Frederik “Fred” Pelder was a Dutch military pilot whose extraordinary escape from Java, service with No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF and later commemoration in South Australia connect several important chapters of Dutch–Australian wartime history. His nickname, “Pulk,” was painted on the B-25 Mitchell N5-131 operated by No. 18 Read more
In May 1931, KLM added an experimental flight from Batavia to Melbourne to their regular Amsterdam – Batavia service providing a through service from Amsterdam to Australia. The plane was a Fokker FVIIA/3m trimotor specially named ‘Abel Tasman’ for this trip. The pilot and co-pilot were Maurits Pattist and Jan Read more
Redirected: Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij and its Australian connection.
The Hennik family immigrated to Australia on the Zuiderkruis it has a list of the people on board and the crew signed the page. Dochter Wilhelmina also has the document her dad travelled with. They arrived 17 Feb 1959 at Fremantle and were taken by train to the Woodside Migration Camp just outside Adelaide.
From Nijmegen to the Netherlands East Indies and Australia Joop van Doorn was a Dutch military wireless operator, telegraphist and navigator whose wartime service connected the Netherlands East Indies, Australia, India and the Allied air campaign against Japan. He flew in Glenn Martin bombers and Lockheed Lodestar transports, participated in Read more
Between December 1942 and June 1943, a series of small convoys transported troops, weapons, vehicles, fuel, engineering equipment and approximately 60,000 tons of supplies from Milne Bay to Oro Bay on the north coast of Papua. The operation was known as Lilliput. Its transport fleet consisted overwhelmingly of ships belonging Read more
Holland Herald is the inflight magazine of the Dutch airline KLM. It is the oldest inflight magazine.
Special magazine available free of charge in Australia and New Zealand, until the direct KLM flights to Australia ended in 2001.
The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race (also known as the London to Melbourne Air Race) took place in October 1934 as part of the Melbourne Centenary celebrations. The race was devised by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Harold Gengoult Smith, and the prize money of £15,000 was provided by Sir Read more
The Dutch Australian Cultural Centre was founded in 1983 and gives as its aims and objectives in its mission statement “the collection, preservation, promotion and dissemination of Dutch culture and heritage in Australia”. The Centre immediately started the collection of material for the Archive and Library and now, after 40 Read more