Dutch dredging companies, engineers and workers have made an important contribution to Australia’s maritime and industrial development. This history encompasses the supply of Dutch-built machinery, the establishment of Australian subsidiaries, major port and reclamation projects, and the organised migration of skilled workers and their families. This portal brings together the 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 known as HAM. The Kwinana undertaking was separate from the 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 into internationally active engineering organisations. Their Australian joint venture combined 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 businesses: Adriaan Volker’s Maatschappij tot het Uitvoeren van Openbare Werken 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 Dutch workers, the transport of dredging vessels and equipment to Read more
The following is an extensive English summary of a Dutch-language account prepared by Kees van der Sluijs and Fred Stuij. The complete original Dutch story is attached below. Arie van Kekeren and his wife Maria Blokland belonged to a generation of people from Sliedrecht whose lives were closely connected with Read more
The evacuation of the Netherlands East Indies flying schools was one of the largest movements of Dutch military aviation personnel during the collapse of the colony in early 1942. Hundreds of student pilots, instructors, observers, wireless operators, air gunners and technical personnel escaped to Australia. Although their stay was brief, Read more
Following the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942, surviving Dutch and Indonesian air-force personnel, naval aviators, civilian aircrews and aircraft escaped to Australia. From Australian bases they reorganised, trained and returned to active service as part of the wider Allied campaign against Japan. Australia became the Read more
Shipwrecks, aircraft, Dutch East India Company history and Camp Columbia form part of an expanding program of Dutch–Australian heritage cooperation A new report from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands highlights the breadth of Dutch-related heritage projects currently being undertaken across Australia. The International Programme for Maritime Heritage: Report Read more
From the fall of the Netherlands East Indies to renewed operations from Australia The Japanese conquest of the Netherlands East Indies in early 1942 brought Dutch military aviation in the region close to destruction. Many aircraft were lost in combat, destroyed to prevent their capture or diverted to other Allied Read more