Protecting Australia's soft underbelly: defending the Illawarra 1939–1944

Looming war with Germany and Japan led Australia frantically to prepare its home defences. The industrial Illawarra region, in the south of New South Wales, represented a target of national significance that was ill prepared to resist an Axis attack. This article considers why Australia’s government was so fearful of an attack in this location, and how it responded to the threat. It links to the emerging scholarship on Australia’s home defences, shining new light onto this currently neglected part of the wartime narrative.