Eighty-two years ago, Labor prime minister John Curtin broadcast an Australia Day address across the nation, and over a network of US radio stations and the BBC.

Curtin said: “Australia is the oldest continent with the youngest civilisation in the world. It is a land under the grim shadow of war. This Australia is the bulwark of civilisation south of the equator. It is the rampart of freedom against barbarism … today is our national day. The purity of our purpose, the idealism of our struggle … give to our cause not only the momentum to victory, but we feel confident, an irresistible attraction for free people everywhere.”