing of Darwin by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy began on 19 February 1942, killing more than 230 people and destroying ships, buildings and infrastructure.
Since World War Two Australians have taken part in many other wars and conflicts, including Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and the ongoing "War on Terror". In some conflicts we have marched into the front line, in others we have worked as peacekeepers and humanitarians.
1957: Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke said to the people of Australia: "It is my official duty, and my personal desire, to express to you and through you to the people of Australia, our heartfelt sorrow for what occurred in the war."
Britain conducted 12 nuclear test explosions in Australia between 1952 and 1957, and hundreds of minor trials of radioactive and toxic materials for bomb development up to 1963. These caused untold health problems for local Aboriginal people who were at the highest risk of radiation.
Japan wanted to destroy our country's northern defenses, so it could invade Timor and in the process send Australia a warning. Just before 10 a.m., Japanese forces launched 188 fighter planes from ships in the Timor Sea and headed for Darwin.