Batchelor Airport is a former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base located in Batchelor, Northern Territory, Australia. The base was established in 1942 during World War II and was used primarily as a bomber base for the RAAF’s No. 1 Operational Training Unit. During the war, Batchelor Airport was also Read more…
Dutch message re upcoming Pearl Harbour attack was ignored. Identifying Japan as a potential aggressor, in the thirties the Dutch tried to strengthen their intelligence capability. In 1932 the Royal Netherlands Navy set up a radio intercept unit to monitor the activities of the Japanese Navy. Several weeks prior to Read more…
Scroll down and a map shows up with New Guinea connected to Australia but a small missing part on that map shows where in this perspective the Torres Strait could have been. See also: The Colonial Warship the Doerga explored northern Australia (1825-1826) Dutch Explorers in the Gulf of Carpentaria Read more…
Jean Pierre Purry was a Swiss explorer who presented a plan to the Dutch Governor General of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) in 1717 to establish a settlement in Australia. His plan was to settle in the vicinity of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Purry was Read more…
The brothers Ploos van Amstel Jan Willem Ploos van Amstel was born in the Netherlands in 1827. The Ploos van Amstel family was a prominent Dutch merchant family in the 19th century. The family roots can be traced back to the 15th century and the family produced important theologians, painters Read more…
These pictures are all from the Evert Herman van Hummel collection. He was a flight engineer from 1938 till approx. 1970. Unfortunately most photographs don’t have any accompanying information. This first section is most likely from his early period in the 1930 and early 1940s. During WWII he was stationed Read more…
Cornelis Antoine Trijssenaar was born on 2 January 1909 in Arnhem. ‘Keesje’ grew up in an international family originally coming from Strassbourg to The Hague. He had family in Monaco, Austria and Switzerland where summer holidays were spent. Returning family occupations are either government administration or having artistic aspirations. Kees’ Read more…
The first known Dutch encounters with the Aborigines in Australia took place during the 17th century, when Dutch ships were looking for new trading opportunities and made voyages of discovery to the region now known as Australia. It’s worth noting, however, that the lack of recorded incidents does not mean Read more…
In 1795 the Netherlands was conquered by the French revolutionary armies and annexed by Napoleon. The Netherlands, now being a client state of France brought them in conflict with France’ s arch enemy Britain. As a result, the British launched a series of campaigns against Dutch colonies around the world, Read more…
While most convicts transported to Australia came from Britain or Ireland there are also a remarkable number of Dutch names under the convicts. Some might have been Dutch people living in England, but others in one way or another also ended up in Australia. The following is a list of Read more…