“Old ties, new beginnings” presents the stories of twenty Dutch-Australian women who migrated along with thousands of Dutch and other post-war migrants to Australia during the 1950’s and 60’s. Very little is known about those Dutch women who settled in Australia. Their “homesickness”is sometimes mentioned and blamed for “unsuccessful” or Read more
Our mother met a Dutch pilot during the war. His name was Fredrik (Pulk) Pelder and there are many mentions of his heroics on the World Wide web. One instance in particular that was widely publicised, was an escape from Java where Fred and Mendizabal (Canadian), Sgt Stuart Munroe (Australian), Alan Read more
The van Gent family tree can be traced back to 1790 and reveals a family of distillers and winemakers. It was Johannes Hermanus van Gent (1817 to 1859) ship owner, merchant, distiller of spirits, member of the Municipal Council, Chamber of Commerce and world traveller who influenced a long line Read more
Everybody’s Oma follows in the NSW Central Coast family’s footsteps as they navigate Oma’s failing health under the spotlight of an enthusiastic audience of well-meaning strangers. Jason van Genderen premiered My Town is Broken at Sydney Film Festival (SFF) 2008. His debut feature Everybody’s Oma premieres at SFF 14 years Read more
In the final days of the Netherlands East Indies campaign, sixteen-year-old Gerard Lemmens and his family were among the civilians evacuated from Java aboard a Netherlands Naval Aviation Service Dornier Do 24K flying boat. On the night of 2 March 1942, they departed from a concealed flying-boat anchorage near Lengkong Read more
The DACC has special relationship with the Abel Tasman Museum in Lutjegast, a town in Groningen, where Abel Tasman was born. There have been visits from Australian to Lutjegast and the other way around. There is more information on their website. The images below are displays from the Abel Tasman Read more
When the Japanese invaded the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) during February and early March 1942, many Dutch people fled to Australia, most ended up in Darwin and Broome but a few fled via the Gulf of Carpentaria. This remote area of northwest Queensland was so open to invasion that a Read more
Leeuwin (Lioness) was a Dutch galleon that mapped some of the southwest corner of Australia in March 1622. It was the seventh European ship to sight the continent. Leeuwin‘s logbook has been lost, so very little is known of the voyage. Until 2022, it was not known who captained the Read more
Willem Frederik August “Gus” Winckel was a pilot with the Military Aviation service of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army—ML-KNIL—and one of the best-known Dutch airmen to serve in Australia during the Second World War. He participated in the evacuation of Java, defended Broome during the devastating Japanese air raid Read more
