Level Playing fields ?

The first officially recorded contact with Australia by anyone, other than the Aborigines who had inhabited it for 40 000 years, was made in 1606 by the three masted vessel Duyfken (Little Dove ) commanded by Willem Janszoon. It sailed around the east coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Cape Keerweer (Turnabout). Western Australia was discovered some ten years later, in 1616, by a Dutch East Indies Company ship the Eendracht captained by Dirk Hartog, when it sailed too far east while pursuing the area's lucrative spice trade.

In the years that followed many more sightings or landfalls of the WA coastline were recorded by Dutch East Indies Company vessels. The most prominent being the Zeewolf and Mauritius (1618), the Dordrecht and Amsterdam (1619), the Arnhem and Pera (1623). These ships were followed in 1696-97 by the Geelvinck, Wezeltje and Nijptangh under the command of William de Vlamingh.

Further contact with WA was evidenced by the wrecks of the Batavia 1629,Vergulde Seepaert (Gilt Seahorse) 1656, the Zuytdorp 1720 and the Zeewijk in 1727. The fate of the survivors of these ships who reached WA shores is unknown. Speculation has it that some found a home with aboriginal tribes. A visible legacy of early Dutch encounters with WA is also found in geographical names such as Rottnest and Dirk Hartog islands, Houtmans Abroholos and the Geelvinck Channel.

Interest in, and emigration to Australia, however, remained insignificant until the postwar period, although numerous Dutch ships called at major Australian ports during the gold-rushes of the 1850s and consulates were established. Despite the Dutch maritime traditions and its international outlook, emigration was much less important to the Dutch than trade. In 1901 there were only 594 Dutch-born Australia-wide by 1947 the number had only reached 2174.

Western Australia's first official census in 1911 recorded only 73 Dutch. These were mainly deserting seamen, merchants, political refugees and farmers. Dutch contact with WA increased briefly during WWII when the Dutch Navy came here for shore leave. At times there were up to eight Dutch submarines, each with a crew of 65, docked at Fremantle Harbour. A number of the men returned after the war to marry Australian girls.
The majority of Dutch came to Australia after 1951 following the signing of the Netherlands Australia Migration Agreement which offered passage assistance. The assisted migrants entered into an agreement with the Commonwealth government to remain in the employment for which they were selected for a period of two years or repay their fare. The Dutch Emigration Foundation (Stichting Landverhuizing Nederland) provided valuable information services as well as the possibility of additional funds.

The social, political and economic upheaval following WWII were responsible for the change in the Dutch's attitude to emigration. The Netherlands Government then actively promoted emigration because they saw it as a permanent solution to their perceived over-population concerns, food shortages and a severe housing crisis. Dutch individuals and families left their country to escape cramped living arrangements, food and clothing queues, rising unemployment, retrenchments, a low standard of living and the political instability associated with the Cold War.
Australia recruited migrants to reverse population stagnation, for reasons of defence and to overcome crucial labour shortages in the building, construction and manufacturing sectors. Intending emigrants were enticed to Australia by images of booming industry, boundless opportunity, full employment, good working conditions, whitegoods and a home and motor car of one's own.

Photo:Eikstraet,Tilbury,Street Parade c 1948 Courtesy of N. Peters

All in all between 1947 and 1970 these factors lured 160,000 Dutch to Australia. Netherlanders were then the second largest ethnic group in Australia. Some returned and some have died, but today there are still some 95,000 residents of Australia who were born in the Netherlands, and a further 140,000 Australians who claim to have at least one Dutch parent. This makes the Dutch still one of the largest ethnic groups in this country.

In WA, Dutch numbers increased rapidly from 264 in 1947 to 8 441 in 1954. This did not include around 1,000 Dutch nationals born in Indonesia who also settled here. By 1971, despite a significant degree of return migration, Dutch numbers had increased to 11 276. Dutch migration declined during the 1960s with the rapid expansion of the Dutch economy. However, and in contrast to most other Australian states, there has been a continued, albeit small, growth of the WA Dutch population. In 1996, despite the attrition attributable to ageing there were still 11,043 Dutch-born here.

The Volendam, which arrived here in December 1948, was the first boat with Dutch emigrants on it to come to Australia after the Second World War, but it was the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt that became a household word to Dutch migrants. However, the Oranje, Willem Ruys, Zuider Kruis, Grote Beer and Sibijak are equally well remembered by those who travelled on them.

Photo: Migrant children at Holden Primary School, 1954.
Courtesy West Australian Newspapers

Emigrants who had spent four weeks travelling to Australia on five star ships, such as the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt , were shocked to find that the immigration reception centres were old military installations that had seen far better days. They had expected better of their new homeland.

However, these camps were put to use because they could be refurbished with minimal recourse to labour and building supplies, which were both in short supply at that time. The migrants who arrived before May 1949 were most often placed in the Graylands military camp in the metropolitan area or the Holden Immigration Accommodation Centre an old army hospital in Northam, a wheatbelt town about 100 kilometres east of Perth.

Photo:Holden Camp Northam Where migrants were Accommodated from 1949-1963.
Courtesy : Janssen family

Photo:Holden Camp Northam Where migrants were Accommodated from 1949-1963.

Migrants still talk about conditions at these camps. The gravel roads surrounding Holden that had deep grooves in them and the barracks in which each family was allotted space, which were not only unlined but the partitioning stopped at a height of two metres. They also remember the extremes of temperature, from the freezing cold in the winter to sweltering temperatures in the summer that are characteristic of Northam, as these intensified their feelings about the cramped space and lack of privacy.

A family space in the barracks at Northm Army Camp where migrants were housed in

late 1940 and early 1950s (Created at the Northam Visitor Centre.

Courtesy: Lis Burrell.

The strange foods - lots of mutton, pumpkin and vegemite - further aggravated the homesickness and despair many felt. It was especially difficult for the women and children who were left to make sense of life in their new country in these camps, when their husbands were allocated worked in the city or other more isolated parts of the state.

Cooks and Waitresses, Holden Camp Northam,ca 1952

Cooks and Waitresses, Holden Camp Northam,ca 1952

Although accommodation was basic at all the migrant camps it was extremely austere in the camps for European immigrants. The migrants sent to work in the city who were transferred to the Graylands camp for British migrants, especially erected on the vacant half of the old Graylands migrant camp, claim conditions in the Nissen Huts there were far superior.
Photo above:Cooks and Waitresses, Holden Camp Northam,ca 1952
Courtesy B.van Welie.

Jan Peters laying the foundation for the family home using rocks he, his wife and children had collected in the bush and on farms in the area.

Jan Peters laying the foundation for the family home using rocks he, his wife and children had collected in the bush and on farms in the area.
Courtesy R.Peters.

The fact that the Dutch were favoured migrants made the transition tolerable. Australian authorities considered them an attractive alternative to British migrants.

Australia wanted Britons and when not enough British wanted to emigrate, the blonde, blue-eyed, Dutch families were given surrogate British status.

Photo:Twenty-one year old Riek Den Hollander with 2year old Lien outside their tram carriage,1951.
Courtesy: R.Den Hollander.

The bulk of Dutch migration occurred when assimilation was the accepted policy in both the Netherlands and Australia.

Dutch authorities instructed prospective emigrants not to use Australian emigration organisations but to find their own way. As a consequence the Dutch were viewed as model assimilators who quickly and unquestioningly took on the Australian way of life.

Photo:The Peters Family Café, Toodyay 1952.
Courtesy N.Peters

Postwar Dutch were also highly valued as employees, with most employers describing them as good workers. The Dutch are strongly represented in the trades and occupations requiring tertiary or management skills, and live in areas with a high standard of housing. The high rate of home ownership among the community is associated with frugality, working a great deal of overtime or working more than one job. Many Dutch also worked hard to start their own business and by 1991 the Netherlands-born had the highest self-employed profile of all WA's ethnic groups.

Apart from a small sect of Free Reformed community who settled in Armadale and Albany, the WA Dutch are among the least spatially concentrated of all migrant groups. They tend to prefer Perth's outer suburbs such as Gosnells, Cannington and Wanneroo and Melville to suburbs closer to the city. Many are also located in mining towns in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions, gold-mining towns such as Kalgoorlie and Boulder, and the coastal towns of Broome, Geraldton, Carnarvon, Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Esperance and Mandurah. Around 84 per cent of early arrivals are naturalised compared to only 34 per cent for those who came after 1976.

Like most other ethnic groups the Dutch established social clubs to help individuals and families over the worst years of resettlement. Here they could share hardships, acquire local information and celebrate traditional Dutch events such as Sinter Klaas and Karnival. The first club met in a hired hall in King Street, Perth. By the 1960s separate interest groups had merged to establish the clubhouse Neerlandia . Dutch businessmen created a Chamber of Commerce and the ex-servicemen also have their own meeting place. In recent times the second generation have set up the Dutch Australia Community Service (DACS) and the Australia Netherlands Society of WA (ANSWA), an umbrella association, whose major aims are aged care and the preservation of Dutch culture and heritage.

Oma Verhoeven arrives in Western Australia, one of many grandmothers on board the ship.

Courtesy R & B. Peters.

Despite the struggles and difficulties of the first years it can be said that the Dutch 'made it in Australia'. Income statistics show the Dutch made a good living here, and that Australia benefited enormously from their presence because it gained their trades-skills without apprenticeship costs.

Oma Peters visits Australia. At Kees Hermans nightclub with sons Jan and Emily and their wives Johanna and Margaret ca 1964.

Oma Peters visits Australia. At Kees Hermans nightclub with sons Jan and Emily and their wives Johanna and Margaret ca 1964.

The tradesmen among them gained a good reputation in house building and as tool makers at engineering firms such as Chamberlain Tractors. They also played a prominent role as employees of BP at Kwinana. The largest WA shipbuilding yards were established by Nederlanders. Dutch professionals are currently employed in management, they are architects, engineers, academics or they run their own businesses. The Dutch also made an enormous contribution to music, theatre, literature, painting and sculpting, and were among the first migrant groups to introduce West Australians to soccer. The exact nature of their involvement in establishing soccer as a legitimate WA sport is discussed at length by Hank Beuman in the book “Soccer”.

Photo above:Oma Peters visits Australia. At Kees Hermans nightclub with sons Jan and Emily and their wives Johanna and Margaret ca 1964.
Courtesy J.Peters.

Dr Nonja I. Peters

|||