Get over it, we weren't at the heart of World War II

[Mike Abberton]

I don't think the original idea was that the Australians did not contribute to the war effort. They certainly did in several theaters, and especially in the Pacific.

The point was that Australia itself was never seriously at risk from invasion of the mainland by the Japanese, any more than the Japanese seriously considered invading Hawaii. They might have talked about it. They might even have come up with a basic operational plan, but there is no evidence that it was ever seriously considered.

This is particularly true since the Imperial Japanese Army, who would have needed to supply the bulk of the troops for an Australian campaign, was completely uninterested in the South Pacific until it was obvious that the Allies were concentrating their effort there as a means to get back to the Phillipines. By the time the IJA started to take the theater seriously in late 42/early 43, it was way too late and the situations in New Guinea and the Solomons were swiftly heading down hill for the Japanese.