Netherlands

Due to an economic crisis after the Second World War, the government of the Netherlands encouraged Dutch migration to other countries. This resulted in the arrival of thousands of Dutch immigrants to Australia in the years following the war.

Dutch immigrants also arrived from Indonesia after 1949, when the Indonesian government declared independence from Dutch colonialization.

In the 2021 Census, 381,948 Australians self-identified as having Dutch ancestry. 

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Stephanie Brantz and her family.

Stephanie Brantz

Stephanie Brantz is a freelance television presenter whose Dutch parents Hans and Philippina Brantz migrated to Australia as a married couple in 1966.
6 members of the Hoogenhout family walking down a footpath with their arms linked.

The Hoogenhout family

Nieske and Jan Hoogenhout migrated from the Netherlands and became an important part of the Sheffield community with their family bakery.
Passport photos of Cees and Ina Huig.

Cees, Ina and Irwin Huig

Cees Huig migrated from the Netherlands to Australia with his wife Ina and their 3 children in 1972.
Petronella Wensing.

Petronella Wensing

Petronella, an internationally recognised lace artist, migrated to Australia with her husband Michael in 1953.

The Wolswinkel family on arrival in Melbourne.

Henk Wolswinkel

Henk Wolswinkel, the youngest of 13 children, boarded the Dutch migrant ship Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in Amsterdam in 1957.

Sherry Wright.

Sherry Wright

Sherry migrated from Holland to Australia with her parents in 1950. She became a popular teenage television personality, and later a social worker.

Marretje and Gerard van Wezel.

Gerard and Marretje van Wezel

Dutch migrants Gerard and Marretje met while Gerard was working on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Authority scheme.
Adriana smiling and holding her baby Ricky.

Adriana Zevenbergen

Adriana Zevenbergen arrived at Melbourne’s Station Pier in 1958 as Australia’s 100,000th Dutch migrant.
A man and a woman outside in the sun.

Immigration publicity photos

By the 1960s the Immigration Department’s publicity campaign to attract migrants to Australia was in full swing.