In 1950, a group of approximately 100 Dutch workers travelled from the Netherlands to Australia under two-year contracts to undertake dredging and maritime construction work in and around Port Phillip Bay.
Many came from Sliedrecht, a town in South Holland with a long international reputation as a centre of the Dutch dredging industry. They brought to Australia specialist skills that were particularly valuable during the country’s rapid post-war industrial and infrastructure development.
What began as a temporary overseas assignment became something more permanent. Some of the men returned to the Netherlands when their contracts ended, but others remained, married and established families in Australia. A notable Dutch community developed in and around Williamstown, then one of Melbourne’s principal maritime and shipbuilding centres.
An Australian company with Dutch expertise
The workers were employed by Australian Dredging and General Works Pty Ltd, a recently established company closely connected with Dutch dredging expertise and equipment.
A report published in the Williamstown Advertiser on 5 May 1950 (see below) announced that Williamstown would soon have its own small Dutch community. The new arrivals were to work on the construction of a dock near the entrance to the Yarra River, on the Port Melbourne side of the river.
The company’s principals, Marinus Stigter and Hans Ferwerda, had attended a meeting of Williamstown Council and received an official welcome from the city.
Stigter expressed the hope that the newcomers would eventually be welcomed as Australian citizens with the same cordiality that the company’s representatives had experienced as Dutch visitors.
The project involved much more than recruiting labour. The company was also bringing a substantial collection of Dutch dredging machinery to Australia. According to the newspaper, 13 dredges and other pieces of equipment were being towed from the Netherlands. By May 1950 they had already been at sea for approximately two months and were expected to reach Williamstown the following month.
The arrival of the workers and equipment represented a significant transfer of Dutch maritime knowledge and technology to post-war Australia.
Creating a Dutch community in Williamstown
Australian Dredging and General Works also took steps to provide accommodation for its Dutch employees.
The company purchased a two-storey bluestone building in Lyons Street, Williamstown, and planned to construct another residence beside it for the newly arrived workers.
It also proposed subdividing an area known locally as Pollock’s Paddock into 17 residential allotments. The land faced both The Strand and Douglas Parade and lay between Dowman and Peel streets.
Plans presented to Williamstown Council included the construction of a new private street. In recognition of the emerging community, the council invited the company to suggest a Dutch name for it.
These arrangements are especially interesting because they demonstrate that the project was not simply an isolated employment contract. Before the main body of workers had arrived, plans were already being made for housing and the development of a recognisable Dutch community within Williamstown.
Further research may establish how many of the proposed houses were constructed, who occupied them and whether the private street received the suggested Dutch name.
Two KLM flights from the Netherlands
Journalist and author Glenda Korporaal has written that the workers travelled to Australia on two KLM flights. The first departed Schiphol on 22 June 1950 and the second on 22 July.
The use of aircraft was itself noteworthy. Most Dutch migrants travelling to Australia during the early post-war years made the journey by sea. Regular post-war KLM services to Australia did not resume until December 1951, suggesting that these may have been specially arranged flights associated with the dredging project.
A seating plan was prepared for each flight, recording the name and allocated seat of every passenger. Copies were preserved by one of the workers, Dick van Teulingen.
Van Teulingen later marked off the names as members of the group died. When he died in Victoria in July 2026 at the age of 101, he was reportedly the last surviving member of the two groups.
If the two seating plans can be located and preserved, they could provide the foundation for reconstructing the history of the entire group. They may make it possible to identify the workers, trace their places of origin and occupations, and determine which men returned to the Netherlands and which established families in Australia.
From temporary workers to Australian families
The experiences of Dick van Teulingen and Glenda Korporaal’s father illustrate how the project contributed to permanent Dutch settlement in Australia.
Both men came from Sliedrecht. Like many young Dutch people of their generation, they had lived through five years of German occupation and the economic disruption that followed the war. The opportunity to work in Australia offered employment, adventure and an escape from the difficult conditions of the post-war Netherlands.
They initially came for two years, but both married nurses from Williamstown Hospital and decided to make Australia their home.
Their experiences were probably shared by a number of their colleagues. Some of the Dutch workers remained in the Williamstown area, where maritime industries offered continuing employment and where a small network of Dutch friends and families had already been established.
This pattern is an important part of the wider Dutch-Australian migration story. Migration did not always begin with a family deciding collectively to settle permanently in Australia. In this case, young skilled workers came through an employer-sponsored industrial project. Personal relationships, employment opportunities and their experience of Australian life then influenced the decision to remain.
Dutch dredging and Australia’s post-war development
Australian Dredging and General Works continued operating after the arrival of the Sliedrecht workers and secured major dredging contracts elsewhere in Australia. Dutch equipment and expertise became involved in port construction and industrial development projects, including work associated with the expansion of Kwinana in Western Australia.
The company also proved to be much more than a temporary enterprise established for a single project. By the 1980s, Australian Dredging and General Works formed part of the Netherlands-based Volker Stevin Group and was closely connected with New Zealand Dredging and General Works.
Heini Evers, who worked for Volker Stevin for more than 30 years, served as managing director of both companies from 1982 until 1992. This later corporate history demonstrates the enduring presence of Dutch dredging expertise in Australia, although further research is needed to establish when Australian Dredging and General Works became part of Volker Stevin and how its ownership developed from its establishment in 1950.
The Williamstown project therefore forms part of a much larger history of Dutch engineering expertise in Australia. Dutch dredging knowledge helped create and maintain shipping channels, docks, harbours and industrial port facilities at a time when Australia was expanding its international trade and developing new industries.
The story also shows how economic and technological history became migration history. The dredges and equipment brought Dutch engineering capability to Australia, while the people who operated them created families and communities that became part of Australian society.
A migrant daughter’s reflection
Glenda Korporaal, the daughter of one of the Sliedrecht workers, has written a personal reflection about her father, Dick van Teulingen and her experience of growing up as the daughter of a Dutch migrant.
She describes the contrasting wartime experiences of the two men, their decision to come to Australia and the awareness among their Australian-born children that their fathers spoke differently, ate different food and carried memories that distinguished them from many Australian parents.
Her article, “Reflections of a migrant’s daughter”, was published by Pearls and Irritations on 6 September 2026.
It provides a moving introduction to the personal stories behind the dredging project. Subject to the availability of family material, the DACC hopes eventually to publish more detailed accounts of the Korporaal and Van Teulingen families and, if possible, other families descended from the Dutch workers who arrived in 1950.
An important history still to be recovered
Much remains to be discovered about this unusual group migration.
The surviving KLM seating plans, company employment records, Dutch emigration cards, Williamstown Council minutes, newspaper reports and family photographs may together allow the story to be reconstructed in greater detail.
The Nationaal Baggermuseum in Sliedrecht may also hold information about the company, the dredging fleet and the workers recruited for Australia. The Williamstown Historical Society and the municipal archives of the City of Hobsons Bay may have further records relating to the company’s accommodation, housing development and maritime activities.
The death of Dick van Teulingen closes the chapter represented by those who made the journey themselves. However, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren remain part of the Dutch-Australian community.
Recovering their stories would preserve not only the history of approximately 100 Dutch workers, but also an important example of how Dutch skills, technology and migration contributed to the development of post-war Australia.
Sources and further research
- Williamstown Advertiser, “Dutch Community in Williamstown”, 5 May 1950, p. 1. Trove
- Glenda Korporaal, “Reflections of a migrant’s daughter”, Pearls and Irritations, 6 September 2026. Read the article
- Nationaal Archief, “Nederlandse emigranten in Australië, 1946–1991”. Research guide and emigration-card index
- Nationaal Baggermuseum, Sliedrecht. Museum website
- Heini Evers and Roy Weaver, “Privatisation of Ports in New Zealand,” Terra et Aqua, No. 60, September 1995, pp. 11–17, particularly p. 11.
The DACC welcomes contact from relatives of the workers who travelled to Australia on the KLM flights of 22 June and 22 July 1950, or from anyone possessing photographs, documents or recollections relating to Australian Dredging and General Works and the Dutch community in Williamstown.
