‘Over-Sexed, Over-Paid and Over Here’: The US Marines in Wartime Victoria’

Battle-weary and in poor health following the gruelling Guadalcanal campaign, the men of the 1st Marine Division, United States Marine Corps were shipped to Melbourne in January 1943 for nine months recuperation leave. 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 ‘friendly invasion’ of Melbourne by the U.S. Marines during World War II.