Teunis Cornelis Paans, generally known as Toon, was born in Nijmegen on 20 January 1918 aboard his parents’ vessel. His father, Cornelis Adrianus Paans, was a skipper and engineer, and Toon grew up within the Dutch inland-shipping community. He later Read more
Did your family migrate to Australia from the Alblasserwaard region of South Holland? Alblasserwaard Genealogy can help you explore the family history they left behind in the Netherlands. Its database contains more than 652,000 people, 20,000 historical photographs and 134,000 Read more
Hermanus Wouter Paans, generally known as Manus, was born at Hooge en Lage Zwaluwe on 28 November 1908. He later lived in Werkendam and worked as a ship’s captain. On 30 October 1931, he married Margaretha Martina Ippel, who had Read more
Hendrik and Johannis Boele grew up in a Sliedrecht family whose life was closely connected with shipping and the river. Their father, Klaas Boele, was a skipper who operated his own vessel, the Cornelia, built at the Nederlof shipyard in Read more
The history of Korevaar Marine Group in Australia began with the organised migration of Dutch dredging workers and their families from Sliedrecht in 1950. Among those families were Teunis Korevaar, his wife Annigje Visser and three of their sons. Their Read more
Gerrit Goedknegt was born in Vlaardingen on 17 January 1907, the son of Teunis Goedknegt and Gerritje Bal. His childhood was marked by tragedy when his father drowned at sea in 1918, leaving Gerrit fatherless at the age of eleven. 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 Read more
From De Uiver to the Netherlands East Indies transport squadrons Archerfield Airport occupies a distinctive place in Dutch–Australian aviation history. Its association with the Netherlands began with the celebrated visit of the KLM airliner De Uiver in 1934 and expanded Read more
Rebuilding a Dutch fighter force Following the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, Dutch military aviation had to be rebuilt from personnel and aircraft scattered across Australia and the United States. The immediate priority was the Read more
Plans for a second Dutch bomber squadron No. 119 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF was formed in Canberra in September 1943 as a proposed second Dutch–Australian B-25 Mitchell bomber squadron. It was intended to reinforce No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Read more