Wednesday 2nd of August
12:00 am - 11:59 pm
The Battle for Australia is a contested historiographical term used to describe a series of battles near Australia during the Pacific War of the Second World War.
These battles were fought between Allied and Japanese forces in 1942–1943, with the Allies seeking to stop a Japanese advance through the islands to the north of
Australia which initially aimed to cut the shipping lines between the country and the United States and later sought to buttress Japan’s defensive perimeter. The Japanese
abandoned their offensive across the South Pacific to Fiji and Samoa as a result of carrier losses suffered in the Battle of Midway and a later attempt to capture the
strategic town of Port Moresby was defeated during the Battle of Milne Bay and Kokoda Track campaign. Since 2008 these events have been commemorated by Battle
for Australia Day, which falls on the first Wednesday in September.