Johanna Cornelia Maria Penders (19 September 1937 – 9 April 2026) The Dutch community in Australia is built on the efforts of individuals who quietly but consistently contributed to its continuity, cohesion and cultural life. One such person was Ann Penders, whose recent passing marks the loss of a deeply Read more
Introduction During the Second World War, the internment complex at Cowra became one of Australia’s most significant wartime detention sites. While best known for housing Italian and Japanese prisoners of war, Cowra also played a lesser-known but historically important role in the detention of Indonesians under Dutch authority. As documented Read more
Introduction In September 1944, a significant development took place within the Indonesian community in Australia with the formation of the Serikat Indonesia Baroe (SIBAR), or New Indonesia Association. Established in Melbourne, SIBAR marked an important moment in the evolution of Indonesian political activity in Australia during the Second World War. Read more
By Julia Weisz This article outlines the journey of Heinrich (Heini) Kuhn and Josefine (Fini) Kuhn, whose lives reflect the experience of many European Jewish families displaced by war, persecution, and political upheaval, and who later became part of Australia’s post-war migrant community. Early life and migration to the Netherlands Read more
Indonesian political prisoners and colonial repression The story of Indonesian nationalist Mohamad Bondan reflects a largely overlooked chapter in the shared wartime history of Indonesia, the Netherlands and Australia. His experiences illustrate how the upheavals of the Second World War brought anti-colonial activists into direct contact with Allied wartime structures Read more
This article is informed in part by a contemporaneous Australian account published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 18 February 1946, reproduced below. That article examined claims raised during United States Senate hearings into the Pearl Harbor attack and addressed Australia’s handling of a warning originating from the Netherlands East Read more
Research initiated by the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre (DACC), with the assistance of the Nederlandse Oorlogsgravenstichting (OGS) and Ipswich City Council, has clarified the wartime burial history of several Dutch and Netherlands East Indies (NEI) servicemen in Queensland. This research showed that three Dutch or NEI soldiers were originally interred Read more
Sara’s Walkabout (2020) by Inez van Loon is a Dutch-language historical fiction novel for young adults. It tells the story of Sara, a thirteen year old Dutch girl who emigrates from the Netherlands to Australia by sea with her parents and younger brother in 1959. Unlike her younger brother, who Read more
The history of Dutch New Guinea is closely bound up with Australia, especially in the turbulent years after the Second World War. Few individuals illustrate this better than Piet Johannes Merkelijn, a civil administrator whose career spanned the Netherlands, Australia and Dutch New Guinea. His experiences highlight both the personal Read more
As the Second World War engulfed Southeast Asia, the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) urgently sought military support. Isolated from its European homeland, which had been occupied by Nazi Germany since 1940, and facing imminent Japanese aggression, the colonial administration turned to the Allied powers for arms and logistical assistance. One Read more