Cees: I am born 25th of February 1933 in the Netherlands. My father was Navy and we go to Indonesia, to Java, and the city Surabaya, and we lived there for 6 years.

The Japanese was coming in, in '41, I was just out of school but there was not money enough and no foods. I have to look for food for the family and now we find out that we (must) travel from East Java to the centre of Java on the train. We come in, the place called Muntilan. We had to camp there and the main prison was a working prison and they had to do all this rotten work, heavy work. The Japanese come down and then he tell us that we are free - the war was finished.

I was 16 years of age that I joined the Dutch Navy. That was in the time that the navy was following the other nations to fight in Korea. 

Ina: I'm Ina Huig. I'm born in Amsterdam in 1940. We married in 1958 in Amsterdam and in 1961 he went to New Guinea, and in August I followed him. So when we arrived in New Guinea, I hand him the baby, which he thought was his daughter, but I said 'No, that is your son'. He had never seen his son, he was eight months old, he had never seen him. We lived for 2 years in New Guinea and when Sukarno came in we had to leave, and we went back to Holland. 

Cees: Well in the Netherlands it was hard to get some houses or whatever.

Ina: When we went to the migration offices in Den Haag they asked us 'Why are you going to Australia, why did you choose Australia?' And we said 'Because of the weather.'  And they said 'Well, then you will never come back here.' So we chose to go to Brisbane. So, we had to stay here for 2 years, we had to sign a contract to stay here for 2 years. And we paid $100.

The trip on the Britanis, in the morning we would go down in the ship and we got lessons in English. They also told us about Australia. You don’t hang your bed linen out of the window like we used to do in Holland because people may think you wet the bed, and don’t worry, everybody walks bare feet. That was one thing my mother-in-law brought up. She was here on holiday and when she came back she told us 'Take enough shoes with you, they don’t have shoes in Australia everybody is walking bare feet.'



When we started living here it was not easy of course. You still had to learn the language because most of my English was Queen’s English, so they thought I was a snob, but we learnt to speak Australian English.

Cees: I come from the navy. I had a job. So I go to hotels to see if I could find to work there. I phoned straightaway Ina, I said 'So, I have a job.' 'That’s good.' says Ina.

Erwin: Making friends also proved to be difficult, once again the real cultural issues that were there. However, kids being kids you had a go, you did play together.  A friend there had offered me a sandwich and we did a swap for my smelly cheese. I thought I was getting the better trade because his sandwich looked an awful lot like Nutella, and when I bit into it I discovered it was Vegemite, and it’s a smell and taste that still lingers today.

Ina: We were Dutch on the inside and Aussie on the outside.

Erwin: Everyday I’m reminded of my parents 'Dutchness', they certainly speak Dutch to me all the time and I quite gladly respond in English.

Ina: We met the Dutch Royals twice. Cees met them 3 times and actually the King said to Cees 'Hey you again!' I think that was quite nice.

Erwin: It has been a very welcoming country and it’s been a great experience and I’m very glad they made the decision to come here.

Ina: When I look back I think Cees and I made the right decision.