The Hester and the Doelwyck Two Dutch ships were wrecked on 21 April 1854 upon Kenn’s Reef. The crew of the 840 tonnes wooden vessel ‘Hester’ lost one man but the others were able to make it Port Curtis (Gladstone) and from there to Maryborough and eventually Sydney. It is Read more…
On the night of the 28 April 1656, the Vergulde Draeck struck a submerged coral reef midway between what are now the coastal towns of Seabird and Ledge Point, Western Australia. On board were 193 crew, eight boxes of silver coins worth 78,600 guilders and trade goods to the value Read more…
After the Japanese invasion of Netherlands East Indies, some 20,000 Dutch people fled to Australia, the majority were Indos. They were not well treated and the Australian Unions started to fight for their rights. As they became involved they understood these people wanted independence from the Netherlands. When, after the War, the Dutch wanted to recolonise NEI the Unions blocked all Dutch transport from Australia.
Dirk Hartog Dirk Hartog (baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog’s expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artefact to record his visit, the Hartog Plate. His name is Read more…
The Steam Ship Volendam was a 15,434 GRT ton ocean liner operated by Holland America Line (Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij). She was built in 1922 by Harland & Wolff Ltd, in Govan, Glasgow. The ship was purchased by Holland America Line while under construction and launched on 6 July 1922. Her Read more…
Royal Rotterdamsche Lloyd (then Nedlloyd and now part of Maersk) started building the ship in 1938. The company was in the process to replace the aging fleet of ships on the Dutch East Indies route, her keel was laid in 1939 at De Schelde shipyard in Vlissingen, Netherlands. Interrupted by Read more…
More individual information is available on the DACC database (see links below). The major ships bringing Dutch migrants to Australia include: Remembering the Dutch Ships contribution for the defence of Australia. Dutch passenger liners such as the MV Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, Oranje, Nieuw Amsterdam, and Volendam to name just a Read more…
When she was built in 1929, she was the largest ship yet built in the Netherlands. She had berths for 770 passengers: 366 in first class, 280 in second, 64 in third and 60 in fourth class. She had berths for 360 crew. She had four decks and could carry Read more…
After the Franco-Prussian war in 1870/1871 – in which my grandfather fought – two important developments happened: This put Germany right in competition with Britain who was the global superpower of the day. Germany had a great (Prussian) army but didn’t have a strong naval force, rather the opposite of Read more…
Reports concerning New South Wales, Queensland, the northern territory of South Australia (which then incorporated the Northern Territory), New Guinea and the Torres Strait by J.W. Ploos van Amstel, Consul-General of the Netherlands for Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. Ploos van Amstel’s accounts are signed Cardwell [North Queensland]; Sweers Island Read more…