The Dutch tanker Ondina played an exceptional role in the Allied war effort from Australia during the Second World War. She survived an unequal battle with two heavily armed Japanese commerce raiders, returned under her own power to Fremantle and 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 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 Read more
Australian Dredging and General Works Pty Ltd was established in 1950 to bring Dutch dredging expertise, equipment and skilled personnel to Australia. Initially based in Williamstown, Victoria, the company was an Australian subsidiary jointly associated with two established Dutch civil-engineering 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 Read more
Adrianus Antonius “Arie” de Bruin was born in Wateringen on 30 August 1917, the son of Cornelis Jacobus de Bruin and Agatha Jacoba van de Hut. In February 1936, the young Arie was recorded as a marine living at the Read more
Govert Veth was one of the Dutch workers who travelled to Australia in 1950 in connection with the major post-war dredging project at Williamstown. The wider history of the project is described in From Sliedrecht to Williamstown: Dutch dredging workers Read more
The Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942 brought a sudden and initially uncoordinated movement of Dutch and Indonesian military personnel, government officials, merchant seamen, civilian aircrew and refugees to Australia. Most members of the Royal Netherlands Read more
Cornelis Adrianus Verhoef and Marinus Verhoef were among the Dutch workers who travelled to Australia in 1950 in connection with the major post-war dredging project at Williamstown. The wider history of the project and the men recruited for it is Read more
Gerrit van der Meulen was one of the Dutch workers who travelled to Australia in 1950 in connection with the major post-war dredging project at Williamstown. The wider history of this project and the men recruited for it is described Read more