Why Australia’s Partnership with the Netherlands Government-in-Exile and the Netherlands East Indies Still Matters
By Paul Budde
“What does it actually take to establish a government-in-exile?”
It is a deceptively simple question.
Over the past several years I have had the privilege of working with historians, archaeologists, archivists and volunteers in both Australia and the Netherlands to preserve the shared heritage between our two countries. What began as research into Camp Columbia in Brisbane gradually revealed a much larger story. Time and again I encountered references to Dutch government departments, military headquarters, intelligence organisations and diplomatic missions operating from Australia during the Second World War.
The obvious question became: what does it actually take to establish a government-in-exile?
Most people understand the term in broad historical terms. Governments-in-exile are mentioned in books about the Second World War, usually in passing, before attention quickly returns to battles, political leaders and military campaigns. Yet behind those few words lies one of the most extraordinary administrative, diplomatic and human achievements of the twentieth century.
When the Netherlands fell to Nazi Germany in May 1940, Queen Wilhelmina and her government escaped to London. From there they continued as the internationally recognised government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. At almost the same time, the Netherlands East Indies—the colony that today forms Indonesia—became one of the most strategically important territories in the Pacific because of its vast oil resources, rubber, tin and other critical raw materials.
Then, in early 1942, the Japanese advance transformed the entire strategic landscape. Within a matter of months Singapore had fallen, the Netherlands East Indies had been conquered and northern Australia suddenly found itself on the front line of the Pacific War.
For both Australia and the Dutch, everything changed.
For the Netherlands, the loss of both the European homeland and its Asian colony meant that large parts of the machinery of government had to be recreated elsewhere. Ministries had to continue functioning. Diplomatic representation had to be maintained. Military commands had to be reorganised. Intelligence networks, financial systems, shipping administration, education, legal authority and communications all had to continue despite the occupation of the territories they served.
Australia suddenly found itself hosting an unprecedented foreign governmental presence.
This was far more than providing office space to a friendly ally.
Australian governments, military headquarters and civil servants found themselves dealing daily with the Netherlands Government-in-Exile, the Netherlands East Indies administration, Dutch military forces, diplomats, shipping officials, intelligence organisations and technical specialists. Both countries were totally unprepared for this emerging and dynamic situation. Questions that had never before arisen suddenly demanded practical solutions. Which laws applied? Who exercised authority over Dutch military personnel? How should shipping be allocated? How would intelligence be shared? How could thousands of Dutch civilians and military personnel continue operating from Australian soil while respecting Australian sovereignty?
None of this had been planned.
There was no handbook explaining how two governments should jointly manage such an arrangement in the middle of a global war.
Yet somehow they made it work.
That achievement deserves far greater recognition than it has received.
A forgotten chapter in Australian history
For many Australians, the Second World War in the Pacific is remembered through the fall of Singapore, the Kokoda Track, Darwin, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the alliance with the United States.
Few realise that Australia also became the principal base for one of its closest wartime allies.
Between 1942 and 1945 Australia hosted what was, in effect, the operational heart of the Netherlands East Indies administration. From offices in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane, Dutch officials rebuilt large sections of government while simultaneously supporting Allied military operations from across the country throughout the South West Pacific.
Australian and Dutch officials worked together on matters ranging from military logistics and intelligence to shipping, civil administration, industrial production and post-war planning.
It was a partnership forged not through long preparation but through necessity.
Like every alliance, it experienced disagreements, misunderstandings and political tensions. Australia increasingly viewed the future of its northern approaches as central to its own security and sought a voice in shaping the future of the Netherlands East Indies. The Dutch authorities, however, maintained that sovereignty over the territory rested solely with the Kingdom of the Netherlands. At the same time, they faced the immense challenge of rebuilding an effective government and military in exile, despite severe shortages of personnel, equipment and supplies, in preparation for the liberation of the Netherlands East Indies. Australia, too, was struggling to expand its own armed forces and wartime industries while facing critical shortages of men and matériel. Both countries depended heavily on the United States for military equipment and supplies, creating further tensions as they competed for limited resources while pursuing their shared objective of defeating Japan.
These differences were real.
But they should not obscure the remarkable level of cooperation achieved under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
Indeed, the most remarkable aspect of this history is not that disagreements occurred.
It is that both governments continued working together despite them.
Jack Ford’s remarkable contribution
For many years much of this history remained scattered across archives in Australia, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
One of the first historians to reconstruct this complex relationship in depth was Dr Jack Ford.
His doctoral thesis, later published as Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War, remains one of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken of the wartime relationship between Australia and the Dutch authorities.
Ford’s achievement was not simply to describe events.
He reconstructed the countless interactions that made the alliance function.
Cabinet discussions.
Diplomatic correspondence.
Military memoranda.
Personal relationships.
Disagreements over shipping, supplies, intelligence, diplomacy and post-war policy.
His research demonstrated that history is not shaped solely by famous political leaders or battlefield commanders.
It is equally shaped by diplomats negotiating difficult compromises, civil servants solving practical problems, military planners coordinating multinational operations and administrators ensuring that governments continue functioning under the most difficult imaginable circumstances.
Those human interactions form the heart of this story.
Why revisit this history now?
The republication of Jack Ford’s work comes at a time when interest in this shared history is growing once again.
In recent years the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre (DACC), together with many Australian and Dutch partners, has undertaken a range of initiatives aimed at documenting, preserving and sharing this remarkable chapter of history.
Research into Camp Columbia in Brisbane has revealed the extraordinary concentration of Allied military organisations that operated there during the war.
Archaeological investigations continue to uncover physical evidence of that history.
The 2025 symposium Brisbane – Allied Capital of Australia during WWII, supported by the Australian and Netherlands Governments and Brisbane City Council led to a partnership with the University of Queensland and the National Trust of Australia (Queensland), demonstrated that this story resonates far beyond academic circles.
The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed – RCE) has encouraged and supported the development of this collaborative heritage programme, recognising the international significance of the Dutch wartime presence in Australia. Together with Australian partners, archives, museums and universities, this work has also led to the early stages of republishing Dr Jack Ford’s pioneering study, Allies in a Bind, with the aim of making this important scholarship accessible to a new generation of readers.
Far from being a closed chapter, the history of Dutch–Australian wartime cooperation continues to evolve.
More than military history
Although military operations provide the backdrop to this story, this series is about something broader.
It is about institutions under pressure.
About diplomacy conducted during crisis.
About trust between allies.
About balancing national interests while pursuing common objectives.
About maintaining democratic government after losing national territory.
It is also about individuals.
On the Dutch side, Queen Wilhelmina, Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, Lieutenant-Governor-General Hubertus van Mook and Charles van der Plas shaped the Kingdom’s political, diplomatic and military response to occupation and exile. In Australia, Prime Minister John Curtin, External Affairs Minister Dr H. V. Evatt and Commander-in-Chief General Sir Thomas Blamey determined Australia’s wartime policies and its cooperation with the Dutch. Both governments, however, operated within the wider Allied command structure. Following the establishment of the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) in 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander, directed Allied military operations throughout the region. As the dominant Allied power in the Pacific, the United States also became the principal source of strategic direction, military equipment and logistical support, requiring both Australia and the Netherlands to align their plans with broader Allied priorities.
The decisions taken by these national leaders, together with those made within the Allied command structure, shaped not only the conduct of the war in the South West Pacific but also the political transformation of Southeast Asia after 1945.
A changing world
The wartime partnership between Australia and the Netherlands developed during a period when the international order itself was changing.
Ideas about colonialism, self-determination and international cooperation were evolving rapidly.
Australia’s own foreign policy became increasingly independent.
The Atlantic Charter, changing Allied strategy and growing nationalist movements throughout Asia all influenced discussions about the future of the Netherlands East Indies.
Understanding these broader developments helps explain why wartime cooperation was sometimes accompanied by political disagreement.
The alliance remained strong.
The political future of the region was becoming far more complex.
The purpose of this series
This series does builds on Jack Ford’s scholarship. He painstakingly reconstructed the archival record.
Our objective is to place that research within a broader historical narrative while integrating more recent scholarship and heritage research undertaken over the past three decades.
Wherever possible, the articles that follow are grounded in contemporary documents, correspondence, meetings and official records. They seek to illustrate history through the decisions people made, the problems they faced and the relationships they built rather than simply presenting a chronological account of events.
History is ultimately about people.
This story is no exception.
Looking back—and looking forward
Nor did the story end in August 1945.
Dutch military units continued to operate from bases across Australia during the difficult years that followed. The last Dutch military aircraft departed Archerfield in September 1947, bringing to a close more than five years of continuous Dutch military operations from Australian soil.
By then, refugees from the former Netherlands East Indies had begun arriving in Australia, soon followed by Dutch migrants rebuilding their lives here. Parts of Camp Columbia were transformed into a migrant reception centre, providing an early link between Australia’s wartime alliance with the Dutch and the post-war migration programme that helped shape today’s Dutch-Australian community.
The wartime partnership between Australia and the Netherlands emerged from one of the darkest periods in modern history.
It was born of necessity rather than design.
It required extraordinary levels of trust between governments, military organisations and countless individuals facing unprecedented circumstances.
Although its immediate purpose ended with the Second World War, its legacy remains visible today in the close relationship between Australia and the Netherlands, in the Dutch-Australian community, in shared military history, and in the many cultural, academic and heritage initiatives that continue to strengthen connections between our two countries.
Much of that history has faded from public memory.
It deserves to be rediscovered.
The chapters that follow tell the story of how Australia, the Netherlands Government-in-Exile and the Netherlands East Indies administration, confronted by events none had anticipated, built one of the most remarkable yet least recognised Allied partnerships of the Second World War—and how that partnership helped lay the foundations for a lasting Dutch-Australian relationship that continues to this day.
Sources
Ford, J. (1997). Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War. PhD Thesis, The University of Queensland.
Additional archival and institutional sources used throughout this series include the National Archives of Australia, the National Archives of the Netherlands, the Dutch Institute for Military History (NIMH), the Huygens Institute, the Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE), the University of Queensland, many documents and articles from these sources are in the (online) collections of the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre.
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London, Brisbane and Canberra- The Competing Centres of Power within the Dutch Wartime Alliance
