Sunday we went to the Dutch Community Cultural Day in Gosnells. It was mostly what I expected (not much!), with a lot of older Dutch people, but it was alright. There was traditional dutch food, dancing, singing, expositions, and some forums.
We mainly went for the delicacy on the right: ‘Broodje Kroket’ (croquette (something like meat Ragout deapfried), on a bun with mustard). It’s a bit dodgy, but most dutch people love it! We also had ‘poffertjes’, which are tiny little pikelets, with butter and powder sugar.
This day was organised by the City of Gosnells, with the WA Committee for ‘Australia on the Map 1606-2006‘, to celebrate 400 years since the Dutch first bumped into Australia, as the first Europeans. There are several events happening to celebrate this (a few have already taken place), including an exhibition at the Fremantle History Museum, about the ‘Invisible Dutch’. See this website for more information.
The WA Dutch Club Neerlandia has a website here.
Find other multicultural community groups on the web at Online WA.
Afterwards we had a drink with friends at Ogdens Bar and Grill, in the small beer garden. It was still warm enough to sit in our t-shirts.
Tags: gosnells
Is the Perth Dutch Club very active? My husband’s family is Dutch but I don’t think they are members. I find it interesting to see who would, and who wouldn’t, join a cultural group. My family has Chinese heritage but I would never dream of joining the Chung Wah Association (the Perth Chinese community association)…
I’m not sure… All I know is that it is mostly older people (as in retired people). The Neerlandia club have a newsletter(about 20 pages), that comes out once a month, and has travel stories, info on upcoming(a few a month) events and past events, jokes, advertisements etc. Most of it is in English, with some Dutch bits thrown in. The events are often bbq parties, ‘klaverjas’(a card game) nights, sunday brunch, and of course the big Dutch special days are celebrated.
Anyway, I know that there are many, many dutch people in Perth, and I think most wouldn’t be members, and probably nearly none of the younger crowd.
There isn’t much need for it at all, the Dutch have always been known to integrate very well.
We also wouldn’t think of joining a club like this, to be honest. But it’s alright to sometimes go to a random event (and this one was easy, as it was so nearby, ha ha!).