Maritime heritage

In 1606, Dutchman Willem Janszoon and his crew on the Duyfken made the first European landing on the Australian continent. A cohort of Dutch explorers followed, including Dirk Hartog (1616), Abel Tasman (1642) and Willem de Vlaminck (1697). The Dirk Hartog plate is the oldest European object ever found on Australian soil and Abel Tasman was the first to circumnavigate Australia. Some Dutch journeys to Australia ended in shipwrecks, leaving lasting traces along the Australian coastline. So far, four Dutch shipwrecks; Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656), Zuytdorp (1712) and Zeewijk (1727) have been found off the west coast of Australia. In 2023, Australian researchers located the shipwreck site of Koning Willem de Tweede, an 800-ton Dutch merchant sailing ship lost in Guichen Bay near Robe, South Australia in June 1857. Other shipwrecks are still missing. Over the past decade the embassy has supported numerous maritime heritage research projects including the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project 'Shipwrecks of the Roaring 40s', a project on the shipwreck of the Fortuyn, as well as the project 'Ship Shapes'.
Read more about Dutch-Australian maritime heritage cooperation.


Agreement between Australia and the Netherlands Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS)
In 1972, the discoveries and consequent excavations of four shipwrecks led to the ‘Agreement between Australia and the Netherlands Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks’ (ANCODS). Under this agreement the wrecks and artefacts belonging to the Batavia, Vergulde Draeck, Zuytdorp and Zeewijk were divided between Australia and the Netherlands. In 2006, on the commemoration of 400 years of our bilateral relationship, the Netherlands Government announced it would offer its share of these assets to Australia. The official handover took place in November 2010 at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. The entire collection, documented and photographed, is available online, in the ANCODS Collection Database’.

Military heritage

During World War II, the Netherlands and Australia became close allies. A catastrophic event in 1942 stands as a significant historical milestone linking the two nations. As part of the allied opposition to Japan, the Royal Netherlands and Netherlands East Indies forces operated from Australian territory. Following the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies (present-day Indonesia), military personnel and civilian refugees fled to Australia. On 3 March 1942, nine flying boats carrying civilian evacuees, as well as military and diplomatic personnel en route to the port of Broome in Western Australia, were attacked by Japanese naval forces. The attack resulted in numerous fatalities and injuries among those on board the aircraft. Estimates indicate that at least 100 people lost their lives that morning, 64 of whom were Dutch. The remains of the flying boats are still visible at low tide. The embassy works closely with the Shire of Broome and other partners to preserve and commemorate this shared military history. For more information, please visit the website of the Australian War Memorial, where the online exhibition Allies in Adversity focuses on on the Dutch–Australian experience of the war in the Pacific, 1941–45.

Migrant heritage

The connection between the Netherlands and Australia strengthened when Australia welcomed Dutch migrants, especially in the aftermath of World War II. Between 1947 and 1970, around 160,000 Dutch migrants came to Australia, where they contributed to Australian society, culture, and prosperity and became an integral contributor to shaping the nation. As part of shared ambitions, Australian libraries, archival institutions and museums are actively digitising their heritage collections with assets that exemplify migrant experiences to enrich future generations. As our shared heritage is often part of these collections, the embassy encourages initiatives that help digitise this heritage and offer public outcomes to enrich our knowledge sharing. In 2018, the embassy began collaborating with the National Archives of Australia, the Nationaal Archief and the Huygens Instituut in the Netherlands to digitise more than 1,280 records. These records are now accessible to families and researchers in Australia and overseas. You can explore Dutch migrant stories on on the website of the National Archives of Australia.

Mercantile heritage

A significant proportion of post-war Dutch migrants contributed to the Australian economy as entrepreneurs and manufacturers, establishing businesses and consequently creating a strong legacy of mercantile heritage. The Dutch were often described as the invisible migrants because they integrated well into Australian society. The Australian Census of 2016 recorded 70,165 Netherlands-born people in Australia, whilst 339,549 of the respondents claimed Dutch ancestry. The 2021 census concludes that there are 66,481 persons (0.26%) born in the Netherlands and 381,946 (1.5 %) of Dutch descent currently living in Australia.
In addition to these long-established communities, a substantial number of Dutch expatriates continue to reside in Australia, working for both Dutch and Australian companies, many of whom remain professionally connected through various Dutch–Australian business councils and industry networks.