This thesis from Dr. Judith Mirjam Rozeboom examines the lives and treatment of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) people who resided in Australia during WWII and their return to their home country after the war. It compares the lives before, during and after the war of European Indonesians and indigenous Read more…
Petronella Wensing (1924-2023) was a Dutch migrant to Australia who passed away in 2023. Below is an obituary written by her son Ed (posted with permission). A short story about Petronella was published in The Canberra Times: The Canberra Times also published a shortened version of Ed Wensing’s obituary for Read more…
Born: 3 June 1930 (Limburg, The Netherlands)Died: 12 January 2018 (Canberra) Charles was a demographer and public servant who served in Papua New Guinea (1967-72) and Australia thereafter.He was a proud and active member of the Australian Dutch community. Driven mostly by the desire to improve their material position Dutch Read more…
Coosje Ayal, born in 1926 in the Moluccas, Western New Guinea, became a notable figure for her resistance efforts during World War II. Adopted by her aunt and uncle, who was a civil servant of the Dutch colonial government, she attended a Dutch school and learned the language. When the Read more…
By: Pierre van der Eng Several Dutch companies have operations in Australia today. The members of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne and Dutchlink in Sydney include Dutch mastheads like Rabobank, Randstad, ING, Heineken and Vopak. Australia has long been relatively open to inward investment by foreign companies. In Read more…
Introduction DAAAG was created to be an accessible, easy to navigate, multimedia internet service dedicated to the sustainable digital preservation of Dutch Australians’ cultural heritage – for use by scholars, researchers, bureaucrats, journalists, Dutch individuals and other digital end users worldwide. DAAAG is an initiative of the History of Migration Read more…
To ensure that the stories of Dutch migrants would be preserved for future generations, the former Dutch-Australian Community Action Federation Qld Inc. (DACA) published a 208 page book ‘Our Story — Experiences of the Dutch in Queensland’ in 2001. Editors: Annelies Zeissink, DACA-President and Rob-Jan Mynarends. The book presents personal Read more…
The Wessel Islands group off the north-eastern coast of Arnhem Land has a rather abstruse history in terms of its naming and ultimate cartographic location. Cartographic evidence, and some primary documentary evidence points to a Wesel(s) Eijland initially referring to an island off the southern coast of present-day West Papua. Read more…
The establishment of the NEI Personnel & Equipment Pool (PEP) Squadron, initially stationed at RAAF Base in Canberra, resulted from the need to allow Netherlands East Indies (NEI) crews to recover and prepare for upcoming operations after completing their operational tours. Additionally, they required a base to accommodate spare aircraft Read more…
The text below is a brief summary of a report titled “EXPLORATORY VOYAGE OF THE SHIPS RIJDER AND BUIS, COMMANDED BY LIEUTENANT JEAN ETIENNE GONZAL AND FIRST LAVIENNE LODEWIJK VAN ASSCHENS, TO THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA.” This report was submitted by Gerrit de Haan, the “Master Cartographer” at Batavia, on Read more…