Gerrit Goedknegt was born in Vlaardingen on 17 January 1907, the son of Teunis Goedknegt and Gerritje Bal. In April 1930 he married Johanna de Prieélle, and the couple established their home at 18 Oranjestraat in Vlaardingen. Gerrit pursued a maritime career and became a first engineer in the Dutch Read more
Dutch dredging companies, engineers and workers have made an important contribution to Australia’s maritime and industrial development. This history encompasses the supply of Dutch-built machinery, the establishment of Australian subsidiaries, major port and reclamation projects, and the organised migration of skilled workers and their families. This portal brings together the Read more
Australia is a land of immigrants. I am an immigrant, and you, dear reader, are probably too. High levels of immigration in the years before 1891 resulted in 32% of the population listed as overseas-born in Australia’s first country-wide census in 1891. These numbers decreased substantially in the first half Read more
The Dutch tanker Ondina played an exceptional role in the Allied war effort from Australia during the Second World War. She survived an unequal battle with two heavily armed Japanese commerce raiders, returned under her own power to Fremantle and subsequently served as a floating fuel depot for Allied submarines Read more
The development of Kwinana as one of Western Australia’s principal industrial centres depended on the creation of deep-water access for large ocean-going ships. A major part of this work was entrusted to the Dutch dredging contractor Hollandsche Aanneming Maatschappij, generally known as HAM. The Kwinana undertaking was separate from the Read more
Australian Dredging and General Works was established in 1950 through the cooperation of two longstanding Dutch civil-engineering companies: Adriaan Volker’s Maatschappij tot het Uitvoeren van Openbare Werken and Van Hattum & Blankevoort. Both businesses had grown from nineteenth-century contracting enterprises into internationally active engineering organisations. Their Australian joint venture combined Read more
Australian Dredging and General Works Pty Ltd was established in 1950 to bring Dutch dredging expertise, equipment and skilled personnel to Australia. Initially based in Williamstown, Victoria, the company was an Australian subsidiary jointly associated with two established Dutch civil-engineering businesses: Adriaan Volker’s Maatschappij tot het Uitvoeren van Openbare Werken Read more
This page brings together contemporary Australian and Dutch newspaper reports relating to the Dutch dredging workers and their families who travelled to Australia in 1950. The reports document the formation of Australian Dredging and General Works, the recruitment of skilled Dutch workers, the transport of dredging vessels and equipment to Read more
Adrianus Antonius “Arie” de Bruin was born in Wateringen on 30 August 1917, the son of Cornelis Jacobus de Bruin and Agatha Jacoba van de Hut. In February 1936, the young Arie was recorded as a marine living at the Marine Barracks at Oostplein in Rotterdam. His career with the Read more
Govert Veth was one of the Dutch workers who travelled to Australia in 1950 in connection with the major post-war dredging project at Williamstown. The wider history of the project is described in From Sliedrecht to Williamstown: Dutch dredging workers in post-war Australia. Govert was born in Sliedrecht on 24 Read more