WW2: The home front
Americans
One of the most severe tests of the Australian public in war was the presence of large numbers of United States troops in transit through Australia to various war fronts. These troops had three major impacts on Australian life.
One was to force the opening up of major cities to new cultural ideas - in particular, to bring entertainment to what were very closed-down cities at weekends. The Australian tradition was for cities to virtually close down on weekends. The presence of thousands of troops in many capital cities led city leaders to change that policy, an…