Dutch dredging companies, engineers and workers have made an important contribution to Australia’s maritime and industrial development. This history encompasses the supply of Dutch-built machinery, the establishment of Australian subsidiaries, major port and reclamation projects, and the organised migration of skilled workers and their families. This portal brings together the Read more
The development of Kwinana as one of Western Australia’s principal industrial centres depended on the creation of deep-water access for large ocean-going ships. A major part of this work was entrusted to the Dutch dredging contractor Hollandsche Aanneming Maatschappij, generally known as HAM. The Kwinana undertaking was separate from the Read more
Australian Dredging and General Works was established in 1950 through the cooperation of two longstanding Dutch civil-engineering companies: Adriaan Volker’s Maatschappij tot het Uitvoeren van Openbare Werken and Van Hattum & Blankevoort. Both businesses had grown from nineteenth-century contracting enterprises into internationally active engineering organisations. Their Australian joint venture combined Read more
This page brings together contemporary Australian and Dutch newspaper reports relating to the Dutch dredging workers and their families who travelled to Australia in 1950. The reports document the formation of Australian Dredging and General Works, the recruitment of skilled Dutch workers, the transport of dredging vessels and equipment to 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
Shipwrecks, aircraft, Dutch East India Company history and Camp Columbia form part of an expanding program of Dutch–Australian heritage cooperation A new report from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands highlights the breadth of Dutch-related heritage projects currently being undertaken across Australia. The International Programme for Maritime Heritage: Report Read more
When people think of Dutch companies in Australia, names such as Philips, Shell often come to mind. Yet another Dutch company has quietly become one of the most important technology businesses in the world. ASML, founded in the Netherlands in 1984, designs and manufactures the highly sophisticated lithography systems used Read more
For centuries the Dutch connection with Australia has largely been told through stories of exploration, trade and shipwrecks. Dutch navigators were the first Europeans to chart much of Australia’s coastline, leaving traces of their journeys scattered along the continent’s shores. Today, those stories continue to be uncovered and interpreted through Read more
Dr William Graham Gosewinckel AO was a descendant of one of Australia’s early Dutch settler families and went on to become one of the nation’s most influential telecommunications pioneers. As the founding Chief Executive of AUSSAT, Australia’s first domestic satellite communications company, he helped lay the foundations for Australia’s modern Read more
Recent scientific research (2025) has completed the first comprehensive geological mapping of Zealandia, a vast continent that lies almost entirely beneath the waters of the southwest Pacific. Covering approximately five million square kilometres, Zealandia is around two-thirds the size of Australia, yet some 95 per cent of it is submerged Read more