On Our Doorstep: When Australia Faced the Threat of Invasion by the Japanese

'I can't understand the mentality of the Australian people,' said John Curtin. 'One day they are in a panic about the war and the next they want more race meetings.'

Australia has a history of believing itself to be under threat of invasion. In 1942 that threat, in the form of invasion and occupation by the Japanese, seemed more imminent than the earlier fears. On Our Doorstep is the story of how Australia and Australians - the government, the military and the people - prepared to face this calamity, and the events that persuaded them of its probability. The Japanese had steamrolled through Malaya and Singapore, and bombed Darwin with the same ferocity they had dealt Pearl Harbor. Nothing could stop them. Their next step was inevitable, surely.

Meanwhile, wartime leader John Curtin was battling with Winston Churchill to get Australian troops back to defend their homeland, and positioning to ensure America's help to fend off the approaching enemy. At home, people pitched in as best they could and in any way to frustrate the invader, all playing their part, torn between 'she'll be right' and near panic. Amid plans and rumoured plans to abandon the north to the enemy and deny Australia resources through scorched earth, particular attention was paid to northern Australia and the islands beyond.

In the end, Japan found it had stretched itself beyond the reliability of its supply line, but had it ever intended to invade Australia?