Abraham Dubbelman was born on 25 September 1926. His birthplace and the names of his parents have not yet been established. The surviving passenger information places Abraham aboard a KLM flight to Sydney in 1950. His name appears beside seat E4 on the hand-drawn aircraft seating plan. The flight formed Read more
Firsthand recollections of Dutch emigrants who travelled aboard the MS Sibajak from Rotterdam to Melbourne in May and June 1951. In May 1951, the Visser and Koopman families, longstanding friends from Bergen in North Holland, embarked on a six-week voyage to Australia aboard the Dutch passenger ship Sibajak. Their emigration Read more
A migration project built around a business The Australian Building Corporation (ABC) was established in 1950 by a group of Dutch migrants from Groningen who planned to create a new future in Tasmania through a cooperative building enterprise. The original organisers, known as the Groningen Seven (G7), did not intend Read more
From Winsum to Tasmania Geert de Haan was born on 8 October 1911 and worked as a building contractor in Winsum, a town approximately 15 kilometres northwest of Groningen in the Netherlands. In 1950, he joined a group of Dutch migrants planning to establish a building enterprise in Tasmania. The Read more
From Groningen to Australia Jan de Vries was born on 28 December 1910 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Before emigrating to Australia, he worked as a shopkeeper and lived at Nieuwe Ebbingestraat 44/1 in Groningen. He was one of the Groningen Seven, a group of men who developed plans for an Read more
Early life and wartime experiences Jan Thomas Steen was born on 30 August 1912 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Before emigrating to Australia, he worked as a municipal official and lived in Van Heemskerckstraat in Groningen. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Steen was involved in the Dutch Resistance. According Read more
Wartime experiences in the Netherlands Eerke Jacob van der Laan (born 31 October 1903 in Groningen) was one of the leading figures in the organised migration of Dutch families to Kingston, Tasmania, in 1950. Before the Second World War, he had been an accomplished gymnast. According to historian Kees Wierenga, Read more
From Groningen to Tasmania Egbert (Eb) Pinkster was born on 6 August 1910 in Groningen, the Netherlands. He was one of the original Groningen Seven, a group of Dutch men who organised a migration venture to Tasmania following the Second World War. The group shared connections through their Reformed Christian Read more
The story of Leendert and Neeltje Visser, their journey aboard the Sibajak, and the Dutch migrant families who established new lives in regional Victoria. In June 1951, the Visser family arrived in Melbourne aboard the Dutch passenger ship Sibajak. They had left behind their family, friends and familiar surroundings in Read more
Titia Jacomina van Riel (née Vijverberg) was born in The Hague on 21 May 1922. Her life spanned the German occupation of the Netherlands, the turbulent years of Indonesian independence and the challenges of establishing a new home and raising a family in post-war Australia. Titia studied law at Utrecht Read more