Over-Paid, Over-Sexed and Over-Here? U.S. Marines in Wartime Melbourne 1943

Battle-weary and in poor health following the Guadalcanal campaign, an important turning point in the Allied fight against the Japanese, the men of the First Marine Division, United States Marine Corps were shipped to Melbourne for nine months recuperation in January 1943. Greeted with warm hospitality, these 15,000 young American men found a ‘home away from home’. They formed enduring friendships with Australian families, and romantic attachments with young Australian women. Drawing on original research and incorporating oral histories, memoirs and letters, this exhibition examines the little-known story of the U.S. Marines’ ‘friendly invasion’ of Melbourne during World War II.