The 'Black Armada' - Australian boycott of Dutch ships in 1945

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, Australians knew little about their nearest northern neighbour, Indonesia, or its seventy million inhabitants. They may have been vaguely aware that the archipelago of tropical islands and active volcanoes was a Dutch colony that generated enormous wealth for its colonial rulers through oil, rubber and other natural resources.

Beyond that, however, there was widespread ignorance about the people of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) and what life under Dutch colonial rule was actually like.
This was about to change. In 1942, the Japanese invasion and occupation of the NEI brought the region abruptly into Australian consciousness. Thousands of Indonesians, alongside Dutch colonial personnel and other evacuees, were transported to Australia by the Dutch authorities. Indonesian seamen and dock workers, along with sailors and soldiers connected to the Dutch merchant marine and Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), were essential to the Dutch war effort.

The NEI government-in-exile, based near Brisbane, requested that these people and their families be permitted to remain in Australia for the duration of the war. The Australian Government agreed, on the understanding that they would be repatriated once hostilities ended, temporarily relaxing aspects of its White Australia policy that restricted non-European immigration.

Employed by the NEI government-in-exile, Indonesian seamen and dock workers became a visible presence in major ports such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle, where they interacted daily with Australian trade unionists and local communities.

In April 1942, Australian unions supported a strike by around two thousand Indonesian seamen over wages and conditions after they stopped work aboard Dutch vessels operating from Australian ports. The NEI government-in-exile paid Indonesian workers significantly less than Australian servicemen and maritime workers performing comparable duties. The strike disrupted shipping and exposed the extent to which Dutch wartime operations depended upon Indonesian labour. Harsh Dutch attempts to restore discipline, including imprisonment and the application of military law, created unease within sections of the Australian public and government. For many Australians, it provided a direct glimpse into the realities of colonial rule and raised questions about the compatibility of colonial labour practices with Australian legal and industrial standards.

Union support for Indonesian workers evolved from concerns over labour conditions into political solidarity towards the end of the war. Massive relief operations were launched from Australia to assist the hundreds of thousands of European and Eurasian women and children held in Japanese internment camps across the Indonesian archipelago, many close to starvation. There were also around one hundred thousand Allied prisoners of war who needed to be cared for and repatriated.

In Batavia (now Djakarta), Sukarno had declared Indonesian independence from the Netherlands two days after Japan accepted the Allied surrender terms. The Netherlands refused to recognise the declaration and sought to reassert control over its colony. It was expected that relief operations would coincide with the restoration of Dutch authority in the NEI, but Australian maritime and waterfront unions responded by launching the so-called Black Armada, refusing to load, crew or service Dutch ships involved in efforts to restore colonial rule in Indonesia.

On 3 September 1945, Indonesian crew members aboard four Dutch ships in Sydney staged a sit-down strike, refusing to serve on vessels they suspected were carrying weapons to suppress the independence movement. The following day, they appealed to the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (WWF). In response, on 20 September 1945, the WWF proclaimed the first embargo on Dutch shipping in Brisbane. Similar action soon followed in Fremantle, Sydney and Melbourne, although hospital ships were exempted. Thirty-one trade unions eventually became involved in the boycott, which expanded into air transport, trade, repairs and storage.

In the months that followed, the Black Armada affected nine corvettes, two submarines, seven submarine chasers, thirty-six Dutch merchant vessels, passenger liners and troopships, two tankers, thirty-five oil industry craft, 450 barges, lighters and landing craft, along with aircraft and land transport vehicles. Two British troopships and three Royal Navy vessels were also blacklisted.

On 30 September 1945, five thousand people attended a rally supporting Indonesian independence in the Domain in Sydney. Further demonstrations followed, many supported by churches, demanding that the Dutch honour the principles of self-determination outlined in the Atlantic Charter.

On 20 October 1945, the SS Esperance Bay departed Sydney Harbour for Indonesia carrying hundreds of Indonesian seamen and dock workers eager to join the National Revolution. At the wharf, an Australian union representative presented those returning home with a red-and-white flag of the Indonesian Republic, while crowds joined in chants of ‘Indonesia merdeka’ – Freedom for Indonesia.

Conclusion

By mid-1946, the Black Armada boycott had petered out as the last Dutch ships and warplanes departed Australia. The boycott did not prevent the Dutch reconquest of the NEI, but the delays imposed upon recolonisation ultimately worked in favour of the emerging Indonesian republic.

At the diplomatic level, Australia, under the leadership of H. V. Evatt, increasingly supported Indonesian self-determination at the United Nations. This created post-war tensions between Australia and the Netherlands, nations that had cooperated closely as wartime allies.

In 1949, after a bloody war of independence in which estimated deaths ranged from 80,000 to 300,000, the Netherlands formally ceded sovereignty to Indonesia.
 

References

ANU Archives Library https://archives.anu.edu.au/exhibitions/struggle-solidarity-and-unity-150-years-maritime-unions-australia/black-armada 

Beasley, M 1996, Wharfies: The History of the Waterside Workers' Federation, Halstead Press, Rushcutters Bay, 1996.  

Budde, P n.d., The Black Armada - One of the Largest Maritime Boycotts Ever, <https://paulbuddehistory.com/table-of-content/the-black-armada-one-of-the-largest-maritime-boycotts-ever/> 

How Australian workers helped Indonesia end colonial rule https://solidarity.net.au/highlights/how-australian-workers-helped-indonesia-end-colonial-rule/ 

The Black Armada https://www.70yearsindonesiaaustralia.com/shared-history/the-black-armada 

Dutch-Australian tensions over Indonesia during and after World War II https://dutchaustralianculturalcentre.com.au/archive/dutch-australian-history/maritime-history/from-colony-to-conflict-dutch-australian-tensions-over-indonesia-during-and-after-world-war-ii/ 

Black Armada: Australian boycott of Dutch Shipping WWII https://dutchaustralianculturalcentre.com.au/news/black-armada-australian-boycott-of-dutch-shipping-wwii/ 

Indonesia calling - Joris Ivens, 1946 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAzfM9cQvZQ