The little-known organisation that preceded NEFIS special operations Before the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) developed its own special-operations capability, Dutch, Australian and Indonesian personnel were already being sent from Australia on clandestine missions into the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies. Read more
Rebuilding an intelligence service after the fall of the Netherlands East Indies When Japanese forces conquered the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, the Dutch colonial government lost not only its territory but much of the intelligence network on which Read more
When the Japanese advance through Southeast Asia and the Pacific forced Allied governments, military personnel and intelligence organisations back to Australia in early 1942, Australia became much more than a military base. It also became a major centre of the Read more
Dutch and Indonesian involvement in Allied special operations, 1942–1945 Research by Peter Dunn OAM Following the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, Australia became a base for clandestine intelligence and special operations into Japanese-occupied territory. These Read more
Introduction Following the Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, Australia became the principal base from which Dutch military, intelligence and government organisations attempted to maintain contact with the occupied territories and prepare for an eventual Allied Read more
On 27 March 1948, Adolf Petrus Gerardus Mulder and his wife, Cornelia Wilhelmina Maria Mulder–van Riek, departed Rotterdam aboard the motor ship Talisse. Known as Dolf and Corrie, the young couple had been married for less than a year. They Read more
Wil Hamers, Party Apple and the Dutch Catalina intelligence missions On 13 January 1945, a Dutch Catalina flying boat approached an isolated stretch of the east coast of Japanese-occupied Borneo. On board were eight NEFIS intelligence agents — four Dutch Read more
During the Second World War, a large house on a hill overlooking Cairns became one of Australia’s most secret military establishments. Fairview House at Mooroobool, known to wartime personnel simply as the “House on the Hill”, became the headquarters of Read more
In the final days of the Second World War in Europe, an extraordinary act of humanity took place in the skies over the Netherlands. For almost six years, Allied and German forces had been trying to destroy one another. Now Read more
Dutch post-war migration to Australia is generally regarded as one of the major success stories of Australia’s mass immigration program. Yet migration was not always permanent. A frequently quoted figure suggests that around 25 per cent of Dutch migrants eventually Read more