(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
This month marks 75 years since Prime Minister Robert Menzies answered Britain's call to join the Allies in World War Two.
It would cost Australia upwards of 40-thousand lives, but it firmly placed the young country against the tyranny of Nazi Germany.
Zara Zaher reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
"Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war."
On September the 3rd, 1939, two days after Germany attacked Poland and kicked off World War Two, Prime Minister Robert Menzies informed Australia of its duties.
They were duties met with caution, yet also a degree of enthusiasm and national solidarity.
Tens of thousands of young men rushed to enlist, expanding Australia's then nascent military.
At the age of 21, Sydney resident Eric Geddes was among those who wanted to play a part in the battles to come.
Mr Geddes had been working as a farm labourer at the time.
He went on to serve as a radio operator and gunner aboard a Lockheed Hudson light bomber as part of an RAAF squadron at Milne Bay in New Guinea.
Now 96 years old, Mr Geddes says Australia's declaration of war on Germany changed his life forever.
"Robert Menzies was very doomsday in his little report about it, I have to confess. It wasn't a surprise. It was a bit of a shock in a way that, suddenly, we realised that, 'Life as we know it now is not going to be the same very shortly.' From that moment on, most of our thoughts were, 'Where do we stand in this?'"
Mr Geddes recounts the early days of training for the war as confused and amateurish.
He says it was a learning curve not only for the young soldiers but for those leading the war effort in Australia.
Mr Geddes says the war provided the country with a chance to elevate itself on the world stage.
"You don't enter a conflict of the magnitude of World War Two without believing that you were doing something in that area to make Australia known in the world as a nation that can do things that are necessary to make the world a better place to live in."
The Australian War Memorial says, by the end of the war, almost a million Australians had enlisted, both inside and outside the country.
The official Roll of Honour shows some 39,000 Australians would die in the war.
That included soldiers serving in defence of Australia in 1942 and '43 against Japan.
At that time, Japanese forces had occupied Australian territory overseas and the Australian mainland had come under attack.
Their losses are marked in what is known as Battle for Australia Day.
World War Two historian Dr Karl James says Australia faced its gravest hour during that time of history.
"We had attacks on the Australian mainland. Australian territory was occupied. There was a fear ... a concern, at least, for a Japanese invasion of the Australian mainland."
Eric Geddes, who fought in World War Two, says he believes the battles of that war redefined Australia as a nation.
He suggests it put Australia on a surer footing in the world.
