Early Career and Rise to Prominence Jan (later John, Johnny) Van Oosten was born in The Hague. The family emigrated to Australia in 1954, when Jan was 7 years old. They settled in Victoria Park. His father was Dutch, his mother Polish, they had met each other in Germany where Read more…
Bega aims to become Australia’s most circular economy by 2030, inspired by pioneering Dutch practices. The concept of circularity, which involves keeping materials in use at their highest value, designing out waste, and regenerating natural systems, has taken root in Bega, following the Dutch model. Circularity is described as a Read more…
Beaten by tempest and stormed by drift, Steady I keep my post, And laugh at the southern rollers long, For I’m guard of the Southern Coast. I watched the Dutchmen on their way, In the days of long ago, But they set no foot on my rocky shore, Where the Read more…
The first (and only?) United Nations’ casualties in its involvement in the Indonesian war ofindependence 1945-50. By ACT Branch Member Graham Rayner. At about ten o’clock on the morning of 18th March 1949 a Dutch military jeep, painted white and clearly marked as “UNITED NATIONS” was ambushed by what were Read more…
By Andrew Bolt, social and political commentator, writer and TV producer. I was born in Adelaide and always felt some contact with Holland. We got parcels every few months from my mother’s parents or sisters of zoute drop, stophoest and editions of Panorama. I read (or just looked at) cartoon Read more…
Sweers Island is an island in the South Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. The island was given its European name by explorer Matthew Flinders on 16 November 1802 after Salomon Sweers, a council member of the East India Company at Batavia who was one of those who Read more…
While the vase looks more Middle Eastern or Asian it might come from a Dutch ship. It forms part of the Captain Thomson collection at the Cooktown Museum. As indicated in the label below the picture it may have found by Frank Jardine, an early landowner, settler and police commissioner Read more…
When she was built in 1930, she was the largest ship yet built by the Nederlandse Scheepsbouw Maatschappij. She had berths for 770 passengers: 366 in first class, 280 in second, 64 in third and 60 in fourth class. She had berths for 360 crew. She had four decks and Read more…
Early Life and Introduction to Football Trixie Tagg (née van Lieshout) was born on December 13, 1948, in Amsterdam. Growing up in Amsterdam-West, Trixie was introduced to football at a young age, playing street football with friends—mostly boys—in the late 1950s. She fondly remembers listening to football matches on the Read more…
Ted de Lyster, born on June 17, 1947 in The Hague, is an Australian former association football player whose career, though brief at the international level, holds a special place in the history of Australian football. De Lyster’s journey from his early days in the Netherlands to representing Australia on Read more…