The bombing of Broome, Wyndham and Darwin in the early months of 1942 formed the first physical contact of war within Australia according to Prime Minister John Curtin.

Even more poignant, the majority of casualties included widows and orphans of the Java Sea Battle, evacuees from the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) to Australia on that fateful March morning as Broome was bombed.

‘[T]he rat-tat-tat of their machine guns was followed by a spectacular display of fireworks [as the Japanese] used indendiary bullets…In a few minutes the whole of the harbour was covered by a pall of thick, black smoke,’ recalled a Broome resident in a ‘West Australian’ newspaper article on 10 March 1942.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the bombing, and the new exhibition, ‘Broome 1942′, focuses on the relationship between the Netherlands East Indies and the Curtin government following the entry of Japan into World War Two. On display from the JCPML collection will be secret cablegrams, minutes and letters recording negotiations between the two countries, as well as personal items donated from the Dutch community in Perth.

The exhibition will be launched on 28 February 2012 and will be on public display until April in the Robertson Library, Curtin University.