PROPERTY NEWS
Fortitude Valley has become the “unofficial sister suburb” of Amsterdam Central in Holland. Yellie Alkema, a councillor with Amsterdam City Council, recently met with local Councillor David Hinchliffe, and signed an impromptu “Sister Suburb” agreement.
While both councillors emphasised the agreement had no legal binding and was ‘in good fun’, they said that there were a lot of similarities with both communities. Yellie, who visited with ex Dutch Senator, Kirk Cooper, said the Valley was “a very relaxed, personable and down to earth sort of place”.
“In that respect, it’s a lot like my Amsterdam.”
She said the centre of Amsterdam which she has represented for 10 years had a lot of students and young people, similar to the Valley.
Her son was in Australia as a backpacker. “Kirk and I were keen to come over to see what the Land Down Under really looked like. We’ve been very impressed. We’ve had a lovely time.”
Cr Hinchliffe said that if the Dutch Government had followed up explorers Dirk Hartog and William Dampier, Australia might have been colonised by the Dutch instead of the English.
“We could have written this friendly ‘Sister Suburb’ agreement in Dutch,” he joked.
