Flying boats designed for the Netherlands East Indies The Dornier Do 24 was a three-engined flying boat designed by the German Dornier company to meet requirements established by the Royal Netherlands Navy. The Netherlands needed an aircraft capable of patrolling the enormous maritime territory of the Netherlands East Indies. The Read more
Interview with Vicki Mynott ca 2014 I was eight when we arrived in Australia in 1959. Like many immigrants, we docked in Sydney then took a train to South Brisbane, then a bus on to Wacol Migrant Camp. The Dutch There were a lot of Dutch people coming in then Read more
Bernhard Jan “Ben” Ruesink’s short life connected the Netherlands East Indies, occupied Europe, Britain, Australia, New Guinea and postwar Indonesia. After escaping from the occupied Netherlands by a difficult route through Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar, he reached Britain in January 1944. He subsequently travelled to Australia, where he trained Read more
Marinus Willem Reith’s military career followed an extraordinary path from the Netherlands East Indies through Japanese captivity in Java and Thailand to aviation training in the United States and postwar service with Dutch military aviation in Australia and New Guinea. His surviving military personnel record helps reconstruct this journey. It Read more
Willy Erkelens was a Netherlands East Indies military pilot whose career extended from prewar flying training through Japanese captivity and into the violent struggle surrounding Indonesian independence. After qualifying as a military pilot shortly before the Pacific War, he was captured following the surrender of Java. He survived more than Read more
One of the most striking aspects of Dutch–Western Australian history is the disconnect between early European discovery and later patterns of settlement. As outlined by Neil Foley in Dutch connections with Western Australia 1829–1920, the Dutch were among the first Europeans to chart large sections of the Western Australian coastline Read more
In a quiet cemetery in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, far from Australia, two young Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airmen continue to be remembered. Their graves are not tended by family members, but by a Dutch family who never knew them in life. For decades they have marked the Read more
Introduction During the Second World War, the internment complex at Cowra became one of Australia’s most significant wartime detention sites. While best known for housing Italian and Japanese prisoners of war, Cowra also played a lesser-known but historically important role in the detention of Indonesians under Dutch authority. As documented Read more
Among the Dutch airmen who formed part of No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF during the Second World War was Lieutenant J. van Loggem, a navigator whose wartime experience reflects both the operational realities of the Pacific war and the deeply personal struggles of those living in exile. From Read more
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