Sunbirds by Mirandi Riwoe (UQ Press, 2023) is a historical fiction novel set in the early 1940s in Java. The novel opens with protagonist Anna van Hoorn fleeing the Japanese Occupation of the Indies for the safety of Australia. Near the Australian coast, Anna’s plane is caught up in the Read more…
Are you interested in your Dutch Australian family history? Did your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents migrate to Australia from the Netherlands? Or maybe you migrated to Australia from the Netherlands yourself and want to research your family history but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Read more…
This article was created with the permission of, and with information made available by, Mr. Bijvoet’s grandchildren, Dr. Shanti Wong and Mr. Mark Wardle. Cornelis Bijvoet (1890–1964) was a Dutch shipping engineer who served his country with distinction as a ship designer, a World War II naval officer, and a Read more…
Dingeman Adriaan Henry van der Sluijs, better known by his stage name Dick Diamonde, was a Dutch Australian bass player. Born in the Dutch town Hilversum, Diamonde emigrated to Australia with his parents when he was four years old. The family lived in the Villawood migrant hostel in western Sydney Read more…
New Zealand-based author Rüdiger Mack is releasing a new book about Dutch navigator Abel Tasman (1603-1659). Titled First Encounters: The Early Pacific and European Narratives of Abel Tasman’s 1642 Voyage, Mack’s 348-page book takes a new look at the beginnings of contacts between the Dutch and Indigenous peoples in Australia, Read more…
Johannes Jan Nicolaas de Voogd, known as Jan, was born in January 1932 in Japan to Dutch parents, Nicolaas Arie Johannes (Niek) de Voogd (1899-1977) and Amarintia Clasina de Vries (1903-1998). Jan’s parents married in 1930 in Kattendijke in Zeeland, the Netherlands. At the time his father Niek was an Read more…
The Wereldschool (‘world school’) was founded over 75 years ago and aims to help families that want to maintain their children’s language or education levels. In 1936 Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm founded the Institute for Individual Development (IVIO), and in 1948 the Wereldschool opened its doors. The school offers a Dutch Read more…
By Tony Thomas Of all the accounts of the earliest Dutch arrivals in Australia, the wreck of the Concordia seems the strangest. A “great vessel” of 900 tonnes with 130 on board, it departed Java bound for the Netherlands in 1708. After a storm south of the Sunda Strait, the Read more…
Petronella Wensing (1924-2023) was a Dutch migrant to Australia who passed away in 2023. Below is an obituary written by her son Ed (posted with permission). A short story about Petronella was published in The Canberra Times: The Canberra Times also published a shortened version of Ed Wensing’s obituary for Read more…