Dutch Australians () refers to

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizenship, citizens, nationality, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Aust ...

of Dutch ancestry. They form one of the largest groups of the

Dutch diaspora The Dutch diaspora consists of Dutch people, the Dutch and their descendants living outside the Netherlands. Emigration from the Netherlands has been occurring for since at least the 17th century, and may be traced back to the international pre ...

outside Europe. At the 2021 census, 381,946 people nominated Dutch ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry), representing 1.5% of the Australian population. At the 2021 census, there were 66,481 Australian residents who were born in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

History

Early history

The history of the Dutch and Australia began with Captain

Willem Janszoon Willem Janszoon (; ) was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. He served in the Dutch East Indies in the periods 1603–1611 and 1612–1616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of Solor. During his voyage of 1605–1606 ...

, a Dutch seafarer, who was the first European to land on Australian soil (which he christened as New Holland) in 1606. The

Dutch East Indies Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Neth ...

(VOC) had its headquarters in the Far East in Batavia (now

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

) from 1619 but traded from many Asian harbours from 1602. The journey from the Netherlands to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

would take more than a year by traditional route, but after the discovery of the

Roaring Forties The Roaring Forties are strong westerlies, westerly winds that occur in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40th parallel south, 40° and 50th parallel south, 50° south. The strong eastward air currents are caused by ...

by Dutch Captain Hendrick Brouwer, who established the so-called Brouwer Route in 1611, the voyage would be cut short by months by taking a trajectory along the southern latitudes of the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. By 1617 all VOC ships were ordered to take that route. The navigation technique of that time, known as

dead reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and incorporating estimates of speed, heading (or direction or course), and elapsed time. T ...

, caused some ships to travel too far east and so they sighted the Australian west coast, and a small number of them were wrecked there.

Dirk Hartog Dirk Hartog (; baptised 30 October 1580 – buried 11 October 1621) was a 17th-century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the second European group to land in Australia and the first to leave behind an artifact to record hi ...

made the first European landing of the Australian west coast with a pewter plate in 1616. Known ships wrecked off that include the '' Batavia'', the '' Vergulde Dreak'', the '' Zuytdorp'' and the ''

Zeewijk The ''Zeewijk'' (or ''Zeewyk'') was an 18th-century East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company (, commonly abbreviated to VOC) that was shipwrecked at the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia, on 9 June 1727. The survivors ...

''. The wreck of the ''Batavia'' on Houtman Abrolhos during her maiden voyage turned into a bloody mutiny, led by Jeronimus Corneliszoon, after the survivors had landed on an island and Commander Pelsaert had left to get help. On his return, he court-marshalled the mutineers, some of whom were hanged. Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom the Bie were convicted mutineers, but because of their youth, they put on the mainland with some provisions to fend for themselves. They became arguably the first convicts to be dumped on the mainland. The most famous Dutch seafarer to explore the Australian coasts is

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch sea explorer, seafarer and exploration, explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New ...

, who was the first to circumvigate the continent, in 1642–1643. He established that the land was not the gigantic legendary southern continent that included the South Pole and named the land '' New Holland''.

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, which Tasman had named Van Diemens Land and the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 wa ...

, were eventually named after him. Most of the Australian coastline, excluding the east coast and the eastern part of the south coast, was first charted by VOC mariners. The continent would be renamed "

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

" in the 19th century.

20th century

A number of people from the

(present-day

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

) found their way to Australia during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and joined Allied forces in the fight against the Japanese. The Dutch East Indies government operated from Australia during the war. Free Dutch Submarines operated out of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

after the invasion of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

. The joint No. 18 and No. 120

RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...

squadrons formed at Canberra, and was a combined Dutch and Australian Squadron. It used B-25 Mitchell bombers, supplied by the Dutch Government before the war. The Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) was based in Melbourne during the war. Post-war settlers in Australia arrived as part of Australia's assisted migration program. Many arrived by sea on the MS ''Johan van Oldenbarnevelt'', while others flew with KLM.

Demographics

Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Inner Sydney by SLA - BCP field 1072 Dutch Total Responses

At the 2021 census, 381,946 people nominated Dutch ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry), representing 1.5% of the Australian population. At the 2021 census, there were 66,481 Australian residents who were born in the

. Besides Netherlands, large number of Australians with Dutch Ancestry have origin from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. These countries have had a long and extensive History of Dutch Colonialism.

Notable Dutch Australians

* Brendon Ah Chee,

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er * Callum Ah Chee, Australian rules footballer * Leila Alcasid, singer and songwriter * Beeb Birtles, musician * Andrew Bolt, political commentator * Dirk Bolt, architect * Stephanie Brantz, sports presenter * Paul Cox, filmmaker * Guillaume Daniel Delprat, GM BHP * Joe de Bruyn * Mitchell Langerak * Chris Vermeulen * Kate Langbroek, broadcaster and comedian * Dick Dusseldorp, filmmaker * John Elferink * Joanna Gash * Kurt Lambeck, geophysicist and glaciologist *

Rolf de Heer Rolf de Heer (born 4 May 1951) is a Dutch Australian film director. De Heer was born in Heemskerk in the Netherlands but migrated to Sydney when he was eight years old.

, filmmaker *

Chris Hemsworth Christopher Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, and Bulman, Northern Territory, he rose to prominence playing Kim Hyde in the Australian television series ''Home and Away'' (2004� ...

, actor *

Liam Hemsworth Liam Hemsworth (born 13 January 1990) is an Australian actor. He played the roles of Josh Taylor (Neighbours), Josh Taylor in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' and Marcus in the children's television series ''The Elephant Princess''. In American fi ...

, actor * Annita Keating van Iersel * Hendrik (Hank) Koopman, country music artistthe book of Australian Country Music. The Berghouse Floyd Tuckey Publishing Company * Willy Lust, athlete *

Gerlof Mees Gerlof Fokko Mees (16 June 1926 – 31 March 2013) was a Dutch ichthyologist, ornithologist and museum curator. During 1946 to 1949 he took part as a conscript in the military actions to reestablish rule in the Dutch East Indies. During that time ...

, ornithologist, curator, and ichthyologist * Dirk Nannes * Jan Ruff O'Herne, human rights activist * Ryan Papenhuyzen, rugby league player * Nonja Peters * Eric Roozendaal * Roy Rene, comedian & vaudevillian * Ben Rutten, Australian rules footballer * Alexander Smits * Lina Teoh, model, actress, TV host, former Channel VJ, and former beauty queen ( Miss World 1998), born to Dutch mother *

Harry Vanda Johannes Hendrikus Jacob van den Berg (born 22 March 1946), better known as Harry Vanda, is a Dutch-Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as lead guitarist of the 1960s Australian rock band the Easybeats who wi ...

* Richard Vandenberg, Australian rules footballer * Nathan Van Berlo, Australian rules footballer * Timm van der Gugten, cricketer * Paul Vander Haar * Michelle van Eimeren, former beauty queen and former actress and TV host in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

* Dan van Holst Pellekaan - 14th Deputy Premier of South Australia * Alfred van der Poorten, number theorist * Peter van Onselen, author & academic * Bert van Manen * Jan Hendrik Scheltema, artist * Tammy van Wisse * Johnny Young * Gus Winckel, military officer and pilot * Richard Woldendorp, photographer * Scott Edwards (cricketer), captain of The Netherlands Cricket team * John van Lieshout, Queensland's richest person, from furniture stores and real estate development

References

External links

Netherlands–Australia, 1606–2006

Dutch in Australia at the Australian War Memorial

Dutch Club in South Australia
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