Updated 1 March 2024.
Migrants can contribute to their new nations in many ways. Edvins Baulis' speciality was the welfare of his fellow migrants and the community in general. This made for a better Australia for all where he lived.
Edvins in his early 60s
Photograph courtesy Erik Baulis
The Good Neighbour Councils (GNCs) started in 1949 and emerged as an Australian-wide movement in 1950, from a Citizenship Convention sponsored by the Commonwealth Government. They united community groups and individual volunteers in assisting new arrivals to assimilate, to become like other Australians, the goal of settlement policy in those days.
As the work the GNCs was doing was valued by the Commonwealth Government, it supported them with funding.
In the 1960s, Australians and their governments started to think in terms of 'integration' rather than 'assimilation'. This 'melting pot' approach aimed for an amalgam of the old and new, a new society rather than an expectation that only the migrants would change to fit into the old society (Lewins 2001). It was in this environment that the Fraser Government decided to establish a Review of Post-arrival Programs and Services for Migrants in August 1977.
Known as the Galbally Review, its 1978 report acknowledged the good work the GNCs had done but found that their funding was now being used primarily for internal operations, such as liaison with other organisations and running conferences and seminars. The money was not going towards direct services to migrants.
The Galbally Review advised that the money supporting the GNCs should be spent instead with ethnic organisations which were able to provide direct services to their own communities. A two-year phase out of GNC funding was recommended (Galbally et al. 1978). Around Australia, the GNCs folded, with only two exceptions: one in Glenorchy and that in Launceston, led by Edvins Baulis. As of 2021, only the Launceston Branch still operates (Winter 2006; Multicultural Council of Tasmania [2020]; E Baulis 2021) .
Known in Australia as Ted, Edvins led the Launceston GNC from that fateful year of 1978 until 1995, two months before he died. As well, he was State President of the GNC during the periods 1982-85, 1987-90 and 1992-95. In 1990, the GNC awarded him life membership (Anon n.d.; Winter 1993).
In a eulogy for Ted before Tasmania's Legislative Council, Independent Member for Launceston, Don Wing, said, 'Withdrawal of Federal funding ... following the Galbally Report caused him great anxiety and concern. Good Neighbour Councils were abolished throughout Australia but survived in Tasmania and not only survived but actually flourished in the State mainly due to the commitment, leadership and persistence of Mr Baulis' (Wing 1995).
Ted's wife, Jean, was a Launceston local working in a bank, with several months experience of a refugee camp in Germany as a Girl Guide volunteer. She kept up her interest in the refugees on her return to Launceston, enabling her to meet her husband-to-be at one of the Thursday evening meetings of the Launceston GNC he attended.
They married in October 1953 and had three sons. After his death, she had the strength to finish up the remaining two months of his GNC presidency term (Examiner 1953; J. Baulis 2009).
Ted found the goodwill and energy to help start the Launceston Migrant Resource Centre while GNC president. In general, Migrant Resource Centres around Australia now fulfil the roles previously carried out by the GNCs, but are led and resourced by post-WWII migrants from non-English-speaking nations and their descendents rather than by the Australian-born with generations of ancestry here.
Eulogies from Don Wing and the then Tasmanian Minister for Multicultural and Ethnic Affaris, Frank Madill, an undated curriculum vitae, and the recollections of his sons, particularly Erik, list Ted's many other community activities.
He was President of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia in northern Tasmania and President of the Latvian Community of Tasmania for ten years.
He organised an exhibition of Latvian arts and crafts to mark the 25th anniversary of the GNC in Tasmania. It ran for two weeks in the Northern Regional Library, Launceston, in 1975. He organised a similar exhibition for the State Library, Hobart, in September 1975. During 1979, he was Vice-President of the Latvian Federation of Australia and New Zealand.
The Launceston branch of the GNC, under Ted's leadership, staged an International Concert at Launceston's Albert Hall on 4 October 1980. It featured 70 dancers and singers from around the world, including the Wielangta Aboriginal Dance Group. It attracted an attendance of four hundred. Weeks later, on 21 November, he co-ordinated the mass choirs for Albert Hall's official opening by the State Governor.
Ted Baulis at the Latvian Arts Festival, Launceston, 1984
Courtesy Erik Baulis
He chaired the organising committee for the 34th Australian Latvian Arts Festival in Launceston in 1984, bringing many visitors to the region. The week-long festival included singing and dancing performances as well as exhibitions of paintings by Latvian artists and traditional arts and crafts. In 1990, the Latvian Community of Tasmania awarded him life membership.
Latvians parade in Launceston during the 1984 Latvian Cultural Festival:
Ted Baulis is on the right of the front row
Photograph courtesy Ervins Miezitis, from Latvians on Line Website
Part of a Hobart exhibition on multiculturalism in Hobart, early 1980s
Ted is the 'prominent migrant settler' from Latvia, second from left
Photograph courtesy of Jean Baulis
In 1987, he helped establish a weekly drop-in centre for migrants in Launceston. It is still operated by the GNC in the Greek Community Hall and continues to bring together around 40 migrants every Friday morning. The sessions conclude with a rousing rendition of We are Friends, which Ted composed for the Branch many years previously.
He was a member of the Launceston Male Choir for over twenty years and its President for 1975-78. In 1988, Launceston's celebrations for Australia's Bicentennial included a performance by the Choir in the city's packed Albert Hall. That year, it also sang in front of 10,000 at a Colonial Concert in the Royal Park, and at the Launceston Velodrome as part of the Anzac Day commemorations.
A quartet of singers from the Choir, the Tassietones, consisted of Ted, Robin Gregory, Alan Broughton and Merv Barnes, with Aileen Smith on piano.
Courtesy Erik Baulis
He was on the executive committee of the St Giles Society, providing disability support for Tasmanians, during 1974-77 and worked for the Society for many more years.
He was a member of the State Government's Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs and the Commonwealth's State Council of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) after being a member of the ABC's Program Advisory Committee for Northern Tasmania in the early 1980s. He was a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society for many years and a councillor for 1976-78. He was State President of St Paul's Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tasmania for 15 years, between 1974 and 1988.
In the second half of 1992, the Australian Government concluded a major cross-portfolio Evaluation of its Access and Equity Strategy's impact on all of its departments and agencies (OMA 1992). Ted's contribution to this was acknowledged by a letter of thanks from the Government (E Baulis 2021).
After testing by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters, he was found fit to be an interpreter for the Latvian language.
He became the co-ordinator of a Multicultural Insight class at the Adult Education Institute's School for Seniors in Launceston. He was a member of Launceston's Tasmania Day Committee.
Ted was President of the Master Builders' Association of Northern Tasmania for more than seven years and, in 1990, won the Master Builders' Ern Davey Award in recognition of his outstanding service and contribution to the building industry in Tasmania.
Ted (with two friends) building his first house in Bridgewater, 20 Km north of Hobart
Courtesy Erik Baulis
He instigated and organised the Multicultural Fountain in Launceston's Civic Square, to commemorate the contributions of migrants to Tasmania (Madill 1995). It opened on 21 March 1992, preceded by many hurdles and some prolonged delays. As such, it was a labour of love for Ted. The fountain was created by a local Czech-born artist, Mirek Marik. It has been relocated to parkland on the southeast side of the confluence of the Tamar and North Esk rivers (R Baulis 2021).
Launceston's Multicultural Fountain, relocated
Courtesy Ralph Baulis
Multicultural Fountain plaque
Photographer: Ann Tündern-Smith
In addition to all of this community service, Ted and Jean also volunteered to help the Red Cross Meals on Wheels program.
Jean and Ted
It is not surprising that Queen Elizabeth made Ted a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in June 1979 (Wing 1995).
Jean and Ted
Courtesy Erik Baulis
According to the papers which record his selection for migration to Australia, Edvins was born in Piltene, in Kurzeme, Latvia, on 1 September 1916 (NAA: A11772, 33). The province is known as Courland in English. At the time of his birth, the area was caught up in widespread turmoil due to World War I. His family lived on a small farm and endured meagre supplies, poor medical care and bitterly cold winters. His eldest brother died of tuberculosis in the year he was born. His father died of meningitis about 1919 (E Baulis 2021).
The Baulis family home in Piltene, Kurzeme, Latvia
Courtesy Erik Baulis
The selection papers for Australia say that Edvins had completed six years of primary school and two years of secondary school. In 1938-39, he completed 15 months of compulsory military service in Latvia. He had done four years of farming work also and worked for three years as an car mechanic. Jean advised, when we talked in 2009, that he also had studied forestry for two years in Latvia.
After fleeing to Gotenhafen in German-occupied Poland in October 1944, he travelled overland by foot through what is now northern Poland and Germany before meeting up with British and American troops. The trek was accompanied by extreme hunger, injury, exhaustion and danger, as it was for all Baltic refugees fleeing by land ahead of the Soviet military's advance westward.
Eventually he reached Oldenburg, between Hamburg and the Dutch border, staying at the Ohmstede Displaced Persons Camp. This catered for around 5000 refugees. Conditions were far from ideal, with significant food and clothing restrictions in place for much of his time there. He recalled for his children that tailors in the Camp's workshops would make shirts and coats from old sheets and blankets. The selection papers say that he had been a 'magazine chief' for two years, presumably in the Ohmstede Camp.
When the General Stuart Heintzelman reached Australia in late November 1947, Edvins had only a small suitcase and an English-Latvian dictionary. His suitcase was built from the wreckage of a plane that had crashed on the outskirts of Oldenburg, while his shoes had cardboard soles. He used to say, 'whenever it rained, I would grow half an inch taller because the cardboard soles would absorb all the water' (E Baulis 2021).
Perhaps it was Edvins' forestry studies which led to his first job in Australia. The newly established Commonwealth Employment Service, operating at the Bonegilla camp, sent him to work at Veneer & Plywood Pty Ltd, a company headquartered in Balmain, Sydney, but operating in the rural NSW town of Wauchope (NAA: A2571/1, 14). He moved to Tasmania, working first in paper mills in the southern town of Boyer. Then he relocated to the States's north, working initially for Comalco at Bell Bay. He moved to the construction site of a Hydro-Electric Commission power station in the Launceston suburb of Trevallyn in May 1953, staying there until his marriage to Jean in October 1954 (Wing 1995; Madill 1995).
In 1954 to 1955, he worked on his own home for his his new family in Trevallyn. He and Jean were helped by family and friends, while he took six months off work to concentrate on the home. Then he started out on his own as a builder, building more than 70 houses in northern Tasmania. He sold the last one in March 1978 (E Baulis 2021).
He loved the outdoors, especially along the coast of his island home. He built holiday cabins for the family at Bridport and Bicheno. He also loved Tasmania's highlands, favouring the Great Lake in its Central Plateau and, closer to Launceston, Cradle Mountain National Park.
It was while building that he would have sawn sheets of asbestos. Jean believed that this always was outdoors, but Ted still developed the mesothelioma which killed this energetic and community-minded man at age 78 in 1995 (J Baulis 2009).
The Launceston City Council approved the street name, Baulis Court, in 1998 in memory of Ted Baulis and his service to the city. It's in the suburb of Youngtown, to the southeast of South Launceston.
Courtesy Erik Baulis
Ted and Jean's three sons have made their mark on Australia too, as an architect, a senior Telstra technician and a doctor in general practice. Their grandchildren continue the contribution.
This life-story could not have been put together without help from Ted's widow, Jean (d. 2014) and, more recently, their sons, especially Erik and Ralph, with support from Harald. I thank them all for sharing.
References
Baulis E (21 April 2021) Personal communication.
Baulis J (2009) Personal communication.
Baulis R (4 April 2021) Personal communication.
Examiner (Launceston, Tas) (2 November 1953) 'Bride Chose White Gown And Roses', p 10, http://nla.news-article61108298, accessed on 04 April 2021.
Galbally, F, Nick Polites, Carlo Stransky and Francesca Merenda 1978 Migrant Services and Programs: Report of the Review of Post-arrival Programs and Services for Migrants, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, pp 73-79.
Lewins F 'Assimilation and Integration', in Jupp J 2001 The Australian People: an encyclopaedia of the nation, its people and their origins, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 752-753.
Madill F (19 June 1995) Tasmanian Government Media Release from Minister for Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs.
Multicultural Council of Tasmania [2020] Our Members, 2020-2021: Member Organisations, https://www.mcot.org.au/our_members, accessed 4 April 2021.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration; A2571/1, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; 14, BATALEC-BAUZON.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 33, BAULIS Edvins DOB 1 September 1916.
OMA (Office of Multicultural Affairs), Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet 1992 Access and Equity: Evaluation Summary, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au, accessed on 4 June 2021.
Wing D (21 June 1995) 'Death of Edvins Baulis', Hansard, Legislative Council of Tasmania.
Winter G (2006) 'Good Neighbour Council' in The Companion to Tasmanian History, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Good%20Neighbour%20Council.htm, accessed 4 April 2021.
Winter G (1993) A History of the Good Neighbour Council of Tasmania, 1949-1992, Good Neighbour Council of Tasmania, Hobart.
