Hendrik and Johannis Boele grew up in a Sliedrecht family whose life was closely connected with shipping and the river. Their father, Klaas Boele, was a skipper who operated his own vessel, the Cornelia, built at the Nederlof shipyard in 1904. The brothers therefore grew up in a world in which ships, water and travel formed part of everyday life.
Hendrik was born in Sliedrecht on 21 November 1912 and Johannis on 1 February 1920. Both were born at 8 Wilhelminastraat. On 22 June 1950, they departed Schiphol together on the KLM flight carrying the first group associated with the Australian dredging project. The passenger plan records the brothers sitting beside one another in seats C1 and C2. They arrived in Melbourne on 27 June.
Their stay in Australia was not permanent. Both eventually returned to Sliedrecht. Hendrik remained unmarried and died there in 1986. Johannis married Mercede Esposito, creating an Italian connection within the Sliedrecht family, and died in his birthplace in 2004.
Their journey represents a distinctive chapter in the history of the Boele family: two sons of a Sliedrecht skipper travelling together from the banks of the Merwede to post-war Australia before ultimately returning to their hometown.
The following account is based on genealogical and family-history research undertaken in Sliedrecht by Fred Stuy, which has helped identify the two Boele brothers recorded on the surviving KLM passenger list.
See also:
From Sliedrecht to Williamstown: Dutch dredging workers and their families in post-war Australia
