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
(You can view larger versions of any photographs above by double-clicking on them)

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 placeswhere 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.