From Baarn to the Netherlands East Indies Evert Herman van Hummel was born in Baarn, the Netherlands, on 29 January 1916. He was known variously as Evert and Herman. Fascinated by engines from an early age, he left secondary school when he was fifteen and became an apprentice motor mechanic. Read more
The Douglas DC-3 now preserved at the Queensland Air Museum in Caloundra has an exceptional Dutch–Australian history. Built for KLM in 1937 and named Wielewaal—Dutch for Golden Oriole—it served on the Amsterdam–Batavia route, escaped from Java carrying Lieutenant Governor-General Hubertus van Mook, entered Allied military service in Australia and was Read more
After the surrender of Japan there were some 100,000 European people in the Japanese camps, many of them were close to starvation. An agreement between Australia and Netherlands East Indies governments led to the formation of the Netherlands Indies Welfare Organisation for Evacuees (NIWOE). The organisation emerged out of the Read more
In 1992, Jean van Schilfgaarde wrote to Dr Jack M. Ford about her wartime employment with the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) in Melbourne and at Camp Columbia, Wacol. Ford contacted her while researching his book Allies in bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies relations during World War Two. Read more
Camp Columbia in the suburb of Wacol in Brisbane was a United States Army military camp. It was built in 1942 to accommodate American troops. The Sixth US Army Headquarters was formed and stationed here. It also hosted two hospitals and an Officer Candidate School till 1945. This was the Read more
By her son David Hill. Joan McConachy was a secretary at Camp Columbia, Brisbane working for the Dutch Army as she later told her son David (perhaps at NEFIS). Joan was born in 1924 at Winton (Central West QLD) and moved to Brisbane around 1943 from the then family home Read more
Flight Sergeant Jeffery David “Jeff” Crosbie was one of the Australian airmen who served alongside Dutch and Indonesian personnel in No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF. A tail gunner in the squadron’s B-25 Mitchell bombers, he participated in reconnaissance patrols and bombing operations against Japanese targets in the Netherlands Read more
When the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies, some 20,000 Dutch and Indonesians (Netherlands East Indies – NEI) fled to Australia. As Australia had a strict White Australian Policies, native people from NEI where housed separately. Of them 1,200 Indonesian internees were held at the Cowra POW Camp during WWII. Read more
The Dutch War Cemetery at Karrakatta in Perth is Australia’s only official Dutch war cemetery. Situated within Karrakatta Cemetery, this walled memorial garden is the final resting place of Dutch military personnel and civilians who lost their lives during the Second World War. Among those buried here are victims of Read more
As a KNIL Officer, he was part of the Australian troops (Sparrow Force) in Timor. He was later placed as a bombardier at the 18 NEI Squadron RAAF in MacDonald airfield near Darwin. After that he became a NEI intelligent officer on Dutch New Guinea and Borneo and was killed during the Indonesian uprising, Bersiap.