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The British saw a Dutch postal service to Australia as undermining British prestige. The flight of De Uiver also needs to be looked at within the geopolitical spectrum. On the one hand, the Dutch had shown that a faster service could be established. On the other hand, the Dutch success made the British even more obstructive. It took until 1938 before a regular passenger and mail service could be established. Flights from NEI to Australia stopped once the war reached NEI in 1942. The last regular KNILM flight to Archerfield arrived on 19 February 1942. This was at the same time an evacuation flight that brought senior KNILM staff to Australia, weeks before the Japanese occupation of the NEI. Soon after the war, the resumption of the commercial KNILM service from NEI was planned, depending on the development of the political situation in NEI. Already the Dutch 19 Squadron at Archerfield (see below) had taken delivery of a Douglas Skymaster airplane from America, and two more arrived soon after that, to be used for the Indies run. These planes became a temporary nucleus for a revived KNILM service. Source: paulbuddehistory.com/travelogues/the-dutch-at-archerfield...

The Indigenous Peoples of the Darling Downs For several thousand years, the Darling Downs was home to various clans of the Wakka Wakka language speakers: the Keinjan around Warwick, the Giabal around Toowoomba, the Barunggam to the west of Dalby, and the Jarowair around the Bunya mountains. To the south and west were the Bigambal and Kambuwal of the Kamilaroi speakers; to the east were the Jagara of the Turubul speakers. The Downs Indigenous peoples were also knows as the Gomaingguru, ‘men of the Condamine’, or Gooneburra, ‘fire blacks’ (from their habit of frequently firing the grasslands). They numbered perhaps 1500–2000. Source; www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/martens_standard.asp?na...

RMS Orion was an ocean liner launched by the Orient Steam Navigation Company in 1934 and retired from the water in 1963 after carrying about 500,000 passengers. A 23,371 ton passenger ship, the Orion was built to carry 486 first class, 653 tourist class and 466 crew passengers from Europe through the Pacific to Australia. The construction of the ship was documented in Paul Rotha's 1935 film Shipyard. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Orion

Our Steam Tug Forceful was built in 1925. Forceful served the port of Brisbane for 45 years, being the last coal-fired tug in operation on the river. In Brisbane, Forceful was employed mainly in the Brisbane River. In July 1926, she went to the aid of Cooma, stranded on North Reef, off Heron Island. As the ship was being towed off the reef, the towline snapped and Cooma again grounded, where she remained until destroyed by fire some months later. In September 1926, Forceful went to the aid of the Rio Claro, grounded on Scott’s Reef, near Cairns. Forceful teamed with another tug to tow Rio Claro off. Forceful’s finest hour was February 1929 when she assisted in towing the stricken steamer Arafura through a cyclone some 300km to Brisbane. As a consequence of World War 2, Forceful was chartered by the British government for service in the Middle East. However, approval was withdrawn and she was commissioned as HMAS Forceful on 16 February 1942. She worked around Fremantle until October 1942, when she sailed for Darwin. From October 1942 to August 1943, she engaged in harbor work around Darwin, towed lighters to Merauke in Dutch New Guinea, and, on occasions, acted as a rescue vessel for aircraft and crews returning from bombing missions. In August 1943, she towed a landing ship to Brisbane where, on 11 October 1943, she paid off and returned to her owners. Source: maritimemuseum.com.au/learn/collections/vessels/forceful/