The tribute below was contributed to the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsū Pastogė (Our Haven), by Rože Vaičiulevičius and published on 26.7.2006. Its author is unknown, but I am happy to offer credit where credit is due if the author is found.
Vladas Mikelaitis was born in southwest Lithuania in the district of Šakiai on 12 July 1925. He was one of five children. His parents were Pranas and Ona Mikelaitis. His father was the village blacksmith.He attended Valakbudis Primary School and, as a youngster, worked on the farm.
When WWII broke out, he worked in the cooperative shop as an assistant. when the Germans were retreating from the east in 1944, he was taken to East Prussia to dig trenches for the retreating soldiers.
At the end of the war in 1945, he lived in the displaced persons camp in Oldenburg, in the Wehnen camp.
On the 28th November 1947, he arrived in Australia on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman which transported the very first post-WWII refugee migrants to Australia. He was sent to the Australian Newsprint Mills in Maydena (Tasmania), where he worked on a 2-year compulsory contract.
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| Vladas Mikelaitis, front of Bonegilla card Source: National Archives of Australia |
In 1951 he was married to Kateryna Tscherkasky. He lived at Battery Point for a short time where his daughter, Ona, was born. He moved to Karanja in the Derwent Valley at the time Marytė was born. He lived there for 12 years.
While living at Karanja, Vladas built a house in West Moonah. He was a weekend builder. For 2-3 years he would work all week in Maydena, then travel to Hobart every weekend to build the house. He then moved to West Moonah in 1966.
Vladas was transferred from Maydena to Boyer in 1975 and worked in the warehouse there until his retirement in 1986. He then moved to Glenorchy where he spent the remainder of his life.
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| The Maydena workers felled the eucalypts which were turned into newsprint in this mill at Boyer, Tasmania Source: University of Tasmania |
He travelled back to his homeland of Lithuania on 3 occasions to visit family. On the first 2 times he went on his own, the third time with Kateryna and together they also visited her homeland — the Ukraine. Vladas never forgot his family and kept contact regularly by phone and letters.
Vladas was a very active member of the Lithuanian community. He was involved with the Lithuanian Sports club “Perkūnas” and was part of the organising committee of the 24th Australian Lithuanian sports carnival held in Hobart in 1973. In the 80’s, Vladas was part of a volunteer group who edited, produced and distributed a local publication called the “Baltic News”.
He loved the Australian bush and the country life. He enjoyed fishing, rabbiting, going to the football, working in his vegetable garden and gathering with friends to socialise. He enjoyed his Aussie beer and in Karanja on a sunny day would sit under the shade of the trees in his beer garden watching his veggies grow. He also had a “smoke house” in Karanja where he would smoke eels that he had caught.
Vladas owned a home movie camera. He recorded holidays and movies of his grandsons when they were growing up. He amused the children by playing the movies in reverse. He had 4 grandsons and spent time with them in the garage teaching them to use a hammer and nails.
In his later years his failing eyesight restricted him in many things, but he still enjoyed AFL football. He would be seen sitting inches away from the TV screen. At half time he would slip out to the garage for a quick cigarette.
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| Vladas Mikelaitis at a reunion for the 50th anniversary of arrival in Australia Source: Hobart Mercury, 2 December 1997 |
He was a man of simple wants and needs. He was hardworking, honest and a man of integrity. His Aussie mates knew him as a “Good Bloke” who enjoyed a beer, a good yarn, AFL football and, of course, he drove a Holden. Vladas embraced life and both cultures with open arms.
May he REST IN PEACE.
I thank Daina Pocius, Archivist at the Australian Lithuanian Archives in Adelaide, for bringing this tribute to our attention.
Notes: 1. Vladas became an Australian citizen on 20 August 1957 while living at Karanja. Source: 'Certificates of Naturalization', Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 22 May 1958, p 1640, viewed 26 June 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240892247. On the FindaGrave Website, a helpful volunteer (Tanya V) has recorded that he died on 14 June 2006, so less than one month away from his 81st birthday.
2. Double-click on the images to see enlarged versions of them.
If he had worked on the family farm as a youngster, I wonder why he was recruited as a 'labourer' rather than a 'farmer'. I would have thought that anyone with farming experience would have priority over labourers, just as anyone who'd ever help erect a farm shed was recruited as 'builder's labourer'.
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