This document presents a first-hand civilian account of work at Archerfield Aerodrome in Brisbane during the Second World War and the immediate post-war years, with particular relevance to the Dutch and Netherlands East Indies presence in Australia.
Written by Jean White (née Forrester), the memoir begins with her early employment at Archerfield from the age of sixteen, working for Australian aviation firms involved in wartime transport and support operations. This broader Australian context provides an important setting for what followed and helps explain the scale and international character of aviation activity at Archerfield during the later war years.
The focus then shifts to her later work with the Netherlands East Indies Transport Service (NEITS), where she supported Dutch and NEI aviation operations after the Japanese occupation of the Netherlands East Indies. Her account offers rare insight into the Dutch airmen who escaped from the NEI and continued flying from Australia, as well as the mixed Dutch–Australian workforce and a small number of Indonesian airmen involved in post-war supply, relief, and repatriation flights.
Of particular historical value are her descriptions of the day-to-day functioning of NEITS at Archerfield: the administrative and engineering support behind flight operations, the recording of engine hours and maintenance cycles, and the high level of responsibility carried by civilian staff in sustaining these operations. Together with the accompanying photographs, this document adds an important personal dimension to the broader history of Dutch and Netherlands East Indies wartime and post-war activity based in Australia.
Photos from the Jane White collection (at the Moorooka History Group)
