DACC researchers came across ‘The Dutch Club’ in Sydney. There are no records of this club, further research revealed that the Dutch Club of Sydney and the restaurant The Flying Dutchman in the City (Elizabeth Street) are always mentioned together. The restaurant was run by famous Dutchman Dick Groenteman. It looks very much like that the Dutch Club was sponsored by Groenteman and that the activities of the Club took place in the restaurant.
We cover the interesting story of Dick Groenteman elsewhere.
In 1957 Groenteman took over the Cuba Restaurant in Rushcutters Bay. He might have changed the name later to Flying Dutchman as it is mentioned in the advertisement of 28 November 1958 (see below) that he had move the restaurant to the City. It looks like the restaurant went into bankruptcy in 1962 (see at the end).
There must be people who have been members of the Club and/or visitors of the restaurant, If you have more information we would like to hear from you.
Below are advertisements published in the Dutch Australian Weekly (DAW).
The advertisements from September 1961 below are interesting as they show also a few other Dutch Clubs. Ws the Club in Fairfield affiliated with the club in the City?
Please note that the menu above has several Dutch entries i.e. bal gehakt, uitsmyter, rollmops, sneedje paling, hondenportie, small rijsttafel.
There is also an interesting story from 1959, about Jan Lagerwij, an ober working at the Flying Dutchman restaurant. Together with Koos de Zwart he went out tuna fishing in their trailer Osiris. The boat hit an obstacle and sank, Dick Groenewegen had called the police as Jan hadn’t shown up for work and he knew they had gone out fishing. An RAAF plane spotted them drifting further away from the coast. The men were rescued by an RAAF boat.
The end of the Flying Dutchman and most likely also the Dutch Club Sydney
For ever a businessman he had a finger in many pies as we can see the advertisement below.
