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 Townsville was strategically chosen as the location of a large U.S. Air Force base supporting General MacArthur’s defence of Australia against the advancing Japanese forces, swelling the population to over 65,000. More  The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea, was the first of the Pacific War’s six fights between opposing aircraft carrier forces. Though the Japanese could rightly claim a tactical victory on “points”, it was an operational and strategic defeat for them, the first major check on the great offensive they had begun five months earlier at Pearl Harbor. The diversion of Japanese resources represented by the Coral Sea battle would also have immense consequences a month later, at the Battle of Midway. More  Soon after the end of World War II, the Federal President of the Australian American Association, Mr.E.K White (later Sir Ernest.), proposed that a Memorial be erected to express the thanks of the Australian people to the United States of America fir its contribution to the defence of Australia. The late 3.B Chifley, then Prime Minister of Australia, supported the proposal. More   |
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