Robert Pikler’s career connects the musical life of the Netherlands East Indies with Australia’s post-war concert halls. A Hungarian musician who worked in the Dutch colony and survived Japanese internment, he subsequently became an influential performer and teacher in Australia. Born in Fureszfalu, Hungary, on 24 January 1909, Pikler studied Read more
Information checked on 9 October 2026. For Dutch migrants in Australia, becoming an Australian citizen can raise a difficult question: will they retain their Dutch nationality? Australia permits dual citizenship, but Dutch law generally provides for automatic loss of Dutch nationality when an adult voluntarily acquires another nationality. There are, Read more
The remarkable story behind Opposite the Lion’s Den During the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War, Daniel Johannes Huygens and his wife Lydia made an extraordinary decision. They opened their home to Jewish friends threatened with arrest and deportation, transforming the upper floor of their house Read more
A pioneering Netherlands East Indies airline The Koninklijke Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij, commonly known as KNILM, was the principal civil airline of the Netherlands East Indies. It was established on 16 July 1928, initially as the Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappij. The company later received the royal designation Koninklijke. Despite the similarity of Read more
Australia is a land of immigrants. I am an immigrant, and you, dear reader, are probably too. High levels of immigration in the years before 1891 resulted in 32% of the population listed as overseas-born in Australia’s first country-wide census in 1891. These numbers decreased substantially in the first half Read more
The Dutch tanker Ondina played an exceptional role in the Allied war effort from Australia during the Second World War. She survived an unequal battle with two heavily armed Japanese commerce raiders, returned under her own power to Fremantle and subsequently served as a floating fuel depot for Allied submarines Read more
A large diorama at the Gold Coast War Museum in Mudgeeraba depicts one of the most famous battles fought in the Netherlands during the Second World War: the struggle for the bridge at Arnhem in September 1944. The model shows a Dutch town devastated by fighting, with the bridge, damaged Read more
In 1950, two specially organised KLM flights brought a remarkable group of Dutch dredging workers and their families to Australia. Most of the workers had been recruited for a major dredging and harbour-construction project in Melbourne. Many came from Sliedrecht, the South Holland town internationally known as a centre of Read more
Australia and the Netherlands have formally elevated their bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership, with shared Dutch-Australian history and cultural heritage specifically recognised as part of the relationship between the two countries. The agreement was adopted in New York on 23 September 2026 by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Read more
Hendrik Johan “Harry” Burgers lived a life shaped by war, displacement and migration. He served as a radio operator and air gunner during the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies, survived a forced landing at sea, shot down a Japanese fighter and received the Bronze Cross for bravery. After Read more