Jo's Blog - Dutch-Australians All

Our inheritance. Somethings that Mr Ed J. Reitsma (then Consul-General of the Netherlands, in Sydney) said.......

......roughly/freely translated and commented on by me, because I believe it's worth bringing to your attention....... Mr Reitsma addressed a meeting of the Netherlands Society in Sydney, on May 14th, in 2001, along these lines: He reminded his audience that they had come together to discuss: What do we do with the inheritance but that they must not be disappointed to hear that this concerned not money but the cultural heritage of the Dutch Australians. He took them back to the… Continue

Added by Jo on October 23, 2008 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

Dutch Touch

After all these years, addicted to the Apple Mac, I had never bothered to check out how to do a screen capture!
Please go to RedBubble, to see more Dutch touches. Continue

Added by Jo on July 31, 2008 at 12:01pm — No Comments

I have her mannerisms! ("The older you get, the more you look like your mother!")

It's July 28, 2008. On July 28, 1917, in Gouda, The Netherlands, Jacoba Postma, my mother, was born. The fourth of nine children, to the bridge- (and lock-) -keeper, Jan Postma and Betty Schoonens. After a long period of slowly drifting further and further into Alzheimers, she passed away 4 May, 2004. !http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9539/mampapajcbe7.jpg! When they were young teenagers, she'd b… Continue

Added by Jo on July 28, 2008 at 5:25pm — No Comments

Johannes Maria, of the Bankstown Club, now residing in the Abel Tasman Village.

He was born 14 July, 1917, the fourth son of Johannes Stephanus Mul and Gijsberta van Reeden, in Gouda, The Netherlands and named after his father and his aunt. So he is: Johannes Maria. Something which embarrassed him the rest of his life. A sister was born a little less than two year… Continue

Added by Jo on July 20, 2008 at 11:03am — No Comments

We kids from Villawood Hostel were there first!

On Saturday 25th October, 2008, Chester Hill North Public School celebrates 50 years of quality education. That puzzles me a little (but I believe I have heard an explanation). I was a pupil there for a brief period, in 1956 when it was brand-spanking new. So this must have been its gestation period, pre official opening?

That's me on the left and Henny Haak, on the right. The girl i… Continue

Added by Jo on July 15, 2008 at 4:27pm — No Comments

Dutch clubs in Victoria support the heritage centre, with a significant donation.

Now, can New South Wales match this? The cultural centre, in NSW is currently without its own, permanent home.

From the Dutch Courier:

… Continue

Added by Jo on July 15, 2008 at 10:00am — No Comments

Our first summer together, in Australia. It was the 50s. Menzies was P.M.. John Laws and Bob Rogers were disc jockeys.

This bit of nostalgia was triggered by an ad in Education, the publication, produced by the Teachers Federation of NSW. "Chester Hill North Public School, celebrating 50 years of excellence in education."

… Continue

Added by Jo on July 15, 2008 at 1:04am — No Comments

Scouts and guides was for kids from conservative families. I was an A.J.C. member, like my parents, before me.

I have this book and on page 54, there is a photo and I would like to think that I'm in it. That I'm the third boy, from the left, in the back row.

The photo was taken in 1952, at the site, in the Netherlands which was mecca for the children of 'workers' (i.e.… Continue

Added by Jo on July 11, 2008 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Third generation Dutchman, doing us proud!! The current move towards alternatives to fuel.

Dr Klaas Woldring, president of the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre, which is based in Smithfield, NSW, reported back, on a most interesting evening, Monday, 11 June, 2008. He wrote: Electric cars are here already. Last night the Dutch Australian community groups had the great pleasure to listen to guest speaker Mr. Roy Leembruggen, in the Chatswood RSL. Veteran Leembrugge… Continue

Added by Jo on June 11, 2008 at 3:30pm — No Comments

All be upstanding, please! (Turn off the music - on the left.)

Continue

Added by Jo on June 1, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

In our street: Greek, Russian, Yugoslav, Chinese (?) and we, Dutch! How time flies!

It's happened again! My daughter works in Kensington. (Our Kensington, here in Sydney.) There was an Open Day today and I had a look around again, like last year. There's so much energy in all those people who come to see what NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) is all about. They're obviously not shy. It was very busy there again today. It's fun to see the occasional well-known TV actor walking through the crowd, as though he or she is down the street shopping or catching a bus. N… Continue

Added by Jo on June 1, 2008 at 1:30am — No Comments

Why sponsor the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre?? My thoughts.....

You know, I'm sure, about that group of blind men describing an elephant by feeling its different parts and how that produces several different descriptions of the same creature. I have been invited, tomorrow, to describe to a consultant, engaged by the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre (The D.A.C.C.) the benefits that this organisation brings to the Australian community. ( I look after its website. Please take a look. ) I am one of ten board members, who are in t… Continue

Added by Jo on May 29, 2008 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Mr Beretty, Jan Ligthartschool, Gouda, was my role model. I went and told him so, in 1972. Now, I'm retired, after 37 years of teaching. What to do?

One of the reasons, for migrating 52 years ago, that my father (90) loves to give is that it was for my future, i.e., opportunities, in Australia. I like to be ieve that there was teaching in my blood (from the Mul side) and that the love of expression through painting, writing, music, came from the Postma (maternal) side. Would I have been a teacher, like my cousin, Kees. Like my father's uncle Aart? .....if we'd stayed in Gouda? Possibly not. So, I attended Maroubra Bay High School. T… Continue

Added by Jo on May 22, 2008 at 11:30am — No Comments

Monday 28 October, 1957. My mother's letter from Sydney, to her parents, in Gouda.

My mother was thirty-nine, in April, 1956, when she migrated, together with my father (also 39) and me(12), to Australia. Destination Applecross, near Perth. But that had not been thought through........ We ended up in Matraville (now Hillsdale), in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, sharing an old house with Mr and Mrs van Hoorn and their daughter (six, when we left the Netherlands.) My mother wrote to her parents, one-and-a-half years later (in Dutch): ------------------------------ Monday mo… Continue

Added by Jo on May 22, 2008 at 2:28am — No Comments

The Man from Amsterdam, talking with the animals.

Yesterday I met a man, who wrote: Dingo Lingo and other poems. He's Charles Verheyden, who will be celebrating his 79th birthday, two weeks, from today. We've probably been in same places at the same time, in the past, these many years, here in Sydney. But yesterday we happened to be seated beside each other, at the bi-monthly meet-up of the Dutch Australian Genealogy Group, in the library of the Abel Tasman Retirement Village. Not that Charles is retired or living there. No way.… Continue

Added by Jo on May 15, 2008 at 1:15pm — No Comments

Fifty-two years and one day in Australia, today!

Yesterday, 14 May, I celebrated being in Australia 52 years!!! This is how it began..... It was close to dusk. Along with all the others we were taken to the steam train, from the ship (the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, a migrant ship, then, in 1956) and settled into the compartment. There was one other man in there. Gerda offered him a gift. He thanked her. The train went a few hundred metres and stopped again and he got off. He was a worker there. I'd never been on a steam train. It got dark s… Continue

Added by Jo on May 15, 2008 at 1:01pm — No Comments

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