Before Israel was formally established in 1947, many Zionist groups sought many nations in which to build their homeland. Some wanted Uganda, some wanted Palestine and some, including a group called the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization, wanted to set one up in Australia's Kimberly region.
As part of the plan, the League was hoping to buy an area of 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi) of agricultural land for 75,000 Jews fleeing Europe. Under the plan, an initial 500-600 pioneers would arrive to construct basic necessities for the settlement such as homes, irrigation works, and a power station, followed by the arrival of the main body of immigrants.
A man named Steinberg tried to get support for the plan, basing his campaign on the officially declared need by Australia to populate northern Australia. He succeeded in winning the support of churches, leading newspapers, many prominent political and public figures (including Western Australian Premier John Wilcock) and a number of Jewish leaders
However, the plan was rejected on 15 July 1944 by the Australian government and Labor Prime Minister
John Curtin informed Steinberg that the Australian government would not "depart from the long-established policy in regard to alien settlement in Australia" and could not "entertain the proposal for a group settlement of the exclusive type contemplated by the Freeland League"
The plan was also extremely unpopular with the Australian public, with 47% of citizens being against it with the main concern that the Jewish immigrants might flock away from the settlement to larger cities.
But what if the Australian government allowed the League to settle Jews in the Kimberly region?