THE LEEWAY OF THE WHITE AUSTRALIA POLICY.

This article examines the experiences of Heinrich Weychardt, a multiracial officer of the Dutch shipping line Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM), within the context of Australia's White Australia Policy during and after World War II. It highlights KPM's role in Allied maritime operations and the racial discrimination faced by people of color under the policy, which restricted non-Europeans—defined as those with at least 50% "coloured blood"—from permanent settlement. Weychardt's mixed German-Indian heritage placed him in the "non-European" category, complicating his attempts to gain Australian citizenship despite his wartime service and marriage to a white Australian woman. His case illustrates the policy's evolving but still exclusionary criteria, as well as the social and bureaucratic challenges encountered by multiracial individuals seeking residency in mid-20th-century Australia.