The following information is abstracted from the Tesselaar website. In June 1939 – just weeks before the outbreak of World War 2 in Europe – Cees and Johanna Tesselaar left their home in Beverwijk, the Netherlands and on their wedding day aboard the Strathallan. They were headed for Australia, bringing little Read more…
Victor Victorszoon was a Dutch artist (born 1653) as a painter and cartographer he accompanied the explorer Willem de Vlamingh on his expedition to Australia in the late 17th century. Victorszoon’s paintings are the sole visual record of the voyage and are among the earliest known images of the continent. Read more…
Jacob Jansen (1848-1928), who later changed his name to Jacob Johnson, was born in Groningen and immigrated to Australia in the 1860s.. He became a Dutch-Australian businessman who owned and operated several cafes in Melbourne during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jacob Johnson’s cafes were popular gathering places Read more…
Petrus van Alkemade, also known (in Australia) as Peter Alkemade, was born in Noordwijk, Netherlands in 1835. Son of Petrus van Alkemade, also known (in Australia) as Peter Alkemade, was born in Noordwijk, Netherlands in 1835. Son of Cornelis Cornelisz Alkemade and Alida Aris van der Plas. He arrived in Read more…
The Mutiny of the Bounty is one of the most famous mutiny stories ever. Captain’s William Bligh mission was to collect Breadfruit plans in Tahiti and deliver them to the Americas as it was seen as a cheap food for the slaves on the British plantations. The trip faced many Read more…
This story starts with the famous First Fleet of eleven vessels sailing into Sydney Cove in 1788. The plan was to establish a colony that would become self-sufficient. They brought with them supplies for 2 years for the 1000 people. After they had unloaded their supplies over a period of 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…
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…
The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command, or ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allied forces in Southeast Asia, the area also included the supply port of Darwin, in the Northern Territory, Australia. ABDA had been established at Bandung, Java on 10 January 1942 and became operational following the declaration of war Read more…
Evert van Hummel was born in Baarn in the Netherlands on 29 January 1916. Evert Herman Van Hummel (some called him Evert others called him Herman) left high school at the age of 15, because he was fascinated by engines. He first worked as an apprentice car mechanic at a Read more…