Netherlands East Indies (1939 – 1946) Internment, resilience and survival: The story of Dirk Drok who helped to uncover the Batavia and a key contributor to Voyage to Disaster, and his wife, well-known painter and ceramicist, Kitty Drok Why might a young baby less than a year old be interned Read more
John (Jan) Rikkers John (Jan) Rikkers was born on 5 February 1925 in den Haag, the youngest child of Jan Rikkers and Marie van der Wansem (official papers in later years state his date of birth as 1921, but according to John he had deliberately put his age up so Read more
The Dutch Contribution to the Defence of Australia in World War II THE DUTCH CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA IN WORLD WAR TWO Since November 2007 a plaque on the Pathway of Honor in Adelaide, South Australia, recognises the Dutch servicemen and women who joined the Australian forces Read more
Klaas Woldring Klaas Woldring’s life as an academic, political activist, and notable supporter of the Dutch community in Australia, has taken him The Netherlands to South Africa, Northern Rhodesia, Norway, Spain, Germany, Malta and the Solomon Islands. An interesting life! Date of birth: 2 July 1934, Groningen, the Netherlands Arrival Read more
Richlands, Inala and Suburbs History Group Inc. (RIHG) Richlands, Inala and neighbouring suburbs are located in the south-west of Brisbane, Queensland. The History Group was formed in 1996, incorporated in 2000, and has become a force in the local area. Our objective is to further the appreciation of our history Read more
Dick van Leer, People Lover and Entrepreneur Not long ago, a book was published about Dick under the title The Incredible Life of Dick van Leer. This very readable account of Dick’s life, a family history really, written jointly with Aubrey Cohen, starts with his birth in 1922 in Surabaya, Read more
I was born 22/8/51 in Den Haag, Netherlands, where I studied horticulture being the fifth generation to do so. After my studies I travelled the world for approx. 6 years. During this period I worked in the offshore oil industry. In 1975 I married Magda van Boheemen. After we were Read more
Marijke Greenway, renowned artist and former world-class trampolinist Marijke Greenway is an achiever, in different countries, South Africa and Australia, and in quite different fields. Her story is exceptional in many ways. She was born in the Netherlands in 1943, in Halfweg/Zwanenburg, close to Amsterdam, the fourth child of six Read more
John Mutsaers I was born in Eindhoven in Noord Brabant in 1942. I am the only son among five daughters, three older and two younger than I. Being a family with only six children was small in our neighborhood, twelve and fourteen were more common. My father was a bus driver Read more
When I was 4 years old, my parents decided to leave Holland and go to the Dutch East Indies. That was in 1947. My father had a Doctorate in Eastern Linguistics and had better employment opportunities there than in the Netherlands so soon after the War. And so my parents Read more