In Grantlee Kieza’s compelling book, Sister Viv, the harrowing experiences of Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel during World War II are vividly recounted. The narrative highlights the profound connections between Australian and Dutch wartime histories, particularly through the events on Bangka Island in the Netherlands East Indies (NEI), now Indonesia. Read more
Republished with permission. Original article was published in the Conversation on January 3, 2025 Author:Alexandra LudewigProfessor and Head of the School of Humanities, The University of Western Australia Disclosure statementAlexandra Ludewig does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit Read more
Read his full Wikipedia article here. Alexander Jan Reitsma (1919-1982) was a distinguished Dutch economist whose career bridged three continents, making significant contributions to the fields of international economics and trade policy. Born in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, he began his academic journey at the Netherlands University for Economics, earning advanced Read more
Clogs and Dutch are ideas that belong together, largely due to the success of marketing by the Dutch Tourism industry. A more or less unique product and a more or less unique people – a marketers dream combination. Reality is quite different. Very few Dutch migrants brought clogs with them, Read more
This story is about how Little Groningen came to be. The name was coined by the farmer, Geard, who sold the land to the “G7” scouts, van der Laan and Pinkster. (The “G7” was a group of 7 families who had decided to emigrate to Tasmania and establish a building Read more
A family’s journey from persecution to peace In 1939, the Nazi regime upended the life of my grandfather, a tax accountant in Vienna, Austria. He owned a large apartment in the city, but being born in Czechoslovakia made him a target, despite my grandmother Caroline Kleiner’s Catholic faith and blonde 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
The new doctor There is a red book. It is one of many books in a series. This one is devoted to the letter ‘S’. There is nothing in it except surnames starting with ‘S’, and the history of these names. Because it is a Dutch book, the name ‘von Read more
Early Life and Career Jan (John) van Hoboken was born in 1908 in Aalten, Gelderland, Netherlands. He began his career in 1929 when he accepted a position at the Borsumij trading company in the Netherlands East Indies. In 1932, he married while living there. When the Japanese invasion of the Read more
Source: National Archives of Australia Gerard van Wezel migrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1952 under an ex-serviceman assisted passage scheme. In January 1958, he began working as a technical officer with the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. During this time, he met fellow Dutch migrant Marretje Ida Sonnenberg, who Read more