Enrich - Australia

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Canberra (Australia) actively promotes Dutch-Australian international heritage co-operations focusing on tangible and intangible legacies that enrich our two countries. One of the highlighted priorities is heritage, as this domain “contributes to mutual understanding, especially where there is a shared history.”

The embassy’s international heritage program identifies four themes; the so-called four Ms: Maritime, Military, Migrant and Mercantile heritage as reflections of our shared heritage.

We are enriched by programs and collaborations that contribute to our shared understanding through scholarly research including maritime archaeological projects, sustainable preservation of our mutual heritage, particularly through digitization; the role of First Nations communities in our shared history and contemporary public outcomes that express our shared history through exhibitions, performance activations and community engagement.

The embassy acknowledges the importance of the 400th anniversaries of the wreckages of the Zeewijk (2027) and the Batavia (2029).

ENRICH:  MARITIME MILITARY MIGRANT and MERCANTILE   

Maritime

The historical connections between Australia and the Netherlands dates to the 17th century, when Dutch VOC ships mapped and charted the Australian continent, long before the arrival of Captain Cook. 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 of the Dutch journeys to Australia ended in shipwrecks. 2029 marks the four hundredth anniversary of the Batavia shipwreck off the coast of Western Australia. Whilst four Dutch shipwrecks, including the Batavia, have been found in Australian waters, others are still missing.

ANCODS

In 1972 the discoveries and consequent excavations of shipwrecks led to the ‘Agreement between the Netherlands and Australia Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks’ (ANCODS). Under this agreement the wrecks and artefacts belonging to them 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 November 2010 at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. 
The entire collection, documented and photographed, is available online, in the ANCODS Collection Database’.

ENRICH: OUR MILITARY HERITAGE  

During World War II, the Netherlands and Australia became close allies.
A catastrophic event in 1942 identifies as a historic milestone that connects the two nations.
As part of the allied opposition to Japan, the Royal Netherlands and East Indies Forces operated from Australia. After the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) fell to the Japanese, soldiers and refugees fled to Australia. On 3 March 1942, nine flying boats carrying civilian evacuees, military, and diplomatic personnel enroute to the port of Broome, Western Australia, were attacked by Japanese naval forces causing numerous fatalities and casualties of those on board the aircrafts. Estimates present that at least 100 people died on that tragic morning, of which 64 were Dutch. The remains of the flying boats are still visible at low tide. The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherland works closely with the Shire of Broome and its historical society to preserve and honour this shared history.

MIGRATION: A STORY OF ENRICHMENT   

The connection between the Netherlands and Australia strengthened when Australia welcomed Dutch migrants, most especially in the aftermath of World War II. Between 1947-1970, around 160,000 Dutch migrants came to Australia, where they contributed to Australian society, culture, and prosperity and become an integral contributor to shaping the nation.

A great percentage of Dutch migrants contributed to the Australian economy as entrepreneurs and manufacturers, setting up businesses and consequently building the strong legacy of mercantile heritage. The Dutch were so called as the invisible migrants as they integrated well into the 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.

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 share.  

CASE STUDY

The National Archives of Australia is currently working with the Dutch National Archives (Nationaal Archief) in a 4-tier partnership scoping of their collections and identifying records related to Dutch-Australian relationships. So far, more than five hundred records relating to Dutch migration have been digitised and have laid the foundations of a pilot with the Dutch research institute Huygens ING to link metadata and records from the collections of both archives.
As another example, the National Film and Sound Archives of Australia has completed a four-year project with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid) to digitize Dutch-Australian AV-heritage and make it accessible to the public.