Forgotten allies: how Brisbane’s WWII history has faded from Dutch memory

Even in Brisbane, the global importance of the city’s role during World War II is largely unknown. While many locals are aware of the large American presence, few know that the Dutch also operated from here during the Pacific War. Even fewer in the Netherlands would be aware of the role their country played in the conflict against Japan—despite the fact that more Dutch military personnel died in Southeast Asia than in Europe during the war, and that the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) government-in-exile was based in Brisbane from 1944 to 1946.

As I delved deeper into this history, I began to wonder: what do Australian, American, and Dutch WWII sources say about Brisbane? And how well is the Dutch contribution in the Pacific—military, diplomatic, and colonial—represented in the Netherlands’ broader war narrative? In all cases, the answer is disappointingly little.

I am exploring my findings in a series of articles, each examining how Brisbane’s wartime role is viewed—or overlooked—through American, Dutch, and Australian perspectives.

This article focuses on the Dutch experience.

The NEI government-in-exile in Brisbane

After the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in early 1942, the colonial government fled to Australia. First based in Melbourne, it moved to Brisbane in early 1944. From Camp Columbia in the outer suburb of Wacol, the government-in-exile coordinated military and civil planning for the reoccupation of the Dutch East Indies, under the assumption that the colony would be restored to Dutch rule once Japan was defeated.

Brisbane became home to:

The Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA), which trained civil servants for post-war governance;
The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), restructured and retrained in coordination with Allied forces;
The Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) and Government Information Service (NEIGIS);
Dutch-language publications and radio broadcasts aimed at sustaining morale and Dutch legitimacy.

This was a for Australia unique event: a foreign government operating on Australian soil, in close cooperation with American and Australian commands. Yet it has been virtually forgotten in both Dutch and Australian historical consciousness.

Dutch forces in the Pacific War

While the NEI government attempted to preserve Dutch sovereignty, Dutch military forces continued the fight alongside the Allies. This included:

The Navy and Merchant Navy

The Netherlands Royal Navy and the Netherlands Merchant Navy became part of the U.S. Seventh Fleet – which was established in Brisbane in 1942 – playing key roles in escort missions, supply chains, and direct combat. Dutch submarines operated from Fremantle and Brisbane, contributing to patrols along Japanese-occupied waters.

The Dutch Merchant Navy, one of the largest in the world before the war, became vital in transporting Allied troops and cargo across the Pacific. Many ships were crewed by Indonesians and Moluccans as well as Dutch sailors.

The Air Force

The Netherlands East Indies Air Force was reassembled in Australia and operated out of northern bases in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Dutch pilots flew bombing raids on Japanese positions in Borneo, Sulawesi, and Java—well before their homeland was liberated in Europe.

KNIL ground operations and guerrilla campaigns

Less widely known is the fact that elements of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) continued to fight Japanese forces in isolated and rugged areas of Dutch New Guinea and Timor well after the fall of NEI in 1942. These military guerrilla campaigns, supported by Dutch submarines, Australian troops and Allied intelligence, extended into 1943 and even 1944, with Dutch military conducting sabotage, intelligence gathering, and hit-and-run operations under extraordinarily harsh conditions. The casualties were severe, and many of those captured faced brutal treatment or death (even sometimes beheading) at the hands of Japanese forces.

What the records—and Jack Ford—reveal

This history is extensively documented in archives but remains underrepresented in public memory. The most comprehensive study to date is Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War (1996) by Australian historian Dr Jack Ford. Uniquely, Ford—a Brisbane-born academic—was the first and possibly only scholar to examine Dutch-Australian WWII cooperation in detail.

Ford’s 468-page book, based on deep research in both Australian and Dutch archives, outlines how Dutch military and diplomatic efforts were managed from Australia, how tensions with Australian policymakers developed, and how Camp Columbia functioned as a key node of Dutch wartime authority. He also devotes serious attention to KNIL’s guerrilla operations, Dutch resistance to Japanese occupation, and the lasting legacy of these efforts. The book is virtually unknown in both Australia and the Netherlands, but it stands as essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the depth of Dutch wartime involvement.

The Camp Columbia Heritage Association would support a new publication of this book.

Dutch sources that do record this history

In addition to Ford’s work, several Dutch archival and scholarly sources provide valuable documentation:

Nationaal Archief – Algemene Secretarie van de Nederlands-Indische Regering (1944–1950)
Contains government records from the NEI government in exile, including communications with Allied commands, internal policy documents, and reports from NICA and NEFIS units.
“Afscheid van Indië” (Farewell to the Indies), Nationaal Archief Magazine (2007/2)
Offers an accessible narrative of the Dutch administrative transition to Brisbane and the late colonial bureaucracy’s final phase.
Archief Ministerie van Koloniën (The Hague)
Provides background on the colonial frameworks that structured Dutch military and administrative strategy in the Pacific.

Despite the availability of these records, they remain largely untouched in Dutch schools, public exhibitions, and media narratives.

More Dutch military casualties in the Pacific than in Europe?

One of Ford’s striking claims, based on wartime records, is that more Dutch military personnel died in the war in East and Southeast Asia than in Europe. This includes:

Thousands lost in the Battle of the Java Sea and during the fall of the NEI;
Prisoners of war and forced labourers who died in Japanese captivity;
Deaths among Dutch guerrilla fighters in Timor and New Guinea;
Other naval and merchant navy losses across the Pacific campaign.
Hundreds of Dutch pilots and other air force personnel during the bombing campaigns.

While exact casualty figures will need to be further examined in more detail, Ford’s early analysis strongly supports the assertion that the war in Asia cost the Netherlands more military lives than the European campaign.

Reconnecting the narrative

For Dutch-Australian families, and for educators in both countries, this is an opportunity to reconnect with a complex and important chapter of shared history. The Dutch presence in wartime Brisbane challenges the notion that the Netherlands’ WWII experience was confined to Europe. It also reminds us of the deep and largely unacknowledged ties between Australia and the Netherlands during one of the most consequential periods in both nations’ histories.

We invite Dutch historians, schools, veterans’ organisations, and institutions to help recover this story—not to glorify the colonial past, but to ensure it is understood in its full historical context.

For more resources, visit www.campcolumbia.com.au, where this article forms part of a broader series on Brisbane’s global wartime legacy.

Paul Budde