My family's memories of Juozas Nakas (1923–1975) by Diana Bučiūtė

Diana Bučiūtė, who lives in Lithuania, is a niece of Juozas Nakas. 

Juozas Nakas was born on 17 March 1923, on a Lithuanian farm, as the second of 5 children. This farm was next to the Tapiališkis village in the district of Zarasai. In 1930, the family moved to the village of Velniakalnis, close to the town of Rokiškis. Juozas spent the rest of his time in Lithuania there.

Juozas Nakas (right rear) with his family, 1937-38

Source:  Private collection

In Rokiškis he attended school and later worked as a manager of the Lietūkis shop, Lietūkis being the Lithuanian Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.

In 1940, Lithuania was occupied for one year by Soviet forces. They were repelled in June 1941 by the forces of Nazi Germany. According to memories of Juozas’ elder brother, Osvaldas, in 1943, “The Germans wanted some military help and Lithuanian politicians probably considered that a Lithuanian military unit would be useful for reestablishing Lithuanian independence. So, our famous Plechavičius made a deal with the Germans to draft Lithuanians who could be used only within Lithuanian borders. About 12,000 men volunteered.

"The Germans broke the agreement and started to round up the men for paramilitary work in Germany and other places. When news of round up spread, the majority of men escaped. The Germans caught only around 3000, but they including my brother”.

Juozas' sister Birute is 95 years old and still lives in Lithuania. She remembers that she went to see her brother when he was imprisoned in the Rokiškis primary school building. Juozas came to the window, and she spoked with him from outside. It was the last time when she saw her brother.

Juozas Nakas in Lithuania, 1940

Source:  Private collection

In 1944, war swept Juozas’ brother, Osvaldas, to Germany. According to his memories, he was trying to find out where Juozas might be, so on 3 February 1945 he went to Berlin, to the Lithuanian information centre (Central Stelle) on Friedrich Strasse, but he found no address for his brother. “And then a Fliegeralarm [air raid siren] sounded, so everybody on the streets started to run to hiding places ... I went to my U-bahn [subway] station. Later I found out that this was the biggest bombing of Berlin, with a thousand planes participating”.

Like other refugees, Osvaldas lived in Displaced Persons (DP) camp.  He had the job of camp leader. “A big part of the job was to screen and accept new applicants for living in our camp. One new applicant, when he came in, asked me whether I had a brother named Juozas (Joseph). 

"He told me that Juozas was hospitalised in Norway with a fracture of spine.  The accident happened when soldiers were transported from Norway to Germany and cargo fell on him when he pretended to be brave and did not move from a dangerous area.  I had not known where my brother was for about 2 years since he had been taken away by the Germans as a member of General Plechavičius' army. 

"Now I had a chance o get in touch with my brother, but no mail was allowed to other countries. So I asked Major B for help.  He sent my letter to a Consul in Norway, asking him to locate my brother. I received my brother’s address, in a hospital. My brother had registered as a civilian. 

"Soon all foreign or German refugees were transported to Germany, including my brother when his fractures had healed. The rule was that you could claim your relative if you could support him.  So I wrote a statement that said I am Juozas' brother and, as a camp leader, I can guarantee his support. I needed to travel to to the city of Kiel to pick him up. It was a great reunion.”

Juozas in Germany, 1945

Source:  Private collection

As Osvaldas wrote in his letter to his sister Birutė from Düsseldorf, dated 12 June 1947, he corresponded with Juozas from January 1946, and in the [northern] summer of 1946 they met at last and settled together.

Osvaldas (left) with Juozas in Germany

Source:  Private collection

Osvaldas was accepted into the Academy of Medicine in Düsseldorf. In letters written in 1947 to his sisters he mentioned that he visited Juozas in the city of Stade.

In his memoir he wrote, “My brother was quite restless in the DP camp and he signed up for emigration to Australia, England and Canada, but Australia was the first one to accept him, so he emigrated to Australia before I graduated. He used to send me some money from Australia.”

Osvaldas graduated in 1948 with a MD [Doctor of Medicine] degree, and emmigrated to the US in 1949.

Juozas Nakas arrived to Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, on 28 November 1947, aged 25.  After a few days' stopover in Perth, Western Australia, he travelled with the other 838 DPs accepted for resettlement to eastern Australia on an Australian navy ship, the Kanimbla.  On 8 December, the group arrived at the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre in northern Victoria, where they lived until a decision was made on where they would work under the contract they had signed in return for resettlement.

Juozas was one of ten men selected to work for a timber company, CJ Row Webb & Anderson, leaving Bonegilla on 14 January 1948.  The company was headquartered in the suburb of South Melbourne, but its forestry operations were in central Victoria.  Even today, the road trip between Bonegilla and Thornton takes more than two and a half hours.  There is no other means of travel between these two small places. 

Juozas (right) with CJ Row, Webb & Anderson colleagues at Thornton in 1948;
Lithuanians Edvardas Lapinskas at left and Bernard Matkevičius in the truck cabin look on,
while the man in the white shirt is an Estonian, probably Helmut Nurmsalu

Source:  Private collection

Back then you could have your photograph printed onto the other side of
preprinted postcard paper, which Juozas has done in this instance,
although it looks like the message to Osvaldas was sent inside an envelope

Source:  Private collection

On 4 May 1955 in Melbourne, Juozas married Alice Patricia Pierce, of Irish origin. He wrote to his brother that he was happy to have a hardworking, serious, honest wife and that they had bought a house in Richmond, Victoria. He became an Australian citizen on 26 January 1964, Australia Day.

Juozas (left) with Alice and a friend, Melbourne

Source: Private collection

For more than ten years, Osvaldas in USA, as well as his parents and two remaining sisters in Lithuania had no news about Juozas. In 1974, Osvaldas met a woman from Australia in Chicago who had known Juozas earlier. She promised to try to find him. This woman found Juozas, called him and gave him Osvaldas' address. So Osvaldas at last received a letter from Juozas and informed his sisters, “He writes that he is well, he still works at the port, he has his own house, already fully paid for, he has four children” (letter to Birute, 16 December 1974).

Osvaldas let Juozas know that their parents had passed away. On Christmas Eve in 1974 he called Juozas, and they had their first conversation in 27 years.

Juozas in Melbourne, a photograph sent to Osvaldas in 1974

Source:  Private collection

Osvaldas and his sisters were very happy at last to have news from their brother but he was already ill and passed away in Melbourne on 21 January 1975, aged only 52. He was buried in Springvale Cemetery.

Juozas' name has been added to the Welcome Walls of migrants who came by sea through Fremantle, at the West Australian Maritime Museum which is located there

Source:  Private collection

OTHER SOURCES with Rasa Ščevinskienė

‘Bonegilla migrant experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Juozas Nakas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203717189 accessed 17 March 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia (1964) ‘Gazette’, Canberra, 7 May, p 1675 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241032399/25999342 accessed 17 March 2025.

Find A Grave, ‘Joseph Nakas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231347053/joseph-nakas accessed 17 March 2025.

Find A Grave, 'Alice Patricia Nakas‘ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231347052/alice-patricia-nakas accessed 17 March 2025.

Government of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum Welcome Walls, 'NAKAS, Juozas (Joseph), Fremantle Panel 132‘ https://museum.wa.gov.au/welcomewalls/names/nakas-juozas-joseph accessed 17 March 2025.

‘Nakas, Juozas, AEF DP Record’ [‘American Expeditionary Forces Displaced Persons Record’] 3.1.1.1 / 68379412 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68379412 accessed 17 March 2025.

‘Nakas, Osvaldas, Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Card’ 3.1.1.1 / 68379417 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/68379417 accessed 17 March 2025.

Wikipedia, Povilas Plechavičius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povilas_Plechavi%C4%8Dius accessed 26 March 2025.

Algirdas Undzenas (1913 -1979): Lithuanian factory director by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Algirdas Undzenas had been a factory director in his Lithuanian homeland.

He graduated from the Birzai gymnasium (senior high school), then studied at the Klaipeda Trading Institute.  With 8 years of secondary education and 3 years of tertiary in addition to the usual 4 years of primary, Algirdas was among the most educated of the Lithuanians to resettle in Australia via the 1947 USAT General Stuart Heintzelman voyage.

He finished his studies in 1938, when he was 24. He then worked in Šiauliai as a deputy director of a factory called Maistas, which is Lithuanian for Food. He continued as a director of this factory until he forced to leave for Germany in 1944.

The Maistas factory had been built in Šiauliai in the 1932. Pigs were slaughtered and processed here, mainly for export.

Maistas factory in Šiauliai, Algirdas' workplace,1940

Source:  Facebook, Lietuva sensose fotografijose

He had been born on 4 October 1913, in Klausuciai village, Biržai county. His parents were wealthy farmers, Jonas and Zenė Undzenas. (Zenė‘s maiden name was Kregzdaitė.)

The Australian selection panel's record of interview with Algirdas says that he was "forcibly evacuated by the Germans".  A manager of a factory processing animals into food definitely would have been an asset for the Germans.  

There's a discrepancy, however, between "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" and Algirdas' arrival date in Germany, from a record preserved in the Arolsen Archives, of 1 October 1944.

Since the Soviet forces captured Lithuania's capital city, Kaunas, on 1 August 1944, we should expect Algirdas to have been on his way out of what would become part of the Soviet Union by then.  All who had experienced the Soviet occupation between June 1940 and July 1941 knew what to expect.  In particular, factory managers would have expected nationalisation and their replacement by operatives loyal to the new regime.

We could have expected the German military to retreat more quickly than the two months between 1 August and 1 October.  It is possible that "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" was a standard term used by those typing out the interview schedules, at the request of the Australian interviewers, to cover a range of events.  It certainly appears on a number of the interview reports if not most of them.

Two of five Arolsen Archives records for Algirdas in Germany after World War II shows him in the coastal town of Norden.  This is around 50 kilometres west of Bremerhaven, the port from which he left Germany with 842 others on 28 October 1947.  He had arrived in Norden from a larger German town, Oldenburg, on an unknown date.  The main document is itself dated 1949.

Both Norden and Oldenburg were in the British Zone of occupied Germany at the end of World War II.  As British production of food and other essentials had been damaged by German bombing or reduced due to the workers' absence in the British armed forces, conditions in the British zone were worse than those in the American zone.

Three other records in Algirdas' name have a different birthdate, 19 October 1904 rather than 4 October 1913.  It's possible that this date is a type of faulty anagram, with the 13 having been lost in the process.  If it is our Algirdas and not a relative with the same name, he was in the Bavarian town of Kitzingen from 8 February 1945 to an unknown date.  Two documents recording this have January and August 1948 dates.

The third item is from a card index was initially compiled at the beginning of the 1980s from a large number of smaller card files. These were originals of index cards from various registration offices, employment offices, private companies and from the health sector.  His card in this index also has him in Kitzingen from 8 February 1945, but says that he reached Germany on 1 October 1944.  

From this card too, it seems that he earned survival money in Kitzingen by working as a gardener.  It is not apparent that there was a Displaced Persons camp in Kitzingen, but perhaps Algirdas wanted to join a friend who had managed to settle temporarily in this town.

Depending on how far away from Lithuania Algirdas got together with the Germans, he may have taken a lengthy land route like that of Valentinas Dagys. Alternatively, he may have managed to reach the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, about 160 kilometres west of Šiauliai and still more than 2 hours travel by road.  From a landing in coastal Germany, he may have worked his way west by rail or walking to Norden, through Oldenburg, to move away from what became the Soviet zone of occupied Germany.

According to this theory, he then worked his way south to Kitzingen, again through Oldenburg. If trains were running again from Norden to Oldenburg when he left, the journey would have taken at least 90 minutes. To travel by train from Oldenburg to Kitzenen now takes more than 4  hours.

At the time of his interview for Australia in September 1947, Algirdas was living in the Buchholz camp in Hannover.  Fortunately for him, this was one of several interviewing points for the Australian selection team.  Kitzingen was in the American Zone, so why Algirdas returned to the harsher conditions of the British Zone by moving to the Buchholz camp is another unknown.

At the age of 34, he was ten years older than the average age of the Heintzelman group. He also differed from nearly all the Lithuanians through having been brought up in an Evangelical Reformed family, rather than a Roman Catholic one.

Algirdas' Undzenas identity photograph

Source:  NAA:  A2571, UNDZENAS ALGIRDAS

On his Bonegilla migrant camp card, Algirdas had an official add the name and address of his fianceé in the Address of Next of Kin area. She was Else Frerich from Oldenburg.  Algirdas must have spent enough time there after September 1944 to form a relationship with Else which he hoped would lead to marriage.  His plans to create a family did not materialise, however.

Algirdas Undzenas spent his first week outside the Bonegilla camp in the Albury District Hospital, from 30 January to 6 February 1948, as did several others from the First Transport. It is likely that they were here for medical checks rather than work. Tuberculosis still was dreaded then, explaining why our Displaced Persons had a chest X-ray as part of the selection process in Germany and another one when they got to the Bonegilla camp.  Other illnesses may have displayed themselves.

Blackie House, Albury Hospital

Source:  Facebook, AlburyCity

Perhaps the Bonegilla X-rays had detected calcification in the lungs which had been missed by the German X-rays. Calcification might be a sign that the patient had had TB previously and might still be at risk to themselves or others.

The most modern building on the Albury District Hospital campus had been open for only one year. Blackie House, opened in February 1947, was a maternity unit was funded by money from the will of John Blackie, a local pharmacist. [Golly, thinks Ann Tündern-Smith, it probably was where my mother gave birth to me and where other Bonegilla babies were born in 1948 and maybe later!]

Back at Bonegilla, Algirdas was sent to work with the State Electricity Commission (SEC) at Yallourn, Victoria, on 12 February 1948.  He probably worked in Yallourn Power Station. His friend, Karolis Prasmutas, worked there too.

The first group of 48 for Yallourn from the First Transport, led by English-speaking Arnold Siinmaa, had left the Bonegilla camp on 15 January, so Algirdas was nearly one month late. Josef Šeštokas’ Welcome to Little Europe book focuses on the first 48, so Algirdas gets only a passing mention. He was included on a list of those attending English-language classes organised by the SEC at Arnold’s suggestion, a list which Arnold still had when he moved house during 2007.

Algirdas appears not to have sought Australian citizenship, so we do not have a public record of his movements from 1948. The Melbourne Office of the Department of Immigration kept a card recording his changes of residence and employment, insofar as he reported them, but this is yet to be digitised.

This means that the next public record we have for Algirdas is from 29 June 1978. On that day, he was seriously injured in a traffic accident in Melbourne. He walking from a public library with books and was hit by a car while crossing the street.

Left unconscious, he was taken by ambulance to the Austin Hospital. During more than nine months, however, he rarely regained consciousness despite the great efforts made by doctors. During all the time he was in the hospital and in a convalescent home, friends Aleksandra and Vytautas Bieliauskas did what they could to look after him.

Algirdas died 9 months later, on 9 April 1979. At the Tobin Brothers Chapel on 12 April, he was farewelled in prayer by Fr P Vasaris.  Karolis Prašmutas, who had come to Australia with him on the First Transport, provided an eulogy. He was buried that day in the Fawkner Cemetery, accompanied by a large number of Lithuanian people.

By a twist of fate, this Protestant is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery.  That is likely to be so that he can lie with his fellow Lithuanians in exile.

Algirdas was unmarried and had no relatives in Australia. In occupied Lithuania, he still had two living brothers: Petras, born in 1904, with his family, and Jonas with his. Another brother, Konstantinas, born in 1905, and a sister, Ona, born in 1911, both had died in 1916, suggesting some sort of epidemic in wartime conditions.

Algirdas’ parents, Jonas and Zene, his sister, Onutė (or Ona), and brother, Kostas (or Konstantinas), are buried in Klausuciai village cemetery in the Birzai district of Lithuania. His father died in 1959 and his mother in 1962. This means that after Algirdas left Lithuania, his parents did not see their son again.

In Australia, Algirdas kept aloof, with his truest friend being a book, according to Karolis Prašmutas. He did care for Lithuanian community life though, so when the Melbourne Lithuanians bought their own building, he donated £100 to the cause.

Sources

Albury City, 'Nurse on Call' https://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/leisure/museum-and-libraries/exhibitions/nurse-on-call accessed 7 March 2025.

'IRO (BZ) Form 102, Family Name, Undzenas' 2.1.2.1./ 69554139 / ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives  https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69554139 accessed 10 March 2025. 

'Kategorie III, Form 7, Gemeinde Kitzingen [Category III, Form 7, Kitzingen Community] List of all allied Nationals and all other Foreigner, German Jews, and stateless etc. who were temporarily or permanently stationed in the community, but are no longer in residence, Nationalität, Litauen [Nationality, Lithuanians]' 2.1.1.1. / 69975936 / ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/69975936?s=undzenas&t=548522&p=0 accessed 10 March 2025. 

'Kategorie III, Form 7, Landstadt Kreis Kitzingen, Gemeinde verachiedene [Category III, Form 7, Country Town District, Different Communities] List of all allied Nationals and all other Foreigner, German Jews, and stateless etc. who were temporarily or permanently stationed in the community, but are no longer in residence, Nationalität, Litauen [Nationality, Lithuanians]' 2.1.1.1. / 69975941 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69975941?s=undzenas&t=548522&p=0 accessed 10 March 2025. 

'Liste der in der Kreigszeit in Norden wohnhaf gewesen Ausländer [List of foreigners residing in Norden during the war]' 2.1.2.1./ 70708684 and 70708685/ ITS Digital Archives, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70708684 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70708685 accessed 6 March 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1980s) 2 Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.2 Documents on the Registration of Foreigners and the Employment of Forced Laborers, 1939 - 1945 / 2.2.2 Various Public Administrations and Companies (Documents related to individuals)

Cemety, Jonas Undzėnas, born: 1875, died, 1959 https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1442572?type=deceased accessed 6 March 2025.

Evangeliku_reformatu_abecelinis_sarasas_XIX_a_pab-XX_a_II_puses [Alphabetical list of Evangelical Reformed people from the 19th century to the 2nd half of the 20th century] http://88.119.255.35:8888/metrikai/Evangeliku_reformatu_abecelinis_sarasas_XIX_a_pab-XX_a_II_puses.pdf accessed 6 March 2025 [p341].

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; UNDZENAS ALGIRDAS, UNDZENAS, Algirdas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number – 706, 1947-48 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203721886 accessed 6 March 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series, 1926-52; 82, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers, 1947-52; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 6 March 2025 (page 10).

Find A Grave, Algirdas Undenas,https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140678679/algirdas-undzenas accessed 6 March 2025.

JP (1979) Algirdas Undzėnas Musu sparnai [Our Wings] Chicago, Illinois, June, p 76 https://spauda.org/musu_sparnai/archive/1979/1979-nr46-MUSU-SPARNAI.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.

Prašmutas, K (1979) ‘AA Algirdas Undzėnas’ [‘RIP Algirdas Undzėnas’] Tėviškės Aidai [Echoes of the Homeland] Melbourne, 5 May, p12 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1979/1979-nr17-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.

Prašmutas, K (1979) ‘Mirusieji, Mirtis Eismo Nelaimėje’ [‘The Dead, Death in a Traffic Accident’] Mūsų Pastogė Sydney, 7 May 1979, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1979/1979-05-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 4 March 2025.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe Sale, Victoria, Little Chicken Publishing, pp 118-9, also available in part from Google Books, eg, https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Welcome_to_Little_Europe/PqDgc5KKfvIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=karolis+prasmutas&pg=PT231&printsec=frontcover, accessed 16 April 2023.

Wikipedia, Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Evangelical_Reformed_Church accessed 7 March 2025.

Vincentas Jakimavičius (1927-1949): Motorcycle passenger death, by Daina Pocius

Vincentas Jakimavičius was the pillion passenger of a motorcycle which hit a cow opposite the old store at Tarpeena in South Australia, at 1.15 am on the morning of Sunday, 24 July 1949. The 22-year-old was killed after being flung a distance of 82 feet, that is, 25 metres, onto the bitumen road.

Vincentas Jakimavičius' ID photo on his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A2571, JAKIMAVICIUS, VINCAS

The other man, Juozas Gylys, of Nangwarry, was taken in a private car to the Mount Gambler Hospital. His condition was not serious, but he was still in the Hospital some days later according to newspaper reports.

The two were riding on the Penola Road, 23 Kilometres north of Mount Gambler, on their way home after a Mount Gambier dance.

A modern map of the Penola Road from Mt Gambier to Nangwarry (red dot) through Tarpeena

Source:  Google Maps

There was a cow on each side of the road near the store. In attempting the avoid the cow on his left, Juozas hit the cow on his right, which was killed instantly. The police were looking for the owner of the cow, so that legal action could be taken under the Impounding Act. Stock wandering uncontrolled along the roads near Tarpeena and Nangwarry had been a problem for some time.

The local coroner decided that an inquest into the death was not necessary. While the cause of Vincentas’ death was obvious to him, at a later time a coroner might have deemed an inquest necessary to inquire into why neither of the motorcyclists were wearing helmets.

Both had come to Australia on the First Transport, together with Vincentas’ half- or step-brother, Sigitas Brokevičius, arriving on 28 November 1947. They both were part of a group which had been assigned to timber work at Nangwarry, leaving their first home in Australia, the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre for Mt Gambier, on 9 January 1948.

They had been moved to Nangwarry from Mt Gambier on 21 January 1948. Nangwarry was one of the forestry industry townships, situated 32.5 kilometres north of Mt Gambier.

In 1939, a power station was erected to supply a timber mill, which was built in 1940. The Nangwarry town grew out of a demand for housing for the labourers who travelled to the area for work, many in the forest. Migrants made up the biggest percentage of the population in what was to become a multicultural community.

Juozas clearly had settled in so much already that he was known by the English equivalent of his Lithuanian name, Joseph. As for Vincentas or Vincas, he was known as a “well mannered, decent, fine, young man”. He had been born 2 May 1927 in Galkiemis, Vilkaviškis, Lithuania.

One of Vincas’ selection documents says that he had had 2 years of secondary education on top of the basic 4 years of primary school. Another says that he had had 4 years of farming experience – but not with his father, whose occupation was given as clerk. His mother was a housewife. However, given that his younger brother had a different family name, the clerk on his selection papers likely to be his stepfather – so perhaps he had been farming with his biological father.

A large number of his friends attended the funeral at the Mount Gambier cemetery. There were 37 New Australians from Nangwarry, besides other employees from the mill and forest.

Vincentas’ brother, Sigitas, aged 19, flew from Melbourne with two friends to attend the funeral. Sigitas had been assigned separately to the Ebor Sawmills, Styx River Hill, in Victoria.

A Requiem Mass was celebrated at St. Paul's Church, Mt Gambier.  The funeral departed from there on 26 July, two days after Vincentas' death. Rev Fr McCabe conducted the service. The six pallbearers representing the district’s migrant community came from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Czechoslovakia. At the conclusion of the graveside service, four friends sang "Ave Maria" in Lithuanian.

In accordance with Lithuanian custom, the deceased was buried in his best clothes. Several beautiful wreaths were sent by friends and, instead of the customary sympathy cards, engraved ribbons were attached.

The cemetery in which Vincentas was buried now is called the Lake Terrace Cemetery.  On his grave was placed the inscription: Jei grįši, lietuvi, pasakyk Tėvynei, kad aš ją mylėjau.  That means, If you return to Lithuania, tell the Motherland that I loved her.

Sources

Australijos Lietuvis [The Australian Lithuanian] (1953) ‘Gerai įsikūrusi lietuvių kolonija [A well-established Lithuanian colony’], Adelaide, 19 September, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280314249 viewed 2 March 2025.

Border Watch (1949) 'Motorcycle Hits Cow: Pillion Rider Killed', Mount Gambier, South Australia, 26 July, p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78632729 accessed 1 March 2025.

Border Watch (1949) 'No Inquest into Balt Migrant’s Death, Mount Gambier, South Australia, 28 July, p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78632838 accessed 2 March 2025.

City of Mount Gambier, Cemetery Data Search, 'Jakimavicius, Vincents' https://www.mountgambier.sa.gov.au/cemeteries/jakimavicius-vincents accessed 3 March 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; JAKIMAVICIUS VINCAS, JAKIMAVICIUS, Vincas : Year of Birth - 1927 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 495, 1947-48 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620771 accessed 3 March 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947 1947-47; 96, JAKIMAVICIUS Vincas DOB 2 May 1927, 1947-47; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005528 accessed 2 March 2025.

News (1949) 'Killed in Collision with Cow', Adelaide, 25 July, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130268590 accessed 1 March 2025.

Southern Cross (1949) 'Mount Gambier News', Adelaide, 5 August, p 15, 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167725980 accessed 2 March 2025.

VR (1953) 'Lietuviai Prie Ugniakalnio Ežeru [Lithuanians at the Volcanic Lake]’ Musu Pastoge [Our Haven] Sydney, NSW, 29 July, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259358649 accessed 2 March 2025.

Wattle Range Council, ‘Nangwarry’, https://www.wattlerange.sa.gov.au/tourism/tourism/Towns/nangwarry accessed 2 March 2025.

Vytautas Skidzevičius (1924–1983): Little known brother, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Unlike his younger brother, Nikodemas, we know only the barest outline of the life of Vytautas Skidzevičius.

He was born on 9 August 1924, 13 months ahead of Nikodemas and in the same place, in Alytus, Dzūkija, Lithuania. Presumably, he too attended Alytus primary school.

Vytautas Skidzevičius from his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A2571, SKIDZEVICIUS VYTAUTAS

The Arolsen Archives have two different American Expeditionary Force DP Registration Records for Vytautas.   Insofar as the German-language handwriting on the one dated 1 February 1946 is legible, it appears to be saying that he arrived freely in Germany on 3 August 1944 in order to study.  Soviet troops had captured Vilnius (part of Poland between the two World Wars) on 13 July 1944 and Lithuania's capital city, Kaunas, on 1 August 1944, so Vytautas’ move to Germany was timely.

Perhaps August 1944 was the month in which he left Lithuania rather than the month of arrival in Germany.  That is because one of several documents which state that Vytautas reached Darmstadt through Kaffenberg in Austria has him spending ‘8.44 – 45’ there. Kaffenberg is likely to a spelling error for Kapfenberg.

One of these documents has him reaching Kapfenberg through Vienna, 150 Kilometres to the northeast and still near 2 hours driving in a modern car.  It is possible that the route that Vytautas took to Darmstadt might be as complex as the one Jedda Barber’s father, Valentinas Dagys, took from Lithuania to Germany.

The earlier German records also show him as a student at the Technical High School in Darmstadt, but do not say what he was studying.

We can see that his usual occupation was ‘forester’ on the English-language American Expeditionary Force DP Registration Record, dated 3 September 1945.

Maybe 5 months before the opportunity to migrate to Australia came up, he wrote to the newspaper Naujienos with an interesting request. Rasa’s translation of his letter, which was published on 4 June 1947, says, “I am one of the many Lithuanian DPs in Germany. Having no relatives in America, I would like to correspond with American Lithuanians. Dear Editor, if there are no major obstacles, please place an ad about it in News. I will be forever grateful to you for that.” He included his full street address in the city of Darmstadt.

His selection papers for Australia, dated 14 October 1947, say that he had completed 6 years primary school plus 3 years of technical school to train as an electrical mechanic.   He was one of many who had been applied from a DP camp in Hanau.  Since we know he was living privately only a few months before, maybe he used the Hanau DP camp address to improve his chance of selection.  Maybe he had been able to find accommodation in the Hanau camp because Nikodemas was there already.

He arrived in Australia with Nikodemas on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, and spent one month in the newly opened Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre. Then he was part of the group of 64 or 65 sent to work for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS). Their new home was under canvas at Bedford Park in close to primitive conditions, with more details here.

The work that they were expected to do was digging ditches for water pipes.   At least they were not doing this under fire, like the Lithuanian and Latvian men digging trenches between the German and the Soviet forces during World War II.

The recent year of his life might explain why a drunken Vytautas punched an Adelaide policeman in the face and tried to choke him on 8 December 1950. The date just happened to be the third anniversary of his trip from the Kanimbla, berthed in Port Melbourne, to the Bonegilla camp.

On the following day, he wisely pleaded guilty to a charge of resisting arrest and was fined £11/10/– with £1/5/3 costs in addition. The Reserve Bank of Australia says that this punishment was the equivalent of around $785 in 2023. It looks like more than that, however, more like the equivalent of at least two weeks in wages.

Vytautas made good this mistake 4 years later, though, when he asked that a farewell presentation cheque for £3 be given to the Adelaide News’ Pound for Pensioners appeal. When acknowledged the following day, 2 November 1954, the amount actually was £3/3/-, known then as 3 guineas. Guineas were a monetary unit still in commercial use at the time.

The money had been collected by his colleagues at the Australasian United Paint Company, which he appeared to have left in a hurry. “Sudden disappearance” was the term he used …

Vytautas' generosity as reported in the Adelaide News of 1 November 1954

Source:  Adelaide News in the NLA's Trove

He received a certificate of naturalization as an Australian on 26 July 1956. We’ve noted already that this was more than 3 years before his younger brother, Nikodemas.

Until naturalization, the law treated him as an Alien who was required to register any change of employer or residential address. From that record we can see that he was one of those released from the contract to be employed as directed in Australia on the date specified by the Minister, 30 September 1949.

His next employer had been the “SAHB” of “PtAdel”, presumably the South Australian Harbour Board, for whom he worked in Port Adelaide. The following entry records his employment by the United Paint Company of Port Adelaide, but not a commencement date or departure date from the SAHB. It noted, however, that he was living in the inner Adelaide suburb of Wayville in April 1950 but had moved some 18 Km north-east to the coastal suburb of Semaphore in August 1952.

He stayed with the United Paint Company, as a labourer, through 3 more changes of residential address, until that “sudden disappearance” in November 1954. He then worked in the Print Office of the Adelaide News’ rival paper, the Advertiser, for a few months.

In April 1955, he advised that his employer now was General Motors Holden, of Woodville, an Adelaide suburb between Wayville and Semaphore. He had moved to a residence in the same suburb. Seven changes of residential address in just over 5 years suggest that he was a renter rather than someone who already owned his own home.

In all of his workplaces, his occupation is given as labourer. As senior staff of the E&WS complained, he appears to have been mismatched to possible employment, and from the beginning. Anyone with previous employment as a forester presumably would have been a much better fit with the Department of Woods and Forests South Australia, which Vaclavs Kozlovskis recorded as wanting 33 men. He would also have been a better fit with the various “not yet determined” employers in New South Wales, who turned out to be that State’s forestry department in various locations as well as sawmillers.

Voting is compulsory for Australian citizens, so we should be able to follow any changes in home address and occupation for Vytautas from July 1956.  However, we have been unable to find him on digitised electoral rolls.  We'll try some more digging after his naturalisation papers are digitised.

Rasa has found 3 newspaper articles about V. Skidzevičius taking to the stage. He is said, by Teviskes Aidai, to have been an actor in two short plays performed for the Adelaide Lithuanian Catholic Women's Society in June 1990. However, that was 7 years after his death, so clearly there has been a mistake in the reporting or editing.

The same newspaper had reported the appearance of V. Skidzevičius with the Adelaide Vaidila theatre group in 1978. It was commemorating the 45th anniversary of the flight across the Atlantic of Lithuanians Darius and Girėnas. If the actor was Vytautas, it would have been a one-off appearance. We think that it was another typographic error. Instead, it was much more likely to be Nikodemas presenting the Darius and Girėnas testament, and we have written as much in Nikodemas’ life story.

The third report appeared in the Canadian-Lithuanian newspaper, Teviskes Ziburiai, on 24 August 1978, two months after the Teviskes Aidai report. We suspect that Teviskes Ziburiai picked out the story from Teviskes Aidai and saw no need to factcheck.

Vytautas’ death on 26 May 1983 was notified in the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper. He was only 58 years old. Like his brother afterward, he was interred in the Catholic Section of the Centennial Park Cemetery in Adelaide.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1983) ‘Death Notices’, Adelaide, 28 May.

Arolsen Archives (1945) ‘Skidzevicius, Vytautas’ AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP (Displaced Person) Record, 3 September 1945 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134315 accessed 22 February 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1946) ‘Skidzevicius, Vytautas’ AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP (Displaced Person) Record, 1 February 1946 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69134314 accessed 22 February 2025.

Arolsen Archives (1947) ‘Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.1 Implementation of Allied Forces’ Orders on Listing all Foreigners and German Persecutees, and Related Documents / 2.1.1 American Zone of Occupation in Germany / 2.1.1.1 Lists of all persons of United Nations and other foreigners, German Jews and stateless persons; American Zone; Bavaria, Hesse (1) / 2.1.1.1 HE Documentation from Hesse / 2.1.1.1 HE 006 Documents from the rural district Darmstadt (SK) / 2.1.1.1 HE 006 LIT Nationality/origin of person listed : Lithuanian / 2.1.1.1 HE 006 LIT 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Darmstadt (SK)’ 14 July https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/70305941 accessed 22 February 2025.

Arolsen Archives (nd) ‘2 Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 - 1947) / 2.1 Implementation of Allied Forces’ Orders on Listing all Foreigners and German Persecutees, and Related Documents / 2.1.1 American Zone of Occupation in Germany / 2.1.1.2 Lists of all persons of United Nations and other foreigners, German Jews and stateless persons; American Zone; Bavaria, Wurttemberg-Baden, Bremen (2) / Lists of names and correspondence pertaining to foreigners who were staying in Darmstadt’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/87796675?s=skidzevicius&t=2728209&p=0 accessed 28 February 2025.

Centennial Park, 'Results for" vytautas skidzevicius"' https://www.centennialpark.org/memorial-search/?surname=skidzevicius&firstname=vytautas accessed 1 March 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1957) 'Certificates of Naturalization’, Canberra, 14 March, p 802 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232965688 accessed 20 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-47; 657, SKIDZEVICIUS Vytautas DOB 9 August 1924, 1947-47; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118083 accessed 22 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; SKIDZEVICIUS Vytautas : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1031, 1947-48; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203708786 accessed 22 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-76; SKIDZEVICIUS Vytautas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-56; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9210654 accessed 22 February 2025.

Naujienos [News](1947) ‘Nori Susirašinėti Amerikos Lietuviais’ [Wants to Correspond with American Lithuanians] Chicago, Illinois, 4 June, p 2, https://spauda.org/naujienos/archive/1947/1947-06-04-NAUJIENOS-i7-8.pdf accessed 22 February 2025.

News (1950) 'Tried to Choke Policeman ', Adelaide, 9 December, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130287711 accessed 22 February 2025.

News (1954) 'Happy Times at Xmas is Wish’ Adelaide, 1 November, p. 12 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130976622 accessed 22 February 2025.

Pr P (1990) ‘Adelaidė, Šiupinys’ [Adelaide, Medley] Teviskes Aidai [The Echoes of Homeland] Melbourne, 3 July, p 8 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1990/1990-07-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator’ https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 22 February 2025.

Teviskes Ziburiai [The Lights of Homeland] (1978)'Lietuviai Pasaulyje, Australija' ['Lithuanians in the World, Australia'] Mississauga, Ontario, 24 August, p 4, https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1978/1978-08-24-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf accessed 21 February 2025.

Vasiliauskas, J. (1978) ‘Gyvas Didvyrių Atminimas, Dariaus ir Girėno Minėjimas Adelaidėje’ [Living Memory of Heroes, Darius and Girėnas Commemoration in Adelaide], Teviskes Aidai, [The Echoes of Homeland] Melbourne, 22 June, p3, https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1978/1978-nr28-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 22 February 2025.

Domas Valancius (1922-1980): A wanderer who died young by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Domas Valancius was born in Pauosniai village, Plunge district, Lithuania, on 21 June 1922, to peasant parents Jonas and Ona Valancius. Ona’s maiden name was Grismanauskaite.

Domas’ name was Dominykas on the birth record, but he probably chose the shorter version of Domas to make it easier to say and spell. English language equivalents would be Dominic for Dominykas and Dom for Domas.

Domas Valancius' birth record on 21 June 1922, in Plunge church, Lithuania

Source: Lithuanian State Historical Archives

From an Arolsen Archives record, we know that Domas Valancius was in the British zone after World War II ended. During the War, from 6 December 1943 to 31 March 1945 he had worked for the Gerwerkschaft Dorn in Herne, Germany. The Gerwerkschaft Dorn produced screws, nuts and rivets for the mining industry, the railways and the bridge, ship, wagon, vehicle and agricultural machinery construction industries. It is highly likely that Domas had not volunteered for this work but had been sent to it under some form of military escort.

The entrance to the Gerwerkschaft Dorn on Dornstraße in 1921

Source:  Herne von damals bis heute

Domas appears to have been interviewed twice about his interest in resettling in Australia, on 6 and 10 October. The form used for his 6 October interview did not ask him about his education, but it did ask for his occupation and the length of time for which he had been engaged in this. The interviewers recorded that he was a factory worker who had been doing this type of work for 4 years.

At the time of the interview, he was living in a Displaced Persons’ camp in Solingen, about one hour’s drive south of Herne. If he was working still in a factory, it was quite likely to be one in Solingen, famous since mediaeval times for the manufacture of blades, starting with sword blades.

The form did ask for Domas’ previous occupation, to which the typed answer was ‘nil’. This suggests that he was student whose studies, like those of so many others, were interrupted abruptly by the German military seizing him to work for them. At least it was a factory in his case, not digging ditches under fire.

The 10 October form did ask about his education, which elicited a ‘4 years of primary school’ answer, basic for a Lithuanian of Domas’ age. If you knew that Australia was looking for labourers, you would not want to boast about your higher education. Perhaps that is why Domas did not give more information.

Domas' identity photo from his selection papers
Source:  NAA: A11772, VALANCUS DOMAS

He left Bremerhaven for Australia with 842 other Baltic refugees on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947 and on 28 November 1947 he arrived to Australia.

From the General Heintzelman nominal rolls of passengers it is known that Domas’ last place of residence in Germany was in the city of Lintorf. His Bonegilla card noted that he had a fiancee, Loni Klingbeil, who was living in Wuppertal-Hammerstein, Germany.

Domas’ first job in Australia was in Western Sawmilling Pty Ltd, in Rylstone, NSW. He left Bonegilla camp on 20 January 1948 for Rylstone. This is still a small town on the western side of the Great Dividing Range, behind Newcastle. Only 3 men were sent to this employer, the other 2 being Rasa’s grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas and an Estonian, Leonard Jaago.

Leonard must have felt put out if the two Lithuanians started to talk to each other in their native tongue, but at least he could ask them in German to tell him what they were discussing.

Domas was being paid a wage of £6/2/6 per week, more than some others were getting in their new jobs. He and Adomas might have found the work or the management disagreeable, though, because they returned to the Bonegilla camp on 12 April 1948. Maybe the volume of work had run down. Regardless of Domas’ and Adomas’ reasons, Leonard stayed behind at Rylstone.

The Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) staff in the camp knew immediately what to do with the two returning men. They were added to the group being sent 3 days later to Iron Knob in South Australia to work with a company then known as Broken Hill Proprietory Limited – but now simply BHP.

The group of 12 included Romualdas Zeronas, about whom we have written already for this blog. Rasa thinks that Domas and her grandfather would have become friends by now, especially as they left Rylstone together, and they would have included Romualdas in their friendship.

A new paper, Australijos lietuvis, carried a notice about supporting it with donations of money on 12 September 1948. The group of Lithuanians working in the Iron Knob mines immediately understood that they needed to help. After receiving their wages, they put together a pile of money and sent it to the newspaper. One of them was Domas Valancius, who donated 5 shillings.

Domas had first written to the Minister for Immigration about sponsoring his fiancé to move to Australia on 10 February 1948, that is, just over 2 months after arriving at the Bonegilla camp and 3 weeks after leaving it for Rylstone. A file was raised for the first letter and any ensuing correspondence, as was normal Australian Public Service practice. The existence of this file means that we have a report from the Port Augusta District Employment Officer to his superior in Adelaide, dated 21 September 1948, about Domas and another Lithuanian from the First Transport, Petras Juodka.

The Employment Officer, EJ Puddy, wrote that he had travelled to Iron Knob following a phone discussion with the Registrar of the Broken Hill Proprietory Limited company. There he had first talked with Broken Hill’s Iron Knob foreman. Both Domas and Petras were said to have ‘given quite a lot of trouble on and off the job’.

Both had been before the Iron Knob court where they had been fined for disorderly behaviour in a public place. This had been the result of a brawl in Broken Hill’s mess rooms. It is interesting that a privately owned place was considered a public place for the purpose of the court appearance, unless the brawl continued on a public road outside.

Puddy reported that the foreman had told him that Domas was ‘of an argumentative and repulsive nature’. Domas was considered the leader with Petras a follower, despite Petras having been before the local court one more time than Domas. The foreman thought that Petras would settle down if separated from Domas.

The local policeman told Puddy that he thought it would be necessary to transfer both of the men ‘as there appeared to be a feeling amongst others that there was trouble ahead.’

Puddy and the foreman then interviewed the two men together. Puddy wrote that Petras ‘was very repentant, but (Domas) did not appear to care what happened to him’.

The company agreed to give the men one week’s notice and told them that they would have to pay their own fares to Adelaide in order to visit the CES there. Their ‘services were terminated’ on 23 September.

A handwritten note from an official using initials only reports that Domas, saying that he wished to return to Germany, had caught the express train eastwards on the night of 25 September. He had stated that he was returning to the Bonegilla camp. The purpose of the note was to instruct others to take no further action on Domas’ wish to sponsor his fiancé to Australia until they knew more about his plans.

And that what appears to have happened. There was no further action, although Domas had found a guarantor for Loni among his Australian colleagues at Iron Knob. He did not, however, meet the basic requirement of having been resident for at least 12 months before sponsoring. By persisting in finding a guarantor, he showed no sign of understanding the residence requirement, which had been explained by letter. He was advised also that someone else would have to find the money to pay for Loni’s passage, since apparently she was not a Displaced Person. In all of this frustration, Loni might have found another special friend anyhow.

Domas arrived at the Bonegilla camp for a third time on 27 September. On 8 October, the Bonegilla camp’s Assistant Director signed a note to the head Immigration official for South Australia, reporting the arrival and stating that a report on Domas also had been sent to the head office of the Immigration Department. The files on Domas which have been digitised so far do not contain that report. It might still be waiting to tell us more about how Australian officials saw Domas on a Central Office file about Bonegilla activities.

This time it took the CES staff nearly one month to find another job for him. On 26 October, he was sent to Standart Portland Cement Company Limited, at Brogans Creek, NSW. That’s probably a typing mistake for ‘Standard Portland Cement’.

On Domas’ Bonegilla card, Brogans Creek is described as ‘near Charbon’. Charbon is a tiny village 17 kilometres north of Brogans Creek by road. It is interesting to note that Domas’ original destination, Rylstone, is only 25 kilometres north by road. Geographically, Domas was back almost where he had started in Australia.

In June 1949, a newspaper called the Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative carried, in its ‘Rylstone and Kandos News’ columns, a report from the Kandos Court of Petty Sessions. Two Lithuanians, Domas Valancius and Bronius Latrys were fined on 25 May for ‘behaving in an offensive manner’. Domas was fined 10 shillings with 10 shillings costs while Bronius lost £2 with 10 shillings costs.

Clearly the two were not drunk, or they would have been charged with a difference offence, like ‘drunk and disorderly’. One legal firm gives as examples of offensive behaviour, ‘yelling, swearing, urinating, pushing and shoving or being part of an aggressive or rowdy group’. This must be in or near a public place or school.

Having received the larger fine, Bronius, whose family name actually was Latvys, probably was the noisier of the two. As he was 10 years older than Domas, perhaps he thought that he had the right to yell at Domas and the latter yelled back.

Kandos is a small town only 6 kilometres south of Rylstone and 3 kilometres north of Charbon. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 1263. While Domas had stayed at Iron Knob for only 5 months, it looks like he was still with the Portland Cement company after 7 months.

Less than 3 months later, Domas was before the Kandos Court of Petty Sessions again. This time he had been drinking and, according the arresting and prosecuting Sergeant of Police, using such bad language that the Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative refused to print it. 

The Lithgow Mercury of 1 September 1949 also found the story interesting enough to reprint it. It could see a humourous side to Domas’ behaviour on the night of 12 August, when Domas was caught easily because he had fled into a fowl yard.

The Lithgow Mercury reports on Domas, 1 September 1949, page 6

Source:  Trove

(Click image to view in another tab and enlarge to read)

The absence of further court reporting does suggest that Domas adhered to his promise not to drink alcohol. He had also been with Standard Portland Cement for 10 months, and perhaps was about to be released from his obligation to work in Australia shortly, at the end of September 1949.

He was in the news again in March 1953, having moved from inland of Newcastle, an industrial city north of Sydney, to the vicinity of Wollongong, another industrial city but south of Sydney. The bicycle he was riding near his Port Kembla home was hit by a car. He suffered head injuries and abrasions to the face. He was taken to the Wollongong Hospital.

Or was he on a motorcycle? That was how another newspaper reported the incident.

He acquired Australian citizenship on 24 January 1961. He was still living at Port Kembla, but at a different address. His addresses now could be followed on electoral rolls. In 1963, he was still at his 1961 address. By 1968, he had moved again but still was very close to his 1961-63 address. After that, electoral rolls have not been digitised.

Searching the Ryerson Index for any Valancius death notices reveals only one. It is that of Domas, who had died on 12 May 1980 in the Bundanoon district of NSW. He had moved inland again, southwest of Port Kembla.

Domas was only 57 years old at the time of his death.

Whoever was the executor of any estate that Domas left did not realise that he had taken out a life insurance policy. That is why his name was included in a list of unclaimed money published in a Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 7 years later, on 29 June 1987.

Anyone who has a life insurance policy is unlikely to have died without leaving a will, so there must have been an executor. We have to hope that any money due to Domas or his heirs found its way to its rightful place.

Sources

Lithuanian State Historical Archives, Rietavo dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga, 1922-01-01 – 1922-12-31 [Birth register of churches in the Rietavas deanery, 1922-01-01 – 1922-12-31] https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267502635/297161654/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=195 [Domas Valancius’ birth record in Plunge church is on page 174, record number 107].

Arolsen Archives, City region of Herne: Report on Employed Foreigners, Category A, Lithuanians, Documents from Australijos lietuvis (1948) ‘Pirmieji Mūsų Rėmėjai’in Lithuanian [‘Our First Sponsors’], 12 September, page 10, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280321942 accessed 30 January 2025.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Domas Valancius https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203712436 accessed 30 January 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1961) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’, Canberra, 6 July, p 2556, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240889446/26005562 accessed 30 January 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1987) 'Life Insurance Act 1945 — Unclaimed Money', Canberra, 29 June, p 318 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239979262 accessed 28 January 2025.

Goulburn Post (1980) ‘Death Notices’, Goulburn, NSW, 13 May

Herne von damals bis heute, Schraubenwerk Dorn, Ein Schwimmbad als Zeichen des Erfolges [Herne from then to now, Dorn Union, A Swimming Pool as a Sign of Success] https://herne-damals-heute.de/bergbauindustrie/zuliefererbetriebe/schraubenwerk-dorn/ accessed 25 February 2025.

Illawarra Daily Mercury (1953) 'Cyclist Hurt in Collision' Wollongong, NSW, 17 March, p 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134041121 accessed 25 February 2025.

Lithgow Mercury (1949) ‘Portland Section, Balt Migrant “Turns it on” at Kandos’, Lithgow, NSW, 1 September, p 6 (City Edition), http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220833346 accessed 25 February 2025

Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (1949) 'Rylstone And Kandos News' Mudgee, NSW, 2 June, p 9 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article156448258 accessed 25 February 2025

Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (1949) 'Kandos Court of Petty Sessions: Lithuanian Sentenced to Hard Labor', Mudgee, NSW, 25 August, p 10, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article156449257 accessed 25 February 2025

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; VALANCIUS DOMAS, VALANCIUS, Domas : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 875, 1947-48; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203712436 accessed 26 February 1925.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australia; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series, 1926-52; General Heintzelman — arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 — nominal rolls of passengers, 1947–52, page 16 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 28 January 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office: MT29/ 1, Employment Service Schedules; Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia - [Schedule no SA1 to SA31], page 49 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 30 January 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-47; 500, VALANCUS (sic) Domas DOB 21 June 1922, 1947-47 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1834240 accessed 26 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1947-76; VALANCUS (sic) DOMAS, VALANCUS (sic) nDomas - Nationality: Lithuanian Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-48 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7174218 accessed 26 February 2025.

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