Australian War Memorial director and former coalition opposition leader, Dr Brendan Nelson, has backed Tony Abbott's assertion the landing of the First Fleet was the defining moment in the continent's history.
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He qualified the claim by acknowledging it had had a dramatic impact on indigenous Australians, whose lives had been changed forever as a result.
Dr Nelson, who was speaking at a commemorative service at the Australian War Memorial to mark the 75th anniversary of World War II and pay tribute to the men and women who had fought in the Battle for Australia, said that conflict was the second most significant defining moment.
"The political capital of Australia is on the other side of the lake [at Parliament House], but the soul of the nation is here [at the war memorial]," he said on Wednesday.
Dr Nelson described the World War II generation, which had been born during World War I and grown up during the Depression under the shadow of the war that was to come, as "the best generation this nation has ever produced".
He said their values, willingness to make sacrifices and to look out for one another were beyond reproach.
Wednesday's ceremony was attended by defence force chief Air Marshal Mark Binskin and representatives of the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader.
Air Vice-Marshal Roxley McLennan (retired) said that while prime minister John Curtin had announced the Battle for Australia after the fall of "fortress Singapore" in February 1942, it had actually begun much earlier when Rabaul, then an Australian territorial possession, fell to the Japanese.
"The battle raged at least until the end of 1943, with attacks all around Australia," he said.
Japanese submarines attacked ships in Sydney Harbour and shelled the city, Darwin was bombed on many occasions and the battles to stop the enemy from taking Port Moresby were the stuff of legends.
Defining moments included the Battle of the Coral Sea, when the Japanese invasion fleet was stopped in its tracks; the Battle of Milne Bay, where the enemy suffered their first major defeat on land; and the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, described as one of the most successful engagements in Australian military history.
Mr Abbott was widely criticised last week for stating: "The First Fleet was the defining moment in the history of this continent. It was the moment this continent became part of the modern world."