In the presence of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Australia, H.E. Mrs Marion Derckx, at an event hosted by the Pooh Corner Environment Centre and Dutchlink Brisbane a plan was launched to preserve the last remaining heritage items of Camp Columbia (which are situated in the Read more…
Dr Jack Ford wrote an extensive history of the Dutch war effort in the South West Pacific. He published this in: Allies in Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies relations during World War Two. He also wrote a number of articles on this history, below the one on the Read more…
At the time of the Japanese invasion in the Dutch Indies Hendrik (Henk) Paardekooper was employed – since 1938 – by the Droogdok Maatschappij Surabaya (DSM) being responsible e.g. for the floating docks and cranes used for the maintenance and repair of larger sea-going vessels, including those of the Dutch Read more…
There are several memorials in Australia that mention the activities of Dutch submarines in the Australian waters. These submarines played an import role during the Battles of Singapore and Malaya. In the first few weeks of the was in the East they sank more Japanese boats that the Brits and Read more…
The “Pulk” (which was originally N5-131 a B-25C – the first mass-produced B-25 version) from No. 18 (NEI) Squadron – a Netherlands East Indies / RAAF composite squadron. The original “Pulk” was named after the Dutch B-25 pilot, Fred “Pulk” Pelder (this nickname was given to him by his best Read more…
The 18 Netherlands East Indies squadron RAAF was established on April 4 1942 They destroyed many Japanese operations on NEI, sunk 6 Japanese ships and numerous smaller boats.
in 1857, the Dutch government appointed the 21-year old Melbourne-based merchant and shipping agent Hugo von (der) Nahmer, who was of German descent but Geldrop-born, as honorary consul In his enthusiasm, Von Nahmer started using the Dutch name Van der Nahmer to suit the appointment. Nevertheless, he had to resign Read more…
This year the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Australia celebrate 80 years of diplomatic relations. Today we unveil our exclusive logo. The Netherlands established formal diplomatic representation in Australia with the appointment of Envoy François Cornelius van Aerssen van Voshol on 16 April 1942. “Throughout this year, the Dutch Diplomatic Read more…
After the heavy losses during the Battle of the Java Sea the British and American forced started to withdraw and the Dutch and Australians were left on their own. On Sunday, 8 March, Lt. Gen. Hitoshi Imamura met with the Governor-General of the NEI, Jonkheer (Lord) Alidius Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer and set a deadline for the next day for an unconditional surrender.
Updated with newspaper article from 1945 below It is 80 years ago this month that this heroic, but at the same time disastrous Battle took place. By that time the Dutch Allied Forces had already been involved in the war in SE Asia for three months. Here they had occurred Read more…