Jonas Švitra (1925-1980): The will of the people, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

A policeman and four State accommodation officials evicted an unemployed family from a hut in the Camp Pell housing area in October 1952.  The family was Jonas Švitra, his Australian wife Mabel, who had four children aged from seven years to four months (Herald, 1952a).

Jonas was born in Lastijei, Lithuania, on 21 August 1925.  After leaving his homeland in 1944, probably under compulsion from the German Army, he eventually lived in the Mattenberg Displaced Persons camp, in Oberzwehren, a suburb of the city of Kassel (Arolsen Archives nd).

'Jonas Mekas Overlooking Kassel/Mattenberg DP Camp in 1948',
a photograph by his brother, Adolfas Mekas.
The photograph was part of an exhibition of current art trends, documenta 14, in 2017,
held every 5 years in the city of Kassel.

Source:  'I had nowhere to go' by Jonas Mekas

Jonas Švitra was 22 when he arrived in Australia on the First Transport ship, General Stuart Heintzelman, in November 1947 (NAA: PP482/1, 82).  He made the perfect migrant, single, healthy, with blue eyes and fair hair.  He was 6 foot tall, or maybe only 5 foot 8 inches, depending on who was noting down the details (1.72 to 1.83 cm) (NAA: A2571, SVITRA JONAS; NAA: A11772, 663; NAA: A12508, 37/571; NAA: B78, LITHUANIAN/SVITRA JONAS).

The records in Australia’s National Archives show that Jonas was selected as a “heavy farmer”.  He had only 4 years of primary education, which was obvious when he tried to fill out one of the German forms now in the Arolsen Archives (1946).  That was no problem when it came to farming, so his first assignment in Australia was to the Commonwealth Government’s Flax Production Committee in Melbourne.

Jonas Švitra's ID photograph,
as used on at least two of his migration documents

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Despite his farming experience, it looks like Jonas was put to work as a labourer in a mill processing flax at Lake Bolac, near Ballarat.  That certainly was where he and his Australian partner were working until a couple of months before their Melbourne eviction hit the news.

Worried by the health of Mabel’s seven-year-old daughter, who has been in a Brighton convalescent home, they moved to Melbourne.  At first, they stayed with Mabel’s relatives while they searched for accommodation.  The shortage of places to live in Melbourne was then so severe that they finished up in an empty hut in the Camp Pell housing area (Herald 1952a).

Camp Pell had started in early 1942 as a US Army transit camp called Camp Royal Park after its location just north of the Melbourne Central Business District.  Its name was changed to Camp Pell after Major Floyd Pell, a member of General Douglas Macarthur’s staff.  He had been the first US Army Air Corps member to come to Australia, checking out the suitability of the Darwin area for B-17 bombers.  He had been killed during a Japanese air raid on Darwin in February 1942 (Dunn 2020).

By 1946, Camp Pell had become home to around 3,000 people experiencing the post-war housing shortage.  Many of these families needed temporary accommodation, having been directly affected by 'slum’ reclamation policies.  It was one of at least 4 similar camps in inner Melbourne but the most notorious, with some newspapers nicknaming it 'Camp Hell' (Commonwealth of Australia 2019).

Jonas and Mabel moved into an empty hut, empty because it was condemned, with two of their children.  Mabel was working with a dressmaking firm but Jonas had been unable to get work for some time.  He was registered with the Commonwealth Employment Service but could not keep in close contact because he had to stay home and mind the baby he had fathered with Mabel.

They moved into the hut on a Friday.  On the following Monday, a police constable arrived with four men from the State Accommodation Office, wanting Jonas to open the door.  Jonas said he would wait until his wife returned.  The door was then broken down and their belongings put out on the ground between the rows of huts.

Mabel said their relatives could not take them back and she did not know where the children would sleep that night.  The State Accommodation officer said they were trespassing.  Mabel said she had asked him earlier for help but he had refused.  The Accommodation official said that he could not remember this (Herald 1952a).

The evicted Svitra family

Source:  The Herald, 13 October 1952

That night they took shelter in another empty hut, staying for two days.  Then the authorised tenant arrived, and caretakers supervised removal of the family’s belongings to the ground between huts again.

The couple made their home next in a communal laundry at the Camp for several nights before friends found a space for them.  Other friends cared for the children (Herald 1952b).

Thanks to the intervention of a Member of the State Parliament, who read about the family in the Melbourne Herald, they were found a home in Ararat.  Their savings were down to £10 only, not enough money to get there.  Then Jonas gratefully accepted 10 shillings which had been sent to the Herald for him by an anonymous sympathiser.  The Herald was the newspaper which had run with the story from its start.

A third reader, a City businessman, paid the fares for the whole family to travel to Ararat.  He then took up a collection in the office building where he had his business, to pay for transporting the family's luggage.  “I just thought I would like to help them”, Mr K Glynn told the Herald.  The newspaper assured its readers that Jonas Svitra would be able to get a job in Ararat, despite his doubts on this score (Herald 1952c).

During this time, the Herald published two letters from readers shocked by the family’s story.   “It’s a scandalous way to treat a family with a sick child”, said Mona B Robinson from Deepdene (Robinson 1952).  “Whatever Government is elected, citizens have a right to demand that it solve the housing problem”, wrote Mrs Dorothy Irwin from Parkville (Irwin 1952).

On 4 November, the Herald printed a “Thank You” statement from Jonas and Mabel.  We want to thank the people of Camp Pell who stood by us in our need; The Herald for its reports about us; Mr Barry, MLA, for finding an emergency hut for us in Ararat: the people who broadcast our story, and the people who read about us, offered to carry our furniture to our new hut, and gave us money to reach our destination.  Our experience has shown us that the unkindness of governments is not the will of the people (Švitra 1952).

Jonas and Mabel probably were the type of people who would have been able to make ends meet easily in a fair society, judging from advertisements in the Dandenong Journal (July 1952).  This presumably was while they were living with Mabel’s relatives.  Jonas was advertising his shoe repair skills while Mabel offered to take orders for hand knitting to any pattern.  Both of them gave their address as care of Mr A Hill of Noble Park, a Melbourne suburb within the Dandenong area.  It also probably was closer to the convalescent daughter than Camp Pell in Royal Park.

Hill was Mabel’s maiden name, as shown on the certification of her marriage to Jonas on 4 October 1955.  Maybe Mr A Hill of Noble Park was a brother.

Their marriage took place after the divorce from her previous husband had come through in August 1953.  It was a civil marriage in the Melbourne city office of the Government Statist.  Their address was 5 Neylan Street, Ararat, so they had moved from their initial McGibbney Street residence.

Of interest is the occupations ascribed to both on the marriage certificate.  Mabel had become a Mental Nurse, while Jonas was described as a Mental Attendant (Victoria, 1955).

Jonas acquired Australian citizenship on 23 September 1957, when he was still at 5 Neylan Street, Ararat (Commonwealth of Australia 1957).

What happened to the family over the next 23 years is not on the public record.  The next available record is a death certificate for Jonas, who died on 31 August 1980, in Drummond Street, Carlton, an inner Melbourne suburb with lots of low-cost housing for students of the nearby Melbourne University.

It is clear that Jonas had become an almost anonymous individual, as his name is the only known detail of his life on the death certificate.  It records no birth details, no period of residence in Australia, no marriage, no children, no parents.  Even the stab at his age, 62 years, was an underestimate by 3 years (Victoria 1980).

What is at least as sad is the manner of his death: “Asphyxia due to aspiration of stomach contents”.  We are no doctors, but Ann has come across this previously in another First Transporter who lived and worked in a hotel and who had spent all of his final Sunday morning drinking.  Various articles on the Web, for instance, Novomeský et al (2018) and Vadysinghe et al (2022), confirm that this is a rare form of death in a previously healthy individual. It is more common in those who have been consuming alcohol or sedatives.  An autopsy found coronary sclerosis also: plaque on the inner walls of the heart arteries.  The coroner ordered the burial of Jonas’ body without an inquest, a legal inquiry into the cause of death (Victoria 1980).

More than 3 weeks later, he was buried in a public grave in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery.  He was back to his temporary 1952 refuge of Dandenong City.

From the age of 15 years onward, Jonas’ life was one of war and turmoil with temporary moments of calm.  May he now rest in eternal peace.

References

Arolsen Archives (nd) 3 Registrations and Files of Displaced Persons, Children and Missing Persons / 3.1 Evidence of Abode and Emigration / 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps / Folder 170:  Kassel-Oberzwehren, DocID 81997634, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81997634, accessed 27 August 2023. 

Arolsen Archives (1946) 3 Registrations and Files of Displaced Persons, Children and Missing Persons / 3.2 Relief Programs of Various Organizations / 3.2.1 IRO “Care and Maintenance” Program, Personal file of SVITRA, JONAS, born on 21-Aug-1925, born in LIETUVA, DocID 79803711 – 79803712 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79803711 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79803712 accessed 10 September 2023.

Commonwealth of Australia (1957) ' Certificates of Naturalization' Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National) 3 October p 2958 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232986660 accessed 10 September 2023.

Commonwealth of Australia (2019) 'Victoria – Place, Camp Pell (1946 - 1956)', Find & Connect, https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000676 accessed 10 September 2023.

Dandenong Journal (1952) 'Advertising' 23 July p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222360507 accessed 10 September 2023.

Dunn P (2020) 'Camp Pell, Melbourne, Formerly Camp Royal Park, During WW2' https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/camppell.htm accessed 10 September 2023.

Irwin D (1952) 'Homeless' The Herald 25 October p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245289176 accessed 10 September 2023.

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 10 September 2023..

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947–56); SVITRA, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1925 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 1037 (1947–56) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693580 accessed 10 September 2023..

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); 663, SVITRA Jonas DOB 21 August 1925 (1947–47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118086 accessed 10 September 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42) (1937–48); 37/571, SVITRA Jonas born 21 August 1925; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947 (1947–47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7235050 accessed 10 September 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents (1948–65); LITHUANIAN/SVITRA JONAS: SVITRA Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General S Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1939–72) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30126217 accessed 10 September 2023.

F Novomeský, M Janík, ST Hájek, F Krajčovič, and L Straka (2018) 'Vomiting and aspiration of gastric contents: a possible life-threatening combination in underwater diving' Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine 48(1): 36–39 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6467823/accessed 10 September 2023.

Robinson MB (1952) 'Camp Pell Eviction' The Herald, 15 October p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245276695 accessed 10 September 2023.

Švitra J and M (1952) '"Thank You"' The Herald 4 November p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245286315 accessed 10 September 2023.

The Herald (1952a)  ‘State Evicts Jobless Migrant’, Melbourne, 13 October p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245298488 accessed 10 September 2023.

The Herald (1952b)  ‘Evicted Family Split-Up: Parents in Laundry' Melbourne, 21 October p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245284573 accessed 10 September 2023.

The Herald (1952c)  ‘Got help for evicted family' Melbourne, 28 October p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245279084 accessed 10 September 2023.

Vadysinghe AN, 

Nayakarathne TB,

 Banda I and

 Perera RAEI (2022) '

Choking together with aspiration of gastric contents: rare form of maternal death' Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences 12 Article number 58 https://ejfs.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41935-022-00318-x accessed 10 September 2023.

Victoria, State of (1955) 'Certificate of Marriage' Jonas Svitra and Mabel Carmen Hill 1236/55.

Victoria, State of (1980) 'Deaths in the State of Victoria' Jonas Svitra 31 August 1980 22400/80.

Why did Australia have an immigration program which brought our families here? Arthur Calwell (1896-1973) by Fiona Basile

Arthur Calwell, Australia’s first Minister for Immigration, had been thinking and reading about population growth as a means of ensuring Australia’s security even before he became a Federal Member of Parliament in 1940. No, he did not coin the ‘populate or perish’ phrase – that honour goes to Billy Hughes – but he certainly popularised it. This summary of the life of the man who brought our family members to Australia in 1947 as part of the commencement of his migration program, by Fiona Basile, was published in the Melbourne Catholic on 21 September 2022. It is reproduced here by kind permission. Additional footnotes have been provided by Mary Elizabeth Calwell, Arthur Calwell's one surviving child.

Arthur Augustus Calwell

Source:  Museum of Australian Democracy

Mary Elizabeth Calwell was just a schoolgirl when her father, Arthur Calwell, was sworn in as Australia’s first federal minister for immigration in 1945. Labor’s Ben Chifley had become prime minister, and World War II was coming to an end. Calwell had a visionary plan for a large-scale immigration scheme—a plan that would later see him labelled ‘the father of multiculturalism in Australia’.

In his inaugural parliamentary speech on 2 August 1945, less than three weeks after his appointment, and before the official end of World War II, Calwell presented his vision for Australia:

If Australians have learned one lesson from the Pacific War, it is surely that we cannot continue to hold our island continent for ourselves and our descendants unless we greatly increase our numbers. We are about 7 million people, and we hold 3 million square miles of this earth's surface … much development and settlement have yet to be undertaken. Our need to undertake it is urgent and imperative if we are to survive … The door to Australia will always be open within the limits of our existing legislation ... We make two things clear ... The one is that Australia wants, and will welcome, new healthy citizens who are determined to become good Australians by adoption. The second is that we will not mislead any intending immigrant by encouraging him to come to this country under any assisted to unassisted scheme until there is a reasonable assurance of his economic future ... 

Though Calwell died in 1973, having served in federal politics from 1940 to 1972, the impact of his policies and work in initiating and implementing post-WWII immigration to Australia continues to be felt today, including within our Archdiocese’s rich tapestry of multicultural faith communities.

Reflecting on her father’s legacy, Calwell’s daughter Mary Elizabeth notes that both historian Geoffrey Blainey and former Prime Minister Bob Hawke believed that Labor’s greatest achievement in the 20th century was probably Calwell’s ambitious immigration scheme.

Calwell was born in 1896 in West Melbourne. Many immigrant families lived nearby, so he enjoyed friendships with people from Jewish, Lebanese, Italian, Greek and Chinese backgrounds. He spoke fluent Irish and some Mandarin and French.

Calwell was raised in the Catholic faith of his mother and Irish grandparents, and was the eldest of seven children. He attended St Mary’s Boys’ School in West Melbourne and won a scholarship to attend St Joseph’s College in North Melbourne, both run by the Christian Brothers. He is reported as saying, ‘I owe everything I have in life, under Almighty God and next to my parents, to the Christian Brothers.’

Arthur Calwell’s mother died in early 1913. Although his father was a policeman and later Police Superintendent, a university education was not possible, so Calwell began work as a clerk for the Victorian State Government, first in the Department of Agriculture and then in the Department of Treasury. He was secretary of his ALP Branch at just 18 years of age, and was elected to many ALP and union positions, including Victorian ALP president from 1930 to 1931—the youngest person at that time to have held that position—and was the first president of the Victorian branch of the Amalgamated Australian Public Service Association, Clerical Division, from 1925 to 1931.

In 1921, Arthur Calwell married Margaret Murphy, who died just five months later. Ten years on, in 1932, he married Elizabeth Marren, an Irishwoman who was social editor of the Catholic weekly newspaper, the Tribune, and had also been a journalist at the Advocate. They met through Irish organisations. They had two children, Mary Elizabeth and Arthur Andrew, who died of leukaemia when he was 11 years old.

Mary Elizabeth, who went to boarding school at the age of 10, says she was fortunate to have grown up in a home that valued intellectual activities. Both her parents wrote extensively, and in 1933, they established the Irish Review, which continued under other auspices until 1954. Mary Elizabeth says both her parents had a ‘big influence’ on her life.

‘My father wrote for the Age Literary Supplement on American history for the 4th of July, and he quoted spontaneously from the Bible, history or literature in parliament. He was elected to positions in social, cultural and sporting organisations.’

However, it was Calwell’s role as [Australia's first] Immigration Minister that cemented his place in history. To win support, he emphasised the importance of immigration for national development and defence. ‘Australia’s population was 7.4 million with 250,000 available jobs,’ Mary Elizabeth says, ‘and he used the slogan “populate or perish”.’ According to historian Geoffrey Blainey, Calwell’s immigration scheme brought more people to Australia than had come in all the previous years since settlement.

In 1947, Arthur and Elizabeth Calwell, along with his secretary Bob Armstrong, visited 23 countries in just under 13 weeks, travelling by flying boat, plane and ship. In July, Calwell signed an agreement with the United Nations Refugee Organisation to accept displaced persons from European countries ravaged by war. Despite shipping shortages, 100,000 British and 50,000 assisted migrants had arrived in Australia by August 1949, along with many thousands of sponsored migrants.

The Calwell party in Berlin, 18 July 1947
From left: Brigadier T. White, Head of Australian Military Mission to Germany, Harry Beilby (Department of Immigration), Malcolm Booker (Second Secretary (Political) Australian Military Mission [Department of Foreign Affairs]), possibly Ian Hamilton (Department of Information), Elizabeth and Arthur Calwell, Bob Armstrong (Arthur Calwell's Secretary), the Military Mission's Australian driver with car

Source:  Calwell collection

'He allowed Holocaust survivors to come to Australia when other countries were uninterested,’ says Mary Elizabeth. ‘Descendants and survivors are proportionately greater here than in any country outside Israel.’ In 1946, 100 trees were planted in Israel by the Melbourne Jewish Community through the Jewish National Fund (JNF). In 1995, trees were also planted in Melbourne, and in 1998, the Australian Jewish Community established and dedicated the JNF Arthur A Calwell Forest of Life at Kessalon near Jerusalem, Israel.

Mary Elizabeth is particularly proud of her father’s implementation of the Nationality Act 1946, which enabled Australian women to retain their nationality after marriage to a foreigner [an international rarity then], and the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948, proclaimed on Australia Day 1949, with the first citizenship ceremony taking place in Canberra on 3 February 1949. He also introduced the term ‘New Australian’ to discourage hostility to migrants, and he approved the introduction of Good Neighbour Councils. By 1952, the Australian population had increased to 8.7 million through births and immigration.

When not engaged in politics, Calwell was devoted to the North Melbourne Football Club, becoming the club’s first life member. According to Mary Elizabeth, he was also devoted to the Church, receiving a papal knighthood from Pope Paul VI and being made a Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great with Silver Star in 1963.

'My father had a very deep and informed knowledge of his faith, which sustained him and complemented his commitment to Australian Labor values,’ Mary Elizabeth says. Among his many initiatives, for instance, he arranged for paid chaplains to be appointed to immigration reception centres, where displaced persons were welcomed, and he was on the committee that bought the first Maronite Church in Rathdowne Street, Carlton.

Having served as both deputy leader and leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party—narrowly missing out on becoming prime minister in 1961, when Democratic Labor Party preferences were directed to the Liberal and Country Parties—Calwell retired from politics in 1972. He died on 8 July 1973 in East Melbourne and was given a large state funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Looking back on her father’s legacy, Mary Elizabeth observes, ‘There were 7.5 million in Australia in 1945, and by the time Dad died in 1973, we had an extra 6 million people.’ She agrees with sociologist Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki that her father’s immigration policies ‘changed Australia in a far more fundamental way than anything else since the end of the Second World War’, and that our nation is a richer place for those changes.

[I thank Mary Elizabeth Calwell for her support of my research for more than 20 years now, and Fiona Basile with the Melbourne Catholic for permission to reproduce Fiona's article.]

Footnotes

Arthur Calwell released an autobiography in 1972, titled Be Just and Fear Not, and Labor’s Role in Modern Society in 1963.

Mary Elizabeth published a biography of her father in 2012, titled I Am Bound to Be True.

It was the July 1947 agreement with the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organisation signed by Calwell in Geneva which led, in September and October 1947, to staff from the Australian High Commission in London joining the deputy head of the Australian Military Mission to Berlin as the interviewing panel for the first group of displaced people. That first group were the passengers on the General Stuart Heintzelman arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947 – our First Transporters.

Arthur Calwell not only started government-sponsored migration to Australia, which continues today, especially for those determined to be refugees under the terms of the 1951 International Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. He not only was responsible for establishing the legal concept of Australian citizenship. He established Australia as a place of refuge for Holocaust survivors in 1945 as well as those displaced by Hitler’s war and Stalin’s expansion of the Soviet Union to its west despite very little shipping after WWII.

Professor Louise Holborn, in her official history of The International Refugee Organization, stated that Australia was the country which most generously responded to the resettlement needs of family units, promoted the resettlement of unmarried mothers and was the only country to perform its own orientation work.

As Minister for Information (1943-1949), Arthur Calwell was in charge of the wartime Censor, employed war correspondents, and controlled Radio Australia and its translators.  He ensured that the Australian flag flew on major occasions and that Advance Australia Fair (not God Save the Queen) was played on official occasions, at picture theatres and before the ABC News broadcasts.  His department had a film unit which produced many documentaries and employed many important journalists, who promoted our literature and culture in Australia and to millions of people overseas.

Arthur Calwell opposed conscription for military service outside Australia from 1917, vehemently opposed our involvement in Vietnam, defended the separation of Church and State, and worked for social justice through Labor’s commitment to democratic socialism and democracy as the best political system available in the world.

Railton, 1948: Goliath Portland Cement Company from Endrius Jankus' collection, by Ann Tündern-Smith

First published on 15 July 2023, updated on 2 December 2023 and 23 February 2024.

During his 11-12 months working for the Goliath Portland Cement Company in Railton, Tasmania, Endrius Jankus collected photographs taken by another of the refugees.  Presumably, he purchased these at the going rate, around 5 pence per photograph, as calculated from information he provided in his translated diary entry, published here in the Bonegilla 1947-1948: Another Two Weeks, from New Year's Day (January 1-13) blog entry.  Probably, it was 6 pence or half a shilling for an individual photo, with a reduced rate for bulk purchases.  So here are the photos.

A group of Goliath Cement workers in 1948; From the left, Mindaugas Sumskas, a local, Povilas Niaura, Vacslavas Kalytis, Endrius Jankus, Kazys Vilutis
and (in front) Aleksandras Zilinskas

Smoko while loading a rail wagon of cement
Front: Povilas Niaura; Middle: Mindaugas Sumskas, Aleksandras Zilinskas, Tony Viknius; Rear: unknown, Endrius Jankus with a dark face, Kazys Vilutis, unknown

Lunchtime at the cement factory
 Standing: Povilas Niaura and a local; seated: Endrius Jankus, Aleksandras Zilinskas, unknown, Henrikas Surkavicius, Mindaugas Sumskas

Another 1948 lunch group at the Goliath factory:  Left to right, Endrius Jankus,
Povilas Niaura, Vacslavas Kalytis, Henrikas Surkavicius, Antanas Viknius, 
Kasys Vilutis, Mindaugas Sumskas, Vytautas Stasiukynas

Four of the men have a smoke before a concert at Railton:
Left to right they are Endrius Jankus, Aleksandras Zilinskas,
Kazys Vilutis and Vacslavas Kalytis

The Bonegilla cards of 18 men show that they were sent directly to the Goliath Company at Railton.  Endrius Jankus' card shows that he was sent to Tasmania for fruit picking but we know from the photographs above and other evidence that he then moved onto Railton.  There might be others like that, such as Vacslavas Kalytis and Aleksandras Zilinskas. Comparing names from various sources, I have come up with a list of 21, consisting of 2 Estonians, 5 Latvians and 14 Lithuanians:

Napoleonas Butkunas

Vacslavas Kalytis

Mykolas Kartanas

Armands Laula

Povilas Niaura

Edmundas Obolevicius

Juozas Peciulis

Jonas Razvidaukas

Harolds Ronis

Alfred Saik

Antanas Simkus

Vytautas Stasiukynas

Evalds Stelps

Mindaugas Sumskas

Henrikas Surkevicius

Endel Uduste

Helmuts Upe

Antanas Viknius

Kazys Vilutis

Ojars Vinklers

Aleksandras Zilinskas

As recounted in Paul (Povilas) Niaura's story, the initial accommodation was in Goliath's single men's camp.  At first, they moved into the existing huts, but new ones for the new arrivals soon were built.  Ray Tarvydas says that, after wood and tools for making furniture were provided, it was Anton Viknius who showed the others how to do it.

Ramunas adds that, at first, most worked in the factory or the quarry, where the work was harder but the pay better.  Henrikas Surkevicius was promoted to the analytical laboratory after 3 months.  A document from post-WWII Germany made available by the Arolsen Archives shows that this is not a surprise:  his occupation was recorded there as 'Chemiker' or 'chemist'.

What is surprising is that a younger brother apparently left a gold mine in Canada to join Henrikas at Goliath Cement!  On his Bonegilla card, Henrikas recorded his next of kin as a brother, Teodoras, whose address was Picle (sic) Crow Gold Mines, Picle Crow, Ontario.  Teodoras has his own Bonegilla card showing his arrival in Australia on 24 March 1949 on the Mozaffari and his departure from Bonegilla on 6 June 1949 for Goliath Portland Cement Co Pty Ltd, Railton, Tasmania.

Perhaps Henrikas thought that his brother was headed for the Pickle Crow Mines but this turned out to be a plan which lapsed.  Arolsen Archive documents show Teodoras in Germany in 1946 and his 1949 Mozaffari voyage brought Displaced Persons from Germany who had travelled by train to Naples in Italy.

Someone has typed onto Teodoras' Bonegilla card 'none' in the Address of Next of Kin field, but his older brother in Australia was still working at Goliath.  Papers which appear to be working documents created by Ramunas Tarvydas have been acquired recently from the Goliath office through Stephen Niaura, son of Povilas (Paul).  Ramunas has recorded that Henrikas left Goliath on 30 June 1950.  His younger brother arrived one year earlier, on 8 June 1949, and stayed for more than the contracted 2 years, not leaving until 2 October 1952.

One of Ramunas' papers shows that 5 of the men 'absconded' during February 1949, so after only 9 months of labour at Railton.   Another 6 'left of own accord' during March and subsequent months.  These numbers do not include Endrius Jankus.  The labour expected of them could well have been way too hard after the wartime and post-war years of deprivation.

As per Endrius Jankus' story, the Commonwealth Employment Service may have tracked down the absconders and early leavers, to insist that they were not free to chose where they wanted to work.  They had been brought to Australia to fill vacancies which the Government had decided were in the national interest.  Finding where they were sent next probably will be difficult after the destruction of personal employment files, unless their absconding finished up on a policy file still held by Australia's National Archives.

By 2 October 1948, the local Burnie newspaper was reporting on a Railton function to celebrate one of Lithuania's national days.  Tarvydas writes that the singing was led by Vaclovas Kalytis and the women joining in the national dances were locals who had been taught the steps by Lithuanian men in the list above.  Kalytis kept the music going at other gatherings with his piano accordion.

Lithuanian migrants celebrate a national day,
with help from their Latvian, Estonian and Australian friends

Source:  Burnie Advocate, 2 October 1948, p 3

Arthur Calwell's Information Department considered the celebration so important that
it was included in the first draft of its newsletter for migrants, the New Australian

Source:  NAA, CP815/1, 021.148 

It's not a surprise that the newly arrived Baltic men challenged the local young men for single women.  Tarvydas reports that Aleksandras Zilinskas was supposed to have had two local girlfriends at the same time.  Their former boyfriends challenged Zilinskas to a fight, which he won.  That caused the local lads to gather others to their cause and march on the Baltic men's huts.  They had to be separated by the local policeman, who told them all to shake hands or "I'll bash your heads in".  The policeman prevailed.

We don't know who Aleksandras married but we do know that Mindaugas Sumskas was successful in marrying one of the local ladies.  She was Beverley Barker, daughter of Freda Barker, a widowed schoolteacher living in Railton.  Endrius Jankus remembers that Freda, "... opened her doors to us.  Her knowledge and advice helped many of us especially with problems in English and with government officials".

Another surprise, knowing Baltic habits, is that five of the men were non-drinkers.  A notable example was Edmundas Obolevicius, who was thought to be saving money to return to Europe.  This desire to return was a second reason why he was exceptional.

Tarvydas adds that, "Two more Baltic groups came to Railton later that year, and the last one in 1949".  The small town (2021 Census population still only 1,079) must have seemed very cosmopolitan in the years when it had its additional Baltic population.

We know that Povilas (Paul) Niaura stayed in Railton and that Endrius Jankus travelled to find his own work but returned to Tasmania.  I know that Henrikas Surkevicius and Mindaugas Sumskas moved to mainland Australia.  I've met with Armands Laula in Melbourne and Helmuts Upe in the hills to the east of Perth.  Any news of what happened to the remaining 14 will be received gratefully.

References

Advocate (Burnie, Tas), 'Migrants celebrate national day', 2 October 1948, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69190232, accessed 13 July 2023.

Harasym, R, 'The Pickle Lake Story', Sunset Country, Ontario, Canada, https://visitsunsetcountry.com/history-pickle-lake-ontario-canada, accessed 12 July 2023.

'Henrikas Surkevicius' in Lists of names of the town of Freiburg/Breisgau, Arolsen Archives DocID: 70850177, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70850177, accessed 12 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; Surkevicius, Henricas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1041, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203899949, accessed 13 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; Surkevicius, Teodoras : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - MOZAFFARI' : Number – [unknown], 1949-1949; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203899948, accessed 13 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Information, Central Office; CP815/1, General correspondence files, two number series, 1938 - 1951; 021.148, Immigration - From Minister [correspondence with Immigration Publicity Officer], 1947 - 1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=263676, accessed 23 February 2024.

Tarvydas, Ramunas, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania, 1948-1998, 1997, Hobart, The author, pp 46-8.

Valentinas Dagys (1927 – 1972): My father, by Jedda Barber

My father was passenger number 137, Valentinas Dagys, on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman that arrived in Fremantle, Australia, on 28 November 1947. He was called Vili by his Lithuanian friends and Bill by his Aussie family and friends. He left his parents and sister in Lithuania at the age of 17 and arrived in Australia aged 20.

An identity card dated 30 March 1943, when my father was 16, and valid until 30 September 1943:  His father's name was Jonas, he was a student and
he lived in Biržai at 6 Agluonos Street

If you click once on this map, you can enlarge it in a separate window of your browser to read the details:  each of the red circles shows places where my father stopped on his journey from Lithuania during the War, while each of the black ovals to the west shows places
where he stayed in Germany when the War was over

The details of my father's flight come mostly from letters that were sent from Germany back home to family.

A bundle of letters was hidden in a door frame of the family home and discovered when the new owners renovated around 2010. They gave the letters to the Biržai Regional Museum, Sela.

I assume the letters were hidden because they came from Germany and this would not look good if seen by the occupying Russians.

I learned of their existence when I wrote to a neighbouring address in 2015 after looking at the home through online maps. I noticed an old timer in the garden next door so decided to write to him.

These two images show the front and back of a postcard my Dad sent successfully
from Magdeburg to Biržai while Hitler was still in power, on 5 February 1944

The family home in Agluonos Street, as it looked in 2016

Source:  Collection of Viltis Šalyte Kružas

Scouting and Guiding groups were active among all three nationalities on the First Transport.  They had been set up in the camps in Germany, they formed again on the ship to Australia and remained active in the Bonegilla camp.

Here a clipping from the Lithuanian language weekly newspaper in Australia records those who were part of the first Lithuanian Scouts groups at Bonegilla fifty years previously.

Source:  Tündern-Smith, Bonegilla's Beginnings

This photo is of the Sea Scout group on the ship to Australia;
the grey line in the middle of the left-hand side points to my Dad

Dad was listed as a Sea Scout on the USAT Stuart Heintzelman.  In his home town of Biržai (northern Lithuania), he was part of the crew of the Biržiečių Sea Scouts' yacht "Diver" built in 1938 that reached the Baltic Sea.

Dad at the Blue Lake, Mount Gambier, South Australia, 1948

Vili left the Bonegilla camp on 9 January 1948 for his mandatory two years' work.  He was part of a group of at least 32 sent to the SA Department of Woods & Forests in Mount Gambier for employment as a labourer.

Edward Kurauskas, the former representative player for Lithuania, had arrived in Australia on the Second Transport, the USAT General Stewart, on 13 February 1948.  No doubt he was glad to find the cluster of at least 23 Lithuanians already in Mount Gambier
at the Woods & Forests camp. 

Source:  Border Watch (Mount Gambier) 8 July 1948 via Trove

Vili pretending to play the piano accordion;  he could play the harmonica

After moving to Adelaide, he was involved with the amateur Lithuanian theatre group that performed plays at the Lithuanian House, Norwood, during the 1950s and 60s.

My parents, Bill and Cynthia, on their wedding day in 1958,
at Rosefield Methodist Church, Highgate, South Australia

In Adelaide, Bill had various jobs, including manufacturing electric engines and selling land.

Dad's boat on the Murray River, with his friend William on board

The home that my parents built in 1960 in Secombe Heights, South Australia,
faced west with ocean views and was one of the first houses on the hill: 
we lived there until Dad's death in 1972

REFERENCES

Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 'Want to teach men's basketball', 8 July 1948, p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78588215, accessed 8 July 2023 (yes, exactly 75 years later).

Tündern-Smith, Ann, Bonegilla's Beginnings, 2nd ed, Triple D Books, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2014, p 93.