While I live in the USA now, my home town is Brisbane, Australia, and was at the core of important decisions during WW2.
Initially, after the USA entered the war, US General Douglas MacArthur was based in the Phillipnes. USA President Rooseveldt, a good friend to Doug, wanted to preserve an occupational force in a "safe" precinct. When he retreated MacArthur moved to the city of Brisbane and set up the US Theatre Headquarters, which operated from the heart of the city at the corner of Queen and Edward Street. The new building was appropiately called MacArthur Chambers, and still exists today. Brisbane residents can still recall walking by and seeing see MacArthur in the basement through the iron grills, which when I was last in brisbane still existed.
Now, more importantly, here's what
DIDN'T happen in Brisbane.
The impending arrival of the Japanese scared the Australian people. Darwin was bombed, then a week later Townsville, and then the unthinkable, 2 midget submarines snuk into Sydney harbour and reeked havoc. The Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies sought advise from both MacArthur and Rooseveldt on a strategy, and The Brisbane Line was devised.
The Brisbane Line was essentially a retreat line which stretched from just north of Brisbane at a place called Wildhorse Mountain (near Moby Vic's on the Bruce Highway) to a location (that I cannot recall) west of Adelaide. This was ensure the protection of the nations capital and chief economic centres of Sydney and Melbourne. It was planned that in the event of invasion, Australian troops were retreat, and the remainder of the country handed over to the Japanese.
The implications of this retreat line, with hindsight, is unimagineable. The Australian government would have handed over the rich mineral and farming areas of the country, along with the strategic northern port of Darwin. Had the Japanese arrived, their food/land expansion process would be complete, and undoubtable, would have changed the look of the Pacific basin.