In March 1948, Adolf Petrus Gerardus Mulder left the Netherlands aboard the motor ship Talisse. He was part of one of the earliest organised groups of Dutch emigrants to travel to Australia after the Second World War.
The voyage took approximately six weeks and carried its passengers from Rotterdam through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean before the Talisse reached Fremantle on 11 May 1948.
For Adolf Mulder, known as Dolf, the journey marked the beginning of a new life that would eventually take him to Queensland, New South Wales and finally Toowoomba. There, Adolf and his wife, Cornelia Wilhelmina Maria Mulder–van Riek, established their family and became part of the growing Dutch-Australian community.
Their son Greg Mulder has preserved passenger records, newspaper reports, photographs and family documents that help reconstruct this early postwar migration story.
A country searching for a new future
The Netherlands emerged from the Second World War with severe housing shortages, damaged infrastructure, limited employment opportunities and considerable pressure on its agricultural sector.
Emigration was increasingly presented as one solution. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States were promoted as countries in which Dutch families might find greater opportunity.
One of the newspaper articles preserved by the Mulder family was headed “Naar een nieuwe toekomst in Australië”—“Towards a new future in Australia”. It reported that 9,000 tonnes of space aboard the Talisse had been made available for emigrants travelling to Australia.
The article explained that Australia offered opportunities for Dutch farmers, gardeners and agricultural workers. However, it also warned prospective emigrants that success would require adaptability and a willingness to work under unfamiliar conditions. Owning a farm would not necessarily be immediately possible, but people prepared to work hard could establish a future.
A second newspaper report described the group aboard the Talisse as the first 40 Dutch agricultural emigrants travelling to Australia under a new emigration scheme. The passengers were farewelling not only their country but also family, friends and the lives they had known.
The precise historical status of the voyage still requires further research, but the passengers were undoubtedly among the earliest organised groups of Dutch postwar emigrants to Australia.
Departure aboard the Talisse
The Talisse departed Rotterdam on Saturday 27 March 1948 at approximately three o’clock in the afternoon.
The ship was primarily a cargo vessel but also carried passengers. The surviving passenger records indicate that approximately 95 people were aboard, although contemporary records differ slightly on the exact number. Most embarked in Rotterdam, with destinations including Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Among them were approximately 40 Dutch farmers and agricultural workers. Some were travelling under the auspices of the Stichting Landverhuizing Nederland, the Dutch Emigration Foundation.
The travellers had to arrange documentation, baggage and provisions before departure. One passenger, W. F. van den Burg, recorded the journey in a series of reports entitled Op reis naar Australië—On the way to Australia. These reports were sent back to the Netherlands and published in a Dutch newspaper.
Van den Burg described the farewell at Rotterdam and the emotions of watching the Netherlands disappear from view. Soon after departure, the passengers began adjusting to life aboard a working cargo ship.
The men were accommodated in cabins shared by two or four people. Their baggage and supplies were loaded into the hold. The accommodation was relatively simple, but Van den Burg wrote that the food was good and the crew treated the passengers well.
The ship first sailed to Antwerp. From there, it passed through the Scheldt and continued towards the English Channel.
The North Sea and English Channel were rough, and seasickness quickly affected many passengers. Clothing and other belongings moved around the cabins as the ship rolled. At mealtimes, plates and dishes sometimes had to be prevented from sliding from the tables.
Nevertheless, the travellers gradually developed a shipboard routine and began getting to know one another.
Through the Mediterranean
After passing Gibraltar, the Talisse entered the Mediterranean. The ship called at Marseille and Genoa, giving passengers an opportunity to go ashore and encounter countries and cultures that were new to many of them.
Van den Burg’s reports contain observations about the ports, shops, buildings, food and people they encountered. In Marseille, passengers visited the city and surrounding hills. In Genoa, they toured the city and travelled by cable car into the mountains.
These accounts reflect the outlook and language of their time, but they also convey the travellers’ curiosity and excitement. For many, the voyage was their first experience outside northwestern Europe.
W. F. van den Burg recorded the passengers’ experiences during calls at Mediterranean ports.
The journey continued to Port Said, where the Talisse entered the Suez Canal. Van den Burg described the canal as approximately 85 miles long and noted how slowly ships travelled through it.
He observed military posts, convoys and the remains of wartime defences along the route. The passage was a reminder that the Second World War had ended less than three years earlier.
From the canal, the ship entered the Red Sea. The passengers encountered intense heat, while the crew also prepared for the possibility of mines left from the war.
Across the Indian Ocean
The Talisse continued to Aden and then Bombay, where passengers saw the Gateway of India and explored parts of the city.
Their descriptions show how unfamiliar India appeared to Dutch travellers in 1948. They commented on its traffic, shops, clothing, religious customs and considerable contrasts between wealth and poverty.
At Cochin, the passengers were taken ashore in small boats and visited the surrounding district. Van den Burg described palm-lined waterways, local homes, markets and the Dutch cemetery, a reminder of the long historical connections between the Netherlands and southern India.
From Cochin, some of the passengers also visited Alleppey, now known as Alappuzha.
The voyage reports recorded the passengers’ impressions of the Suez Canal, India and other places visited en route.
Arrival in Australia
The Perth Daily News reported the arrival under the headline “Pilgrim Ship Brings Dutch Migrants”. The newspaper noted that the vessel had previously been used to carry Indonesian pilgrims to and from Mecca.
The Talisse reached Fremantle on 11 May 1948.
According to the report, approximately 40 of the passengers were Dutch farmers seeking new opportunities because of the difficulties they faced in the postwar Netherlands.
Only some of the passengers disembarked at Fremantle. Others continued to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
A Dutch report published after the arrival of the Talisse described its 40 farmers as the first Dutch emigrants arriving under the new scheme. It also reported that further groups were expected to follow at the rate of approximately 50 people a month.
Talisse passenger lists
Surviving passenger records for the Talisse. Adolf Mulder’s entry should be identified before publication.
Adolf Mulder’s first years in Australia
Adolf Petrus Gerardus Mulder was born in Lisse on 10 September 1916. He came from a Dutch family whose recorded ancestry extends back to Gerben Annes Mulder, born in Friesland in 1709.
Adolf’s father, also named Adolf Mulder, died in Haarlem on 31 May 1945, shortly after the liberation of the Netherlands.
Documents retained by the family record Adolf’s movements and employment during his first years in Australia.
On 20 May 1948, shortly after the arrival of the Talisse, he began working for L. C. Dobbie at Cottonvale in Queensland. The property appears to have been involved in fruit growing. Adolf’s recorded occupations were bulb grower and gardener.
He remained there until October 1948 and then moved to Old Cleveland Road in Belmont, Brisbane. He worked as a gardener, apparently including employment with the local council.
In March 1949, Adolf moved to Kyogle in northern New South Wales. His first son, Adolf Petrus Gerardus Mulder, known as Peter, was born in Kyogle on 12 April 1949.
The family moved to Toowoomba at the beginning of 1951. Their second son, Gerardus Martinus, known as Gerard, was born there on 28 February 1951. Gregory Charles, known as Greg, followed on 26 October 1952, and their daughter, Charmaine Anna, was born on 11 September 1957.
The family’s recorded Toowoomba addresses included Hume Street, Tor Street, Alderley Street, Burstow Street and Herries Street.
Adolf Mulder’s first recorded Australian employment was with L. C. Dobbie at Cottonvale, Queensland.
Do you have pics???????
[Insert photographs of Adolf and Cornelia Mulder and their children]
Adolf and Cornelia Mulder–van Riek established their family in Australia after the Second World War.
A family story spanning two countries
Adolf remained in Toowoomba until his death on 6 April 1995.
His third son, Greg, moved to the Netherlands in 1970 and has lived there ever since. His return to the country his parents left adds another dimension to the family’s migration story.
The records preserved by Greg connect the personal history of one family with the beginning of large-scale postwar migration from the Netherlands to Australia.
Between 1947 and the early 1960s, tens of thousands of Dutch people travelled to Australia. Most arrived after Adolf Mulder and the other passengers aboard the Talisse. Their experiences would help transform Australia’s economy, communities and cultural life.
The newspaper reports written during the voyage are particularly important. They capture the experience before the outcome was known: the farewell in Rotterdam, seasickness in the English Channel, unfamiliar ports and cultures, and the mixture of excitement and uncertainty as the passengers travelled towards a country most had never seen.
For Adolf and Cornelia Mulder, Australia became their home and Toowoomba the place where they raised their family. Their story is one of the many individual histories that together form the larger story of Dutch migration to Australia.
This article is based on documents and family-history material collected and supplied by Greg Mulder. The DACC thanks Greg and the Mulder family for sharing their story.
