The First Peterborough Balts, by John Mannion

Updated 17 April 2024

I grew up on a farm in what is known as the northern agricultural area of South Australia, at Pekina, 25 miles west of Peterborough, which is one of Australia’s former ‘great’ railway towns.  

The location of Peterborough in relation to Broken Hill is as important as its location
 with respect to South Australia's capital, Adelaide, since Broken Hill ore is shipped through Peterborough to Port Pirie WSW on the coast, where it is smelted
to produce ingots for shipment around the world.

Source:  Peterborough SA Website

Back in the early '60s a trip to Peterborough was a big day out for me. It meant a drive across the Yatina plain on a poorly formed dirt road with mum and my brother in the old Holden. (Dad always seemed to be away shearing!). 

A modern Pekina to Peterborough route, through Ororoo; Yatina is below the estimated travel time which, of course, is based on modern road conditions in a modern car; back in the 1960s though,
the Mannion family did not take these roads but travelled through Yatina to Peterborough

Source:  Imagery ©2024 TerraMetrics, Map data ©2024 Google

As we drove into Peterborough from the west there was a cluster of iron buildings on the left and the railway workshops on the right — the largest in the State rail system outside of Adelaide. 

The Peterborough railway yards are in the foreground of this mid-1950's photo
and the migrant hostel is behind them

Source:  John Mannion collection

A rear view of the migrant hostel, toilet block on the left and
local gardener at work on the right

Source: photographer Heuer, John Mannion collection

The Port Pirie to Peterborough railway, built in the 1880s, was to form the principal east-west transport axis of South Australia’s Upper North region, bringing prosperity to all the towns along the line until the 1970s. 

Back in the ‘60s and '70s, Peterborough was a thriving town of between four and five thousand people. Then after what was proclaimed a progressive move — the national rail track standardisation of the ‘60s — “the railways” moved out leaving hardly any jobs and leaving Peterborough with less than half its population. The 2021 Census counted only 1,428 residents. 

Peterborough at its best:
Judging from the cars, the postcard is from about 1960, and
the bottom left photo gives some idea of the size of the railway yards

Source:  John Mannion collection

Nearly 20 years ago now, I was a part-time project officer at Peterborough for an oral history project entitled Relaying Our Tracks. The aim of the project was two-fold. 

Funded by the Federal Government's Department of Family and Community Services, it was designed to “assimilate” newcomers into the former railway town that seemed to have lost its direction after being abandoned by the State and Commonwealth governments in the rationalisation period from 1978 until 1997. 

The town was being populated by city dwellers from Adelaide and interstate who had no affinity with the area and the project was supposed to help build community spirit. In that regard, as predicted, it was somewhat of a failure. 

However, as an historian, I found it invaluable in recording the oral histories of many older established members and former members of the community and their descendants. The interview process also saw many paper-based items, including old South Australian Railways (SAR) Institute Magazines come out of cupboards, drawers and back sheds. 

One article in particular intrigued me and after reading it I realised that it told a virtually forgotten story of local, state, national and international significance. It was the story of our first Commonwealth Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, and his post-WWII Displaced Persons Scheme. I quote from the article: FLASH BACK in the Railways Institute Magazine, May-June, 1973, ‘Baltic Migrants Arrival at Peterborough, 1948’. 

‘Few people would remember that it is 25 years ago since the first Baltic migrants arrived at Peterborough to be trained for railway work in South Australia, The Balts were the first 'displaced persons' to come to South Australia as migrants and they were accepted almost to a man by the local people because of their youth and their apparent enthusiasm to learn all they could of their new home and join in the activities of their new country. 

‘They were willing employees who were prepared to work long hours and many shifts in order to help them establish themselves financially, but one of their most severe problems was the language barrier. One Fireman could not understand the meaning of the word ‘rest’, and when the crew arrived at its destination to go to barracks, this Fireman would not leave his engine and slept on the footplate. He had been told to work his engine to Wilmington and back, but was not told specifically to go to bed at Wilmington. 

‘With Mr. and Mrs. Allen Ind at the migrant hostel [the cluster of iron buildings I mentioned earlier] established in Peterborough, where these lads were first encamped in tents and later in rooms of more solid construction, it is recalled the young Firemen sitting up late at nights drinking coffee to help keep them awake so that they could pursue their study of the language and the instruction papers necessary to qualify as Firemen and Porters. 

‘Some of the older Enginemen [Australian] found it hard to converse and understand the young migrants and some of the young migrants found it hard to understand just what the Enginemen were thinking, but mostly it was a happy association which extended for many years afterwards and today, we have a lot of those Baltic migrants listed among our senior staff members in the Loco and Traffic Running, and among the Station Masters' ranks. 

‘In the early days most migrants wore gloves on their hands when doing hard and dirty work and the reward for this was apparent when some of them left the Railways and went into other positions, and some into their own businesses. The talented boys were pleased that they had protected their hands and fingers to equip them for delicate work in future life.’ 

Whilst the article did mention that these men were the first 'Displaced Persons' to come to South Australia as migrants, the impact of Arthur Calwell, the first Minister for Immigration in the Australian Government and his post war migration programme did not really register until I started some serious researching. 

Two accompanying photos showed the 17 members of first group of trainee migrant porters and firemen at Peterborough with Lithuanians in the majority — Jonas Bimba, Tadas Bliukys, Jonas Caplikas, Povilas Deimantas, Juozas Donela, Stasys Gricius, Jurgis Guoba, Raimundas Juzulinis, Benediktas Kaminskas and Vladas Simkunas. The photos also include four Latvians (Gunars Brunavs, Nikoljas Dukalskis, Nikoljas Kibilds and Janis Kolesnikovs) and three Estonians (Flaavi Hodunov, Hugo Jakobsen and Artur Klaar).  

While the press initially talked about 18 being selected (for instance in the Times and Northern Advertiser of 27 February 1948), I have noted that it later talked about 17 preparing for their examinations and passing them well (for instance, the Mail, 8 May 1948).

Photos of 17 of the 18 First Transporters to be trained at Peterborough

from the Railway Institute Magazine, May-June 1973

Source:  John Mannion collection

They were among the first European displaced persons to come to Australia, aboard the chartered troop ship, the United States Army Transport, General Stuart Heintzelman. 

In the Friday, 23 January 1948 edition of the South-Eastern Times, a regional South Australian newspaper printed at Millicent, a rather insignificant one column, seven-line article read: 

Source:  Trove

A little over a month later, a similar article appeared in another country newspaper over 400 miles north of Millicent, at Peterborough. It was the Times and Great Northern Advertiser, of Friday, 27 February 1948. 

Source:  Trove

With a name like Mannion, I have no connection at all with European migration, only a tremendous interest in, and respect for those post-war migrants who made South Australia their home. A ‘baby boomer’ born into a relatively insular and conservative Irish Catholic mixed farming district, I had little exposure to the ‘outside’ world. 

However as a kid, I knew that were German, Czech and Dutch workers and their families living at the railway sidings of Eurelia, Orroroo and Black Rock within 25 miles to the north and west of our farm. These families formed part of the railway gangs involved with rail track maintenance work on the Terowie to Quorn narrow-gauge railway.  [Eurelia and Terowie are at the top and bottom respectively of the Google map above.  Black Rock is just SSW of the travel time pop-up on that map.]

I went to school at Orroroo, about 14 miles from home [see map above], with many of these ‘new Australian’ kids but we were not told anything about who they were, why they were here or where they came from. They were generally stuck in the back of the classroom and ignored. With names like Limback, Fejgl, Methurst, Katts, Kampen and Ehlers, they were often derided because of their names, appearance and social status. 

Little did I realise that in my own back yard, long before the term ‘multiculturalism’ was penned, there was an enclave of Europeans numbering up to 500 people living in the area — an extension of Calwell’s initial plan. These were the successors to the first ‘Balts’ of the ‘Fifth Fleet’. 

In the years that followed February 1948, right up until the ‘70s, hundreds more European migrants and their families made the Peterborough Division of the SAR their home. The majority lived at Peterborough, the largest shopping centre and livestock market town in the district. 

Many have described Calwell’s immigration scheme, ‘as one of the best things that ever happened to Australia and also as the greatest humanitarian act that Australia has ever undertaken.’ 

However, the scheme succeeded because we needed them as much as they needed us. In reality it was a calculated plan (in competition with the US, South America and Canada) to draft workers into Australia without upsetting the local domestic labour and housing situation. 

By the late 1920s, most of the Australian railway systems were well established, and during the 1930s little expansion occurred. During WWII, rail maintenance activity was reduced drastically reduced, as the SAR Islington workshops were adapted to heavy engineering war production. 

Combined with the virtual elimination of rolling stock maintenance and only emergency track maintenance, the railways carried greatly increased tonnages and train movements under the pressure of the national war effort with reduced manpower. At the end of the war the entire Australian railway system was in a crisis state in relation to operating capacity and infrastructure condition. 

Many of these ‘Balts’ were skilled men and women but were used as manual labour and literally dumped in outback railway depots and maintenance camps and regarded as foreigners and cheap labour. 

That Railways Institute Magazine article was written in 1973 and even then it questioned how many would remember the Balts. How many would remember in 2005, the time of my project 32 years later? Fortunately quite a few! 

Determined to follow the fate of these ‘Peterborough Balts’ I went through the Adelaide White Pages telephone directory and found several of the names on the two photographs listed. 

After a few phone calls I found two of the men pictured in the photo living in Adelaide, fit and well, and having stayed with ‘the railways’. I had so many questions to ask Flaavi Hodunov, an Estonian who became known as ‘Freddie’ and Povilas, or Paul, Deimantas from Lithuania. 

Where did they come from? What was the voyage over like? What did they find when they got here? What did they do before, during and after their time at Peterborough? 

Surprisingly, with a little encouragement from their wives, they were interested in what I was doing and gave me some basic background over the phone. I later met up with Flaavi, Paul and several other ‘Lithos’, when they told me their stories. 

I am glad of the continued interest in their stories and the opportunity to now have them published again, in blog entries to follow this one, nearly 20 years later.

FOOTNOTE:  Light editing, choice of illustrations and their captions by Ann.

SOURCES

Railways Institute Magazine (1973) 'FLASH BACK ... Baltic Migrants Arrival at Peterborough, 1948, Adelaide, May-June, p 17.

The South Eastern Times (1948) 'The Trains of Tomorrow', Millicent, South Australia, 23 January, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201013863 accessed 12 March 2024.

The Times and Northern Advertiser (1948) 'New Arrivals', Peterborough, South Australia, 27 February, p2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110548140 accessed 12 March 2024.

The Mail (1948) '17 Balts Learn English to be Railway Men' Adelaide, SA, 8 May, p 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55905773 accessed 17 April 2024.