Buildings and facilities during the Dutch period

 

The following photographs, marked Collection Jack Ford, are copies of photographs supplied by Jean van Schilfgaarde. Dr Jack Ford contacted Jean while researching his publication Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War. Jean was an Australian civilian employee of the Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) and worked in its Mapping Room at Camp Columbia. Her recollections can be read here.

Camp Columbia, Wacol -office blocks used by the NEI Government-in-Exile. Collection Jack Ford

 

They constructed new office buildings, club facilities and a laundry while showers and toilets were added to the accommodation huts. After taking advice from US authorities, the Australian Government took the unusual step of not charging the Dutch for the lease of the site under a Reciprocal Lend Lease arrangement((In return for Lend Lease aid, Allied nations were to provide goods or services to the United States for their assistance in the war under a program known as reverse or reciprocal lend lease. Similar arrangements were made between other allies such as in this case between Australia and the Netherlands. allowing for the provision of aid between World War II allies with war materials, such as ammunition, tanks, airplanes, and trucks, and with food and other goods.

According to Lockwood (Rupert Lockwood – The Indonesian Exiles in Australia, 1942-47), there was criticisms about the rather luxurious renovation, including beer gardens for the Dutch colonial officers amidst war time austerity. It was thought that the  American camp, certainly by Australian military  standards was already in an excellent condition. Over the following months the following groups moved to Camp Columbia and some of the other buildings in Brisbane:

• The seat of the NEI Government-in-Exile was established in the former HQ of the US 6th Army.
• The headquarters of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL)
• Specialised Dutch military units moved to Brisbane to serve the NEI government-in-exile.
• The Women’s Corps of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (VK-KNIL) moved to Camp Columbia. Members received training at Camp Columbia and at other facilities in Brisbane, including Yeronga Park.
• The Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) transferred its headquarters from Melbourne to Camp Columbia during 1944. From Wacol it collected and analysed intelligence concerning the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies and worked within the wider Allied intelligence network operating in the Southwest Pacific Area. NEFIS also maintained offices in central Brisbane.
• Netherlands Indies Government Information Service (NIGIS)
• The NEI Army Air Corps (Militaire Luchtvaart or ML-KNIL) leased fourth floor offices in the Courier Building at 240 Queen Street, as headquarters.
• Mornington House Wooloowin housed Dutch aircrew who flew air transport for Camp Columbia.
• By June 1944 there were 16 Dutch Dakota aircraft concentrated at Archerfield aerodrome.
• The NEI government-in-exile continued to rent the Pacific Private Hotel at 421 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley for use as a hotel or canteen for Dutch military personnel. There was another Dutch Canteen in Elizabeth Street in the city

NEFIS was the principal Netherlands Indies intelligence organisation operating from Australia. Its work included intelligence collection and analysis, interrogation, mapping and geographical intelligence, liaison with Allied organisations and support for clandestine missions into Japanese-occupied territory. For the detailed history of NEFIS at Camp Columbia, see Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS): Dutch Intelligence in Exile at Camp Columbia.

The Netherlands Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) was a Dutch military intelligence service during and after World War II. The purpose of the NEFIS was initially to collect intelligence for the Allied forces with regard to the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) that was occupied by Japan. It operated from Melbourne and later from Camp Columbia in Brisbane. 

Two small warehouses were also allotted to the Dutch at the US supply base at Camp Meeandah, Pinkenba. These and other Dutch facilities elsewhere in Brisbane were connected through the city’s road, rail, port and air-transport networks.

Other facilities moved to Camp Columbia too. The Bank voor Nederlandsch Indie NV (NEI Bank Ltd), that controlled the currency supply for the liberated parts of the NEI, was one of the first. The Bank oversaw the NEI government-in-Exile’s new economic agencies. These were:

• The Nederlandsche Indische Escompto Maatschappij NV (NEI Discount Co Ltd);
• The Nederlandsche Indische Handelsbank NV (NEI Commercial Bank Ltd); and
• The Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij NV (Dutch Trading Company Ltd).

 

The Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) established its headquarters at Camp Columbia. NICA personnel accompanied Allied forces into territories recovered from Japanese occupation and were responsible for restoring civil administration, organising relief and helping re-establish essential government services. Camp Columbia became an important headquarters, preparation and staging base for this work. Formal civil-administration training also took place elsewhere in Australia, including at a NICA administration school in Melbourne.

 

Some of the key activities that took place from their new premises in Camp Columbia:

• Negotiating the acquisition of civil relief supplies with the Australian Government and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (from 1945 onwards).
• Seeking Australian approval for Dutch forces being raised in Europe to be based and trained in Australia before deployment to the Netherlands East Indies. The proposed large-scale training scheme was ultimately not implemented.
• Signing of the Principles Governing Arrangements for Civil Administration and Jurisdiction in Netherlands Territory in the Southwest Pacific Area agreement with General Douglas MacArthur on 10 December 1944.

• 

  Supplying members to the Dutch delegation to the UN Plenary Conference held in San Francisco (25 April to 26 June 1945), where the Charter of the United Nations was officially and unanimously adopted by the 50 states present, representing over 80% of the global population.

• On 8 August 1945: Seargent Mauritz Christiaan Kokkelink, of the Royal Netherlands Army, was decorated with the highest military award of his country, the Militaire Willems Orde, at Camp Columbia in front of 500 of the highest-ranking Dutch and Allied service men and women.

The Navy and Air Force headquarters didn’t move to Camp Columbia. The Royal Netherlands Navy was situated at 441 St Kilda Road in Melbourne and the Air Force was a few door further on at 431 St Kilda Road.

Relations between Dutch and Australian authorities were not always straightforward. One recurring issue concerned Netherlands Indies personnel brought to Australia from liberated areas without the documentation required by Australian immigration authorities. Australia’s restrictive immigration policies and security procedures created administrative difficulties, while Dutch authorities sometimes regarded the requirements as impractical in wartime circumstances. These disagreements occasionally produced diplomatic friction between the two governments. An interesting case involved a Dutch dance group that toured the Allied Forces in the South West Pacific in 1945.

Housing

A large number of buildings were built scattered  between the headquarters and the hospital.  They are both side of the Wacol Station Road. It was in these house, close to Sandy Creek, that a large number of the Dutch staff members were housed. This is also the area where the dog tag of Willy de Eeren was found (see below) as well as other Dutch artifacts, by people using detectors. There are several remnants of buildings in the area on the side of the Wacol Station Road that is now situated in the Pooh Corner Reserve.  It is yet unknown what these remnants represent perhaps part of a kitchen, other parts of an ablution pit. The houses here were not connected to the main sewerage facility.

There is also a track (Picture right –  top left) that would have been a previous road in this area.  A bit further to the north are the ruins of the above mentioned sewerage plant (bottom right). From here the pipes would come down from the headquarter buildings on the top of the hill. Part of the current walking track through the Reserve follows these pipes and some of the pipes, wrapped in concrete is now exposed (2 pics bottom left). There are also the remnant of a bridge over Sandy Creek, used for the sewerage pipes (top right).

Claire Wilson (nee Evans) recalls in the book World War II stories from Brisbane’s South West by Vicki  Mynott:

“In the latter years of the war we got to know some of the Dutch soldiers as they visited our homes for meals, music and relaxation. I have a letter from the family of one in Holland, thanking my aunt Audrey Jones for the parcel of handknitted articles she had made for them”.

Next: The Dutch Women Army Corps 

 Return to Camp Columbia Heritage Park, Wacol, Brisbane TOC