Compiled by Ruby Todorovski, Researcher University of Queensland for the Camp Columbia Archaeological Project.

• March 1942: Japanese troops take over the Netherlands East Indies.
• April 1942: The Netherlands East Indies Commission for Australia and New Zealand was formally created to look after NEI commercial interests in Australia. The office was at Collins Street, Melbourne.
• October 1942: Camp Columbia was built by the U.S. Army.
• April 1943: Camp Columbia becomes headquarters of the US 6th Army.
• July 1943: Rear-Admiral F. W. Coaster, R. N. N. is appointed Representative in Australia of the NEI Red Cross. The Red Cross Office is in Temple Court 422 Collins Street, floor 7, room 15, Melbourne.  
• By mid-1943: the KNIL (the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army) had premises on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, and at 4 Mugga Way, Canberra where the ambassadorial residence and chancellery of van Aerssen Beyeren was (the Netherlands Minister to Australia).
• 1st November 1943: Van Oyen (Head of the Department of War, NEI) arrives in Australia with a staff of 50 in order to establish a NEI Department of War. This marked the separation of the NEI military forces in Australia between naval, air and army. 
• March 1944: A Women’s KNIL Corps was established in Melbourne to train Dutch/NEI women as drivers, typists, nurses and other military administrative positions.
• 7th March 1944: The Australian Prime Minister Curtin assures the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ that the Dutch were not going to establish a Government in Australia.
• June 1944: The 1st Battalion of the KNIL was officially formed at Camp Casino, NSW. The KNIL had previously been based at Darley Camp, Victoria.
  • After this move, about 1000 Javanese in New Caledonia who had been working as plantation labourers during pre-War agreement were agreed to be brought over and including wives and families this extended to nearly 4000 individuals. 
  • Approximately 400 Indonesians were already living in Casino Camp, but tents were in short supply. The Australian Army undertook the transportation and supply of the Indonesians.
• June 1944: The US 6th Army headquarters moved to Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea.
• June 1944: Dutch refurbishment of Camp Columbia begins. This includes showers and toilets installed in accommodation huts and new office and club buildings being erected.
• July – August 1944: Members of the NEI Government took residency at Camp Columbia.
• August 1944: The Representative of NEI Red Cross changes from F. W. Coaster to Mr. N. S. Blom – who is a member of the NEI Commission for the Australia and New Zealand.
• 8th August 1944: Eleven Indonesian men arrived at Archerfield Aerodrome in a Dutch Aircraft without adequate registration to enter Australia. They were taken to Camp Columbia for questioning and to be either repatriated or absorbed into the NEI Forces
• 14th September 1944: Dutch royal decree (from London) that a NEI Government-in-exile had been instituted with Van Mook as Lieutenant Governor-General appointed as its head.
• 21st September 1944: Australian War Cabinet approves the Netherlands Governments proposal to base 30,000 troops in Australia for training and protection of the Pacific (especially in regard to NEI/Indonesia).
• 23rd October 1944: Van Mook reached Australia and took his seat at Camp Columbia. With this, the NEI Commission for Australia and New Zealand was dissolved.
  • The NEI Government-in-exile composed of:
    • Dr. H. J. van Mook: Lieutenant-Governor-General; and the Head of the Department.
    • Dr. N. S. Blom: Director of Justice.
    • Dr. R. E. Smits: Director of Finance.
    • Mr. Ch. O. van der Plas: Director of Interior and Chairman of the Board of Department Heads.
    • Mr. P. A. Kerstens: Director of Education.
    • Dr. J. E. van Hoogatraten: Director of Economic Affairs and acting general Secretary of the Government.
    • Mr. P. H. W. Stisen: Director of Public Works.
    • Lt. General L. H. van Oyen, C.I.C Netherlands Indies Army and Head of Department of War)
• December 1944: The Headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Navy is 441 St. Kilda road, Melbourne. The Air Force Headquarters is 431 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne. The Headquarters of the NEI army is Camp Columbia.
• 7th – 9th January 1945: Representatives of the Australian Curtin Government met with Dutch representatives to discuss the future of the NEI. This was held at the Melbourne Hotel.
• 9th March 1945: Inventory was taken of the KNIL resources:
  • Two Companies in the Dutch New Guinea
  • Troops were being trained as guides and interpreters at Camp Casino, alongside recruits and unfit members of the 4th company.
  • Soldiers were attached to NICA (Netherlands Indies Civil Administration), NEFIS (Netherlands East-Indies Forces Intelligence Services), the Technical Battalion and guard detachments at Melbourne and Camp Columbia. This gave a total of 1350 personnel.
• 12th April 1945: US Prime Minister Roosevelt dies. His successor, Harry Truman, had less ties to the Dutch and far less excitement in aiding them to reclaim the Indies.
• 16th May 1945: Seven officers of the NEI Forces took the oath of allegiance to their Queen at Camp Columbia. Three of these were appointed officers of the Netherlands East Indies Women’s Auxiliary Corps, and are the first officers to be sworn into this corps.
• 28th June 1945: The Australian War Cabinet rejects the previous approval to accept the 30,000 Dutch troops to be based in Australia.
• June-September 1945: a wave of crime hit Camp Casino, causing the Acting-Premier of NSW to watch the KNIL base closely. Accusations were made by locals that the Indonesian and West Indian soldiers were introducing ‘immoral behaviour, drinking and gambling’ to young local girls.
  • Between the 16th and 21st of July thirteen Indigenous locals were convicted on charges of drunkenness and resisting arrest, the main cause of which was said to be the illegal trade in alcohol between the Javanese based at Casino and the Indigenous locals.
• 5th July 1945: Australian Prime Minister John Curtin dies, leaving Ben Chifley as the new Prime Minister.
• 26th July 1945: UK Prime Minister Churchill resigned after his government lost an election. This ended much of the relationship between the Dutch government and the UK, the former of which had resided in London during German occupation.
• August 1945: The Air (transport) Squadron No 19 was formed at Archerfield so that various Dutch transport aircraft could be grouped under one organisation for the purpose of administration and operational control.
• 8th August 1945: Seargent Maurits Christlaan 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.
• 15th August 1945: This marks the official date for the end of the Japanese war.
• 17th August 1945: Indonesian Nationalists declare the Republic of Indonesia independent (of previous Dutch colonisers)
• 27th August 1945: Dutch Army Sargant-Major I. Dinger, from Heerlen in Holland, and NEI Army nurse Sergeant Cobl Calje, from Eindheven Holland, were married in the Ann Street Presbyterian Church, Brisbane.
  • The couple had met in an Army camp in England and were reunited in Brisbane.
  • A ceremony took place on the 28th of August at Camp Columbia according to the rites of the Dutch Church.
• 2nd September 1945: Peace treaty signed with Japan to officiate the end of the war.
• Mid-September 1945: 400 Indonesians went on strike at Camp Columbia in sympathy with the 200 Indonesian workers at Casino who were in confinement for refusing their sailing duty.
• 17th September 1945: Miss Gail Campbell, Domestic science student and NEI Government employee at Camp Columbia, entered the “Miss Australia” contest on behalf of the Bulimba-Hawthorne Returned Soldiers’ League subbranch to help the Anzac House Appeal.
• 25th September 1945: The Trades and Labour Council prevent waterside workers from working on Dutch ships in Brisbane after boxes labelled “comforts” were found to contain phosphorus bombs and tommy gun.
• 26th September 1945: Claims by Indonesian crews on Dutch ships extended, with Sydney Javanese also walking off one Dutch ship.
  • Three demands were made:
    • Support for the Indonesian Republican Government
    • Payment of deferred pay in Australia
    • Granting of freedom to all exiled Indonesians so that they could return home as free men and not as men in exile.
• By October 1945: 1000 refugees are staying in Camp Columbia, most of which have arrived via planes over the last few months. Camp Commandant Colonel De Stopelaar said most of the evacuees are (Dutch) women and children.
• 3rd October 1945: 200 Indonesian Seamen walk into Camp Columbia on strike, and were rounded up by police and customs officials, and were taken to the internment camp at Gaythorne.
• 4th October 1945: The Trades and Labour Council moved all Indonesian seamen who were accommodated in the Brisbane Trades hall to Camp Columbia (these were the men who had previously been on strike).
  • Waterside workers still refuse to work Dutch ships in port
• 4th October 1945: Western Australia prepares to receive Dutch evacuees recuperating from the NEI after the war. The head of NIWOE in Perth, Mr. J. W. Blok publicly seeks accommodation for these people, especially for a building to serve as an administrative centre. The evacuees were to recuperate in Australia for four to six months and were considered tourists who would add to the Australian economy, not just desperate evacuees. Many are set to arrive in October of 1945.
• 6th October 1945: The 200 men who had invaded at Camp Columbia were arrested officially under Commonwealth instructions as prohibited immigrants, as stated by the Minister for Immigration, Mr. Calwell. Ships were being found to remove these men from Australia.  
  • The Indonesians asked that space on Australian or British ships be set aside for Indonesian soldiers wishing to join the independence movement in Java. The government refused.  
  • The Australian government was informed that Indonesian soldiers are Dutch soldiers under Dutch military control. 
• November 1945: Australia is asked to take 50,000 Dutch evacuees from the NEI as the Indonesian population battles for independence. The Australian government had previously agreed to take on 5000, of which 1200 were already in the country. NIWOE has been struggling to find accommodation for these 5000 alone, with many posts put out to the public asking if people would billet families and children. The Dutch were hoping to evacuate at least 200,000 from the unsettled NEI, with many going to the Netherlands, and around 15,000 between Australia and New Zealand.
• 6th October 1945: The 200 men who had invaded at Camp Columbia were arrested officially under Commonwealth instructions as prohibited immigrants, as stated by the Minister for Immigration, Mr. Calwell. Ships were being found to remove these men from Australia.
  • The Indonesians have asked that space on Australian or British ships be set aside for Indonesian soldiers wishing to join the independence movement in Java. The government has refused.
  • They have been informed that Indonesian soldiers are Dutch soldiers under Dutch military control.
• 17th October 1945: 150 Indonesian militia men who had been camped at Wacol had been discharged by the Dutch authorities. The period for which they joined the NEI forces had expired, and they wanted to return home.
  • Indonesian Army and militiamen at Casino went on strike in protest against the treatment meted out to 23 Indonesian prisoners.
  • It was estimated that 1000 Indonesians remained in Australia at this point, with majority in Queensland.
• 18th October 1945: it is decided that 80-100 Dutch children, mostly from Java, are to be billeted at Fairbridge School, Pinjarra. They are estimated to arrive within November 1945. This was part of WA’s NIWOE programme for recuperating Dutch civilians in the NEI after the war.
• 24th October 1945: 100 Indonesian sea men strike and went to Camp Columbia, demanding accommodation and food from the Dutch, despite not wanting to have anything to do with the Dutch.
• 15th November 1945: 74 Indonesian seamen from Camp Columbia were taken by civil police to Boggo Road gaol. They had been convicted with 11 other Indonesian seamen in the Summons Court yesterday on charges of deserting a Dutch ship. Fines were given, and ten men refused and were thus taken to Boggo Road, the rest of the men joined today.
• By 17th November 1945: Dutch take over the Westminster Hospital in Perth (on Adelaide Terrace) as an evacuee medical centre. While the biggest ward is set aside for Australian patients, this hospital has initially, under the Dutch, taken on evacuees who were brought over from Java on the hospital ship Oranje which disembarked in Fremantle. The evacuees suffer from malnutrition, stomach troubles and nerve complaints. The evacuee medical centre is under the control of Dr. K. E. Surbek, who is the Netherlands representative of the International Red Cross.
• 5th December 1945: St Nicholas Day festival was held at the Dutch Club in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. 240 young Dutch evacuees were present for the festive occasion, which was arranged by N.I.W.O.E. (Netherlands East-Indies Welfare Organisation of Evacuees)
• 10th December 1945: the Australian Government agrees that all Dutch evacuees entering Australia will be placed in camps – they estimate to be able to fit 14,000 individuals.
• 17th December 1945: Number of Dutch nations in Australia: 
  • Camp Columbia: 400 
  • Hotel and guest houses: WA – 450; SA – 50; Vic – 700; NSW – 150 
  • Total 1750.
• 18th December 1945: Accommodation available in Australia for Dutch evacuees is around 10,000, with available camps at: 
  • Cowra: 4,000 
  • Harvey: 1,000 
  • Mt Martha: 4,500 
• 29th December 1945: Nearly 100 evacuees from Batavia are being brought to Brisbane each week by the NEI air force. They are staged at Camp Columbia.
  • Approximately 25-30 per day are arriving and being accommodated temporarily in Camp Columbia before being spread out in hotels, boarding houses and other unused establishments which were attained by Holst Pelikaan (Head of NIWOE, Melbourne).
• By January 1946: The Coolangatta camps were used to house evacuees under control of Dutch Authorities.
  • These camps were located at: Greenmount Hill, Marine Parade and Kirra Beach. All three had been established previously as leave centres for US naval personnel and later for officers and relatives of the British Navy.
  • These evacuees had replaced recuperating Australian ex-prisoners of the Japanese.
• 1st January 1946: There are 900 Dutch evacuees (lots of families) evacuated from Javanese and Japanese internment camps habilitated at Camp Columbia and cared for by the Netherlands Indies Welfare Organisation of the Evacuees. Flown to Brisbane by the Netherlands East Indies Air Force. They are permitted to remain in Australia for six months, during which they are cared for by NIWOE. Hundreds more will arrive each week.
  • To make room for the increasing number, evacuees are sent to Southern N.I.W.O.E. camps, and to seaside and mountain holiday resorts after a few weeks at Camp Columbia
  • An elaborate nursery and kindergarten have been established for the 260 children at the camp. Supervised by Warrant Officer Tony Roelandschap, it contains an open-air playground and dormitory.
• 5th January 1946: Forty Dutch evacuee children hold a concert at Camp Columbia. A choir sing in Latin, Dutch and English and a ballet was performed under the guidance of a Mrs Lamb.
• 12th January 1946: An official at NEI said that batches of 30 Dutch evacuees from NEI have been arriving a day in Melbourne and were being sent to guest houses at Cowes and Sorrento.
  • Evacuees were kept in Camp Columbia until accommodation became available at other capitals. Accommodation had been found at Katoomba, Bondi, Leura, and Kosciusko (NSW), Southport and Camp Columbia (QLD), Fullarton, Eastwood, Norwood and Myrtle park (SA), and in suburbs of Perth.
  • The evacuees would stay for about four months. Some had expressed a desire to live here permanently.
• 19th January 1946: The Evacuee children at Camp Columbia who attend the Princess Margriet Nursery School at Wacol, attend a celebration in the honour of the birthday of the Princess Margriet, who is the youngest daughter of Princess Juliana of the Netherlands. Organised by the NIWOE, it will be held at the school which has only been open a month and already has 50 children under the age of six.
  • The association is in charge of Major A. J. Grevers and Miss T. Roclenscnat Directs the School.
  • 19th January 1946: Country hotels are being booked out by Dutch authorities to support Dutch evacuees from Indonesia – a story from Bathurst present in the Daily Telegraph talks of hotel rooms being booked far before the evacuees have arrived.
• 24th January 1946: By this time, there are 600 Dutch evacuees within Camp Columbia, and by February there are 1,000. Many previous refugees were sent to Southern States to give them respite from the heat and tropical climate.
• 26th January 1946: A Javanese Kitchen hand from Camp Columbia is arrested and charged for rape following an incident at Wacol on January 15th. Two married Brisbane women, employed by the Dutch army were assaulted about 300 yards away from the officer’s canteen.
• April 1946: Over the last sixth months hundreds of men and tons of supplies have been flown from Archerfield by Dutch navy and planes back to the NEI.
  • Seven Dutch ships have been held up in Australian ports for eight months because watersiders refuse to load cargoes for the NEI.
• May 1946: Shipping shortage delays the return to Java of Dutch evacuees from Western Australia, which had been in Australia for four months – the time set down originally for their stay.
  • All Dutch ships are now in the Allied pool, so evacuees had to wait until release of a ship from the pool can be obtained.
  • There are 625 evacuees within WA, almost all of which had been there for at least four months.
• 1st May 1946: Camp Columbia, used as the NEI service and evacuee camp, is announced for closure. 300/500 troops and evacuees from Java were housed there and will be transferred to other camps in Southern Queensland.
• 6th May 1946: 100 Dutch evacuees from Camp Columbia left Brisbane on the hospital ship Tasman.
  • Before this, 300 evacuees and servicemen resided in Wacol, while 200 were at private addresses.
  • Those not on the Tasman will be sent south as soon as possible, to embark at harbours at Sydney and Melbourne.
  • Awaiting transport, they would be accommodated at Coolangatta and New Farm Hostels, while service men go to Perry Park.
  • Meanwhile, the Tasman would take 400 civilians from the south, and 1300 would leave soon on the Bloemfontien. Another ship would be available soon afterwards.
  • The secretary of the Dutch Consulate, Mr. Knops, said that all Indonesians also would leave Queensland within eight weeks. There were 50 at Mackay, 36 at Camp Columbia and 31 in other parts of the State.
• 16th May 1946: Mrs Elsa Dolan, who was a welfare officer for the N.I.W.O.E. since the arrival of the first evacuees was given a farewell at Whytecliffe by the Dutch.
  • Those evacuees residing in Whytecliffe are the last left in Brisbane and are awaiting transportation to the East and Holland.
• 6th June 1946: The Tasman, a ship transporting recuperated evacuees to the NEI, has already picked up about 250 evacuees from Brisbane and Sydney. Another 200 was picked up on this day from Melbourne at Prince’s Pier.
  • Reported by Mr. H. G. Ferguson, chief welfare officer of the N.I.W.O.E., conditions are likely to be poor considering the shipping shortage.
  • The Melbourne wharf-labourers refused to load the ship, and instead Dutch Schoolboys were employed for the job. Some reported disgust of this actions as many such boys had been slave-labourers under the Japanese prior to evacuation to Australia.
• 13th /14th June 1946: the Tasman ships about 70 administrative personnel to Batavia from Perth.
  • The approximate 500 evacuees attending this ship had by now been picked up, and on their way back to NEI.
• 20th July 1946: Nearly 300 Dutch evacuees were boarded onto the repatriation motorship Bloemfontein in Sydney on this day. 600 evacuees had already been boarded from Brisbane and Melbourne. Once the ship makes a stop in Freemantle, there will be about 1100 people aboard to be repatriated to the NEI.​
• 27th July 1946: the Bloemfontein had landed in Freemantle, with the plan of 75 of the 260 Dutch evacuees still in Western Australia to board. Initially all 260 were planned to board, but it was decided at a conference with officials of the N.E.I.W.O. that only 75 would board after it was decided that there was insufficient suitable accommodation to host them all.
  • A total of 888 evacuees were boarded in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
• 2nd September 1946: 552 Indonesians detained at Camp Casino need to be moved as camp is set to be completely closed. 223 are due for release on 18th October 1946. But other 329 release dates range from January 1947 to October 1949.
  • The 552 were detained, convicted and sentenced by the Royal Netherlands Indian Court-martial for refusal to obey orders.  
• 21st November 1946: The HMAS Manoora left Brisbane with 324 Indonesians and three Koepangers – 228 of the Indonesians were released from Casino and discharged from the army by the Dutch authorities.
• 7th December 1946: 13 Indonesian detainees are secretly moved by Dutch authorities from Camp Casino (which was set to close on the 15th of December) and were sent to Batavia to face court-martial on a charge of camp murder.
• 14th December 1946: With the closure of Camp Casino, the remaining 319 Indonesian detainees were transferred as civilians to the Chermside camp, Brisbane, where the Department of Immigration is caring for them before their repatriation to Java.  
• 20th February 1947: State Government has taken over portion of former Camp Columbia to temporarily accommodate 50 families.
• 25th March 1947: The Cheribon Agreement was signed by the Dutch and Republic of Indonesia. However, this treaty did not work, and eventually open conflict occurred again.
• 26th May 1947: Majority of the Indonesians left in Australia, about 400 of them, departed in the Manoora for Java. 
• 5th May 1947: The departure of the 19th Squadron will coincide with the end of the NEI Government in Brisbane.
• 9th May 1947: Service in honour of Dutch War Dead given at the Archerfield aerodrome.
• June-July 1947: The No 19 Air Transport Squadron of the Royal Netherlands Indies Army start to vacate the Archerfield Aerodrome, with much of its supplies leaving on the Tjibesar ship which was docked in the Brisbane port for three weeks.
• August 1947: Australia goes to the UN Security Council demanding a ‘cease-fire’ be enforced in Indonesia between the Republic and the Dutch.
• 1st August 1947: The Queensland Trades and Labour Council demand the landing and servicing of Dutch aeroplanes at Archerfield stopped. This is on the grounds that the Indian Government had decided to refuse Dutch permission to fly planes over India, a telegram was sent to the Minister for Air, Mr. Drakeford, to do the same.
• 2nd September 1947: The Union ban on Dutch planes has been completely broken by the last of the three planes held up at Archerfield.
• August 1948: The Department of the Australian Army requests approximately 1016 acres of land at Wacol which includes the site of Camp Columbia: required for Post War Training and/or Demobilisation and rehabilitation centre.
  • 29 owners are affected in this acquisition.
• December 1949: the Dutch finally acknowledge Indonesia’s independence of the Dutch East Indies – which becomes the Republic of the United States of Indonesia.

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