Dutch servicewomen train in wartime Brisbane
In 1944, members of the newly formed Women’s Corps of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army—the VK-KNIL—trained with American servicewomen at Yeronga Park in Brisbane. Their meeting brought together two separate military organisations: the Dutch VK-KNIL and the United States Women’s Army Corps (WAC).
This article forms part of the VK-KNIL Research Portal.
An American camp in a Brisbane park
The US Army established Camp Yeronga Park in 1942. Military police, signallers, supply personnel and members of the American WAC were among those stationed there. A public park that had previously accommodated sport and recreation thus became part of Brisbane’s extensive Allied military network.
The Queensland World War II Historic Places account of Camp Yeronga Park records that Dutch servicewomen joined the American WAC personnel for training there in July 1944.
The VK-KNIL had been formally established in Melbourne only a few months earlier, on 5 March. Training alongside the Americans gave its members contact with an established women’s military organisation. It did not, however, make the Dutch women members of the US WAC. Although they were sometimes informally called “Dutch WACs”, they remained part of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army.
When did the Dutch women arrive?
The evidence suggests that Dutch women reached Brisbane in stages, rather than as a single contingent.
The Queensland site history dates the start of joint training at Yeronga to July 1944. Joan van Embden-Butler’s surviving movement order directed her and fellow Western Australian recruits Dina Freese and Johanna Mol to arrive in Brisbane by 15 August. In Chapter 7 of Allies in a Bind, historian Jack Ford describes the Women’s KNIL Corps as moving from Melbourne to Brisbane in September. Personal stories of these women are available from the VK-KNIL Research Portal.
These dates may refer to different stages—early arrivals, further recruits and the movement of the organised unit. The surviving evidence does not yet establish precisely how long each woman trained at Yeronga or whether every member of the Brisbane contingent trained there.
A welcome at the WAC mess
One event can be dated precisely. On 26 September 1944, the American WAC personnel hosted a welcome lunch for the Dutch women in their mess at Yeronga Park. Ford records that the Dutch unit then numbered 26 women and was led by a male officer.
Photographs of the Dutch and American servicewomen together make this meeting a visible part of Brisbane’s wartime history. They also help explain why the names of the two corps have sometimes been confused. The women met and trained together, but served under different national commands.
Photographs below. American WACs welcome Dutch VK-KNIL members at Camp Yeronga, 26 September 1944. Reproduced by Australia @ War; original photographer and collection not yet identified.
Yeronga and Camp Columbia
Yeronga Park was a training location, while Camp Columbia at Wacol was another important centre of VK-KNIL activity in Brisbane. Some women who trained at Yeronga subsequently lived and worked at Camp Columbia. The two sites should not be treated as one camp.
The existing DACC photo collection includes images from both locations. In this revised article, the Yeronga photographs should remain beside the account of the joint training and welcome lunch. Photographs of Camp Columbia offices, messes, social activities and civilian employees would sit more naturally in the separate article about women at Camp Columbia.
Remembering their presence
The American military presence at Yeronga Park is commemorated locally, including the service of the US Women’s Army Corps. The Dutch women’s period of training is less visible at the site.
Their story is nevertheless distinctive. For a brief period in 1944, a new Dutch women’s corps and its more experienced American counterpart met in a Brisbane public park converted into an Allied military camp. The welcome lunch, movement records and surviving photographs allow us to recover that moment without confusing the two organisations or overstating what is known about the training itself.
Sources and further reading
- Jack Ford, Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War, Chapter 7, on the Women’s KNIL Corps in Brisbane and the welcome lunch of 26 September 1944.
- Queensland Government, Camp Yeronga Park (US).
- Joan van Embden-Butler’s movement order and recollections, reproduced in the Camp Columbia Heritage Association collection.
This article is part of the DACC VK-KNIL Research Portal, which brings together the history and personal stories of Dutch women in military service during and after the Second World War.
Photo gallery
The Women’s KNIL Corps was established in Melbourne on 5 March 1944. It provided drivers, typists, and nurses or military administrative positions to relieve Dutch or Indonesian males for combat duty. Source Nentherland Ministery of Defence.
They trained at Yeronga but most worked at Camp Columbia, Wacol. As pictured below. Source Jack Ford private collection.
The women also volunteered to sew uniforms and arranged and assisted in Red Cross fundraising.
The Indonesian Night in Brisbane Town Hall in 1945 was organised to raise funds for the NEI and Australian Red Cross. The evening was supported by the Australian ladies from Camp Columbia both Dutch WAC and administrative staff.
The following is a recollection from Jean van Schilfgaarde, secretary at Camp Columbia.
“At the city hall in Brisbane on Wednesday the 18th of July 1945 the concert took place before an audience of 2000 and 300 pounds raised for the Red Cross. The Australian girls performed the lighted candle dance with great distinction with a native of Sumatra as the sole dancer. It was a cultural event the like of which had not been seen before in Australia“.
The two foto’s below are from photo the collection Ms Joan McConaghy, secretary at Camp Columbia. The library and mess pictures above are also from her collection.
Paul Budde, January 2023
