General MacArthur was accompanied to Australia by key staff and his family. They left the besieged fortress of Corregidor in the Philippines after dusk on 11 March 1942 in torpedo boats making their way to Mindanao Island to be flown out in American bombers. Early on 17 March they touched down at Batchelor airfield, near Darwin. Most of the party flew south but MacArthur's wife, Jean, refused to fly further. A train from Alice Springs was arranged. On 20 March they stopped at Terowie, 220 kilometres north of Adelaide, where MacArthur addressed to locals and reporters and famously declared in relation to the Philippines: 'I shall return'. They travelled on to Adelaide and then Melbourne. Mrs MacArthur, four-year-old son Arthur and his Chinese amah (nanny) Au Cheu are shown on arrival at Spencer Street Station on 22 March 1942.

MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander of Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area. As such, he exercised overall control of American, Australian, Dutch and other Allied forces in this theatre of war. Many Australians feared the country was under threat of invasion and saw MacArthur as a saviour. His presence virtually guaranteed American forces and supplies being sent to bolster Australia's defences and help push back the enemy. One of MacArthur's first official meetings to discuss defence matters was with the Advisory War Council, comprising senior Australian politicians and defence chiefs, in Canberra on 26 March 1942. He is seated alongside Prime Minister John Curtin.

During his visit to Canberra on 26 March 1942, MacArthur was offered the rare honour of an invitation to Parliament House to be seated in the House of Representatives while Parliament was in session. He stayed for 55 minutes listening to speeches welcoming him to Australia and extolling his virtues as a military commander. MacArthur would make numerous visits to Canberra over the following years of the war.

General MacArthur wanted to be seen to be honouring his allies and hosts. A veteran of World War I himself, he paid his respects to the dead of both world wars during a ceremony inside the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, on 27 March 1942. Wreaths were laid on the Stone of Remembrance by Australian and American officers and officials. The note on the wreath laid by MacArthur read: 'To the Anzac Forces - From their American Comrades-in-Arms-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'.

MacArthur's presence was also used to effect by the Australian Government in boosting the war effort on the home front. On 19 June 1942 MacArthur and Prime Minister Curtin publicly invested in a Liberty Loan. The stage-managed event attracted much attention and the pair had to make their way through a crowd of hundreds outside the Commonwealth Bank in the heart of Melbourne. Newspapers covered the signing of the paperwork and cheques and encouraged Australians to follow MacArthur's example. MacArthur invested one thousand pounds. His cheque for $3248.40 in United States dollars was photographed by The Herald (Melbourne) newspaper.

General MacArthur and Australia's senior general, General Thomas Blamey (right), shown visiting the start of the Kokoda Track in October 1942, had a frosty relationship. Blamey believed he should command Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area because in 1942 most forces in the theatre were Australian. But the Government supported MacArthur's appointment as Supreme Commander. This was shrewd because MacArthur had the political clout to secure more troops, equipment and supplies from the United States. Blamey was made the subordinate Commander of Allied Land Forces but in 1943 MacArthur effectively removed most of the American forces from Blamey's control.

MacArthur remained popular with the Australian public during and after the war years. Although many Australian troops and some politicians expressed loathing for MacArthur, particularly after press releases from his headquarters appeared to underplay the Australian contribution to the New Guinea campaign, the general nevertheless remained a dominant figure in wartime Australia. Some of his detractors went so far as to declare that MacArthur was acting godlike! In Melbourne, Myer Emporium staff hang a giant portrait of MacArthur outside the city store on 3 July 1943 in preparation for the celebration of American Independence Day.

Two years after arriving in Australia, General MacArthur received an honorary knighthood in gratitude for his successful command of Allied forces in the South-West Pacific Area. The Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency Lord Gowrie VC, invests MacArthur with the insignia of the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (Military Division, First Class), or GCB, on the porch of Government House, Yarralumla, Canberra on 18 March 1944. The knighthood was honorary rather than actual because only a British Commonwealth citizen could be appointed a knight or dame.

The mascot of a cookhouse of the 9th Australian Division is scrubbed up in preparation for an official visit and inspection of the division by General MacArthur in early 1943. The 9th Division, not long returned from the Middle East, was based on the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland and was soon to go to New Guinea. The Australian commanders and troops were keen to present well and leave the general with the firm impression they could be relied on to fight.

Mrs Jean MacArthur, wife of General MacArthur, launches the Australian destroyer HMAS Bataan on 15 January 1944. She is making a speech after the traditional smashing of a bottle of champagne against the hull. She also presented a signed photograph of her husband to hang in the destroyer. The Bataan was formally commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in May 1945, its name in honour of General Macarthur (he had escaped from Bataan in The Philippines in early 1942), but it was too late to participate in active operations during the war. However in June 1950 it became part of the United Nations force defending South Korea after the Korean War broke out. MacArthur commanded that force.

MacArthur often travelled to forward areas to observe operations. On this occasion he was on the deck of the American light cruiser USS Cleveland (standing behind the ladder) watching the naval and air bombardment of Japanese defences at Balikpapan, Borneo ahead of the 7th Australian Division landing there on 1 July 1945. He later went ashore to inspect progress on the beachhead. One soldier was heard to quip, 'Well, it must be safe now!'

General MacArthur officiated at the formal surrender ceremony in Tokyo harbour, Japan which brought World War II officially to an end. He was the principal Allied signatory to the surrender document which was also signed by representatives of Japan and the Allied nations on board the United States Navy battleship USS Missouri. MacArthur watches as General Thomas Blamey signs the surrender document on behalf of Australia.