Successive Australian governments seem to hold a different view. Australians have joined US wars in Vietnam(!), Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea that Australia can do without a military alliance with the US and live in splendid isolation is a romantic one, but not very realistic.

And China and Japan are not the only populous countries to the north of Australia: Indonesia has 10X the population, and is far closer. http://i.imgur.com/zQg1M2A.png