Black Armada

On 15 August 1945, the Empire of Japan announced its surrender, bringing to an end both World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.

Two days later, on 17 August, Indonesia proclaimed its independence, however the Netherlands refused to recognise the claim and sought to re-assert Dutch control over its former colony.

[5] This boycott by the Waterside Workers Federation speedily extended to bans by other unions: boilermakers, engineers, ironworkers, ship painter and dockers, carpenters, storemen and packers, tally clerks, and tug crews.

In his 1975 book Black Armada, journalist Rupert Lockwood emphasised the unprecedented nature of this intervention: "The presence in Australia of a foreign emigre regime was providing another paragraph in the chronicle of unique historical experience: the wildest Australian imagination had never conceived a Labor Government aiding the soldiers of a foreign army to break a strike of Australian trade unionists who contributed generously in funds and votes to put that Labor Government in office.

"The Dutch government responded to the boycotts, insisting that any military materiel and personnel on the ships was for the purpose of fighting pro-Japanese militia in Indonesia.

Australian newspaper published in September 1945 by The Courier-Mail , reporting that Dutch ships in Brisbane were declared "Black" by the Disputes Committee of the Trade and Labor Council .