Firsthand recollections of Dutch emigrants who travelled aboard the MS Sibajak from Rotterdam to Melbourne in May and June 1951. In May 1951, the Visser and Koopman families, longstanding friends from Bergen in North Holland, embarked on a six-week voyage to Australia aboard the Dutch passenger ship Sibajak. Their emigration Read more
A migration project built around a business The Australian Building Corporation (ABC) was established in 1950 by a group of Dutch migrants from Groningen who planned to create a new future in Tasmania through a cooperative building enterprise. The original organisers, known as the Groningen Seven (G7), did not intend Read more
From Winsum to Tasmania Geert de Haan was born on 8 October 1911 and worked as a building contractor in Winsum, a town approximately 15 kilometres northwest of Groningen in the Netherlands. In 1950, he joined a group of Dutch migrants planning to establish a building enterprise in Tasmania. The Read more
From Groningen to Australia Jan de Vries was born on 28 December 1910 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Before emigrating to Australia, he worked as a shopkeeper and lived at Nieuwe Ebbingestraat 44/1 in Groningen. He was one of the Groningen Seven, a group of men who developed plans for an Read more
Early life and wartime experiences Jan Thomas Steen was born on 30 August 1912 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Before emigrating to Australia, he worked as a municipal official and lived in Van Heemskerckstraat in Groningen. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Steen was involved in the Dutch Resistance. According Read more
Wartime experiences in the Netherlands Eerke Jacob van der Laan (born 31 October 1903 in Groningen) was one of the leading figures in the organised migration of Dutch families to Kingston, Tasmania, in 1950. Before the Second World War, he had been an accomplished gymnast. According to historian Kees Wierenga, Read more
From Groningen to Tasmania Egbert (Eb) Pinkster was born on 6 August 1910 in Groningen, the Netherlands. He was one of the original Groningen Seven, a group of Dutch men who organised a migration venture to Tasmania following the Second World War. The group shared connections through their Reformed Christian Read more
Titia Jacomina van Riel (née Vijverberg) was born in The Hague on 21 May 1922. Her life spanned the German occupation of the Netherlands, the turbulent years of Indonesian independence and the challenges of establishing a new home and raising a family in post-war Australia. Titia studied law at Utrecht Read more
Wartime experiences in the Netherlands Pieter Laning was born on 2 February 1914 and lived in Groningen, the Netherlands. During the German occupation in the Second World War, he became involved in the Dutch Resistance. Kees Wierenga’s historical research records that Laning spent time hiding on a small island in Read more
Dutch migrants seek to establish a community in Kingston In September 1950, two Dutch migrants, Eerke van der Laan and Egbert (Eb) Pinkster, appeared before Kingborough Council in southern Tasmania to discuss plans for a Dutch settlement at Kingston. The two men represented a group of migrants from Groningen in Read more