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| Bedford Park Sanitorium, 1943, with patients' accommodation on the left and administration and nurses' quarters in the previous owner's home on the right Source: State Library South Australia |
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| The previous owner's home converted into offices and nurses' accommodation, with medical treatment rooms at the rear: perhaps Veronika Tutins lived here in 1948-49 Source: State Library South Australia |
Another major presence after World War II was a camp set up the South Australian Government’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) for its workers. The Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) at the Bonegilla camp sent 64 of the refugees brought to Australia by the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, to this camp to labour for the E&WS. Their first job was to be a new water main from the Happy Valley Reservoir into Adelaide city, about 20 kilometres north.
South Australia’s Minister for Works, responsible for the E&WS, had announced through the Adelaide News in May 1947 that adequate water supplies for Adelaide were being held up by a shortage of labour. There were sufficient pipes and 100 men were being employed already to lay them, but 150 more men were needed.
The E&WS already had employed a boarding house keeper at its Bedford Park camp, to help men unable to get accommodation in the city. The shortage of housing around Australia, due mainly to the builders and repairers of accommodation having been in the armed forces for up to 7 years previously, was a problem plaguing Adelaide too. (I have noted elsewhere that the shortage was so desperate that any refugee who had even helped build a farm shed in the Baltic States was enlisted as a ‘builder’s labourer’ for Australia.)
Thanks to the boarding house keeper, the men could buy meals for £1/5/- a week. That was about one-fifth of their £5.12.6 weekly wage. The Minister hoped that this would remove objections from men on this E&WS project who had to prepare their own meals. Presumably the lack of this service had been causing even more of a turnover of employees than normal.
Unlike the Bangham camp, which was set up specifically for men from the First Transport, the Bedford Park camp clearly was in existence before the 64 arrived in January 1948.
We have evidence that the 64 Baltic men were together in a separate part of the camp from an Adelaide Mail report of 17 January 1948, 8 days after the First Transporters arrived. Police had removed 7 men from the camp after a brawl which occurred while they were being fed. ‘Tables were upset and plates thrown at the cook.’ It seems that the boarding house keeper arrangement still had not made some of the men happy.
The Mail is very specific in reporting that, ‘The disturbances were not in the Balt section of the camp’. The Baltic men may well have found the Australian version of food still strange, although they had had no alternatives for 7 weeks now and possibly also for another 4 weeks on the Heintzelman. However, they had been told that they could not leave of their own accord to look for other work. (It had been explained to them that they could go back to the CES for other work but, decades later, many did remember having been told that.)
The average age of the group from Bonegilla was 24 and the wage they were offered was the same award wage being paid to those already on the project. This was the first group of men sent by the CES to work outside the Bonegilla camp.
Marianne Hammerton has written a book on the history of the E&WS, called ‘Water South Australia’ and published in 1986. In it, she writes that, ‘From 1946 until well into the 1950s the Department could have done with — and indeed advertised widely for — 900 to 1,000 men just for construction projects, let alone maintenance … but it had little to offer. Those were boom years of full employment … the Department was not allowed to pay above-award wages …'
‘Standard issue to each man was an old army bed, a straw-filled hessian mattress, a chipped enamel pannikin, a knife, fork and spoon, a wash-up dish and an iron bucket. The men lived in ex-army tents, some with flooring, and shared hurricane lamps. Initially coupons were issued for food and blankets, but even when rationing was lifted the caterers showed little imagination. Supplies came in bulk — second-grade bulk tea, bulk porridge, meatballs, blue boiler peas and mutton.
‘The Department was forced to accept the problems inherent in such camps — caterers not turning up, gambling, drinking, training the unskilled — or have no labour at all …
‘In 1948 the influx of migrant (particularly Baltic) labour brought a partial solution to the Department’s problem. By 1950, 868 Displaced Persons remained out of a total allocation of 1,450 … The migrant labour force was not without its problems. There was no system of matching individuals to positions. The Department found it had a mixture of professionals, tradesmen and technicians working as labourers … Interpreters and volunteer teachers had to be found to overcome communication problems … ‘
A book is an unusual medium in which to find information relevant to the stories of our First Transporters. Other media in 1947-48 consisted of the press and radio and an element which was flourishing then but which has died out altogether: newsreels at movie theatres, before the feature film started. Keep in mind that Australia had no television until 2 months before the start of the Melbourne Olympic Games, in September 1956.
Radio programs either were not recorded or the tapes were reused, so the media which survives from the first two years of life in Australia is mostly the press – although some Australian newsreels can be found still in our Film and Sound Archives.
One newspaper, at least, was as excited about the arrival of the first 64 (which it preferred to call 65) as the press had been in Fremantle, Melbourne and Bonegilla. The Mail headlined its story of 10 January 1948, ‘Balts free feel after prison camp horrors’. It continued, ‘”At last — freedom!” That was the first reaction of 65 [sic] Balts when they reached their new home in Bedford Park, Adelaide, yesterday.’
We know from stories of Baltic men and women from during and after WWII that it wasn’t one prison camp or even a series of them. The men were likely to have been digging trenches between opposing lines of gun or artillery fire. The women could have been conscripted into German factory work. Men who had volunteered or been conscripted to fight with the Germans were likely to have been in prisoner-of-war camps from 1944 onwards, but I have no evidence that this was a majority of the men.
While some of the women, at least, had arrived in Germany early enough to be ‘free living’, the majority of the Baltic refugees were placed in Displaced Persons camps — not prison camps — after the War ended. The occupying military authorities kept an eye on discipline in the camps — from Eisenhower down on the American side. Bonegilla camp had been run under the discipline of Major Alton Kershaw: see what Endrius Jankus has written for more on that.
Given that they did not know in advance what discipline would apply in their new camp, the ‘Freedom’ reaction of the new arrivals at the Bedford Park camp probably was along the lines of, ‘The start of our new lives as paid workers in the new country!’
The Mail interviewed Jonas Zumaras, Antanas Skiparis and Vincentas Babinskas from Lithuania, and Vilhelms Vanags, Voldemars Abolins and Viktors Romanovskis from Latvia. Their interpreter was the Estonian who had been appointed leader of the party by the CES in Bonegilla, because of his good English, Olaf Aerfeldt.
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| Olaf Aerfeldt's 1947 ID photo, when he was aged about 21 Source: National Archives of Australia |
All of them, except perhaps Romanovskis, had been held in German internment camps or forced to work as slave labour. This would explain the Mail’s ‘prison camp’ approach.
The Australian Workers Union reported to its members on 7 April through its Australian Worker newspaper that a very strong AWU camp had been established at Bedford Park. The camp was then about half Baltic refugees and half Australians. The Adelaide Branch Industrial Officer was attending fortnightly meetings of the camp committee. This was led by an Australian but half the other members were Baltic: Konstantins Svarinskis (a Latvian), Antanas Skiparis and Aleksandras Sliuzas (both Lithuanian). Interpreter Olaf Aerfeldt was described as ‘doing a magnificent job for his men and the Union’.
Olaf asked the Industrial Officer ‘to convey the thanks of the Balts in the camp to the AWU for the way the Union had looked after them since they arrived in Adelaide’ He added that ‘the Balts wanted to be good Australians and good unionists and the AWU had shown them the right road to follow.’
I will provide more details about these men in individual biographies. Thanks to Rasa Ščevinskienė, we have a biography of one of them in the blog already. He is Ksaveras Antanaitis, who was killed on 29 June 1948 when he fell from a truck bringing him and fellow workers back to the camp from their day's work. The truck then ran over him, probably to the increased horror of all then involved.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES
The Mail continued its interest in the new arrivals with articles headed, ‘Officials Ignore Teacher Plea’ (14 February) and ‘English Classes for Balts Arranged’ (21 February). Initially, the buck was being passed.
The State’s Deputy Director of the CES was quoted as saying, ‘The men were given a four-week course in English when they first arrived in Australia. Something should be done to follow that up. Perhaps we could get some volunteer teachers.’ He added that the job of the CES was finished when the men were handed over to the E&WS.
A Catholic priest said that about 40 of the men attended mass at his Church every Sunday — that would have been most of the 38 Lithuanians and a smattering of the Latvians. His opinion was that, ‘Four weeks’ instruction at Bonegilla is quite inadequate’. The responsible Commonwealth authority, the Commonwealth Office of Education, had opened in Adelaide the year before, but it looks like the journalist did not seek its advice.
One week later, the Mail was reporting that four teachers had volunteered to run English classes at the Teachers’ Training College one night a week and more if necessary. Between them, they would be teaching 30 of the refugees in small groups, then promoting them to a larger group as they advanced. They appeared to have organised this with the supervising engineer for the Happy Valley water main. The E&WS effort had been to mix the Baltic men with Australian workers ‘in the hope that they would pick up the language’.
Several people had driven also to the Baltic section of the Bedford Park camp to take some of the men home for meals, as their contribution to the teaching of English.
And the young women of the YWCA had organised a dance for the young Baltic men from the Bedford Park camp, for Friday, 18 February.
After that, the Mail left the Bedford Park men and chased other news, including incidents involving individual men. The only follow up in the press was more than two years later. Then the Director of the Adelaide office of the Universities Commission said that all migrants in South Australia had the opportunity to attend English languages classes. ‘All’ was limited to groups of six or more, when the Director went into detail. These groups could apply to the nearest school for a teacher in English (presumably, if someone helped them to do this).
The Director was responding to a motion from the State Council of the Australian Government Workers’ Association, insisting that ‘all foreigners brought into Australia should learn the language within three months or be sent back to their home country’. The Director pointed out to the Adelaide News reporter on 5 May 1949 that 3 months would be too short for some immigrants.
THE CONTRACT PERIOD
I’ve pointed out elsewhere that the E&WS seemed unaware that the Commonwealth Government had changed the duration of initial contract to work as directed from one year to two years while the Heintzelman passengers were on the high seas. They were informed of after some days at the Bonegilla camp. Endrius Jankus has written that a near riot ensued.
Endrius was one who tested the terms of the contract by finding his own work in Melbourne. He then was tracked down by the CES and told that he would continue to work as directed in Tasmania or be sent back to Germany.
The Adelaide Mail of 29 January 1949 reported that 19 of the Baltic men from the Bedford Park camp ‘who had completed their term of service’ had been allowed to transfer to other employers. Given the location and length of time involved, it is likely that all 19 were from the First Transport.
At this time, there still were 239 Baltic men employed by E&WS, more than 10 per cent of the Department’s workforce.
As explained earlier, if the E&WS found out about the Australian Government’s expectation of the contract length, any remaining for the First Transport group would have finished on 30 September 1949 or within days of that date.
SOURCES
Hammerton, Marianne (1986) Water South Australia Netley, Wakefield Press pp 232-5.
The Advertiser (1948) ‘Balts here today’ Adelaide, 9 January, p https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/43751623 accessed 24 July 2024.
The Australian Worker (1948) ‘Bedford Park camp, SA: Balts want to become good unionists’ http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146243837 accessed 24 July 2024.
The Mail (1948a) ‘Balts feel free after prison camp horrors’ Adelaide, 10 January, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55903813 accessed 24 July 2024.
The Mail (1948b) ‘Police aid sought in camp brawl’ Adelaide, 17 January, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55904127 accessed 24 July 2024.
The Mail (1948c) ‘Officials ignore teacher plea: no English lessons for eager young Balts’ Adelaide, 14 February, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55909057 accessed 24 July 2024.
The Mail (1948d) ‘English classes for Balts arranged’ Adelaide, 21 February, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55905295 accessed 24 July 2024.
The Mail (1949) ‘Balts leave Govt. jobs’ Adelaide, 29 January, p 29 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55924132 accessed 24 July 2024.
The News (1947) ‘Labor needed on water main’ Adelaide, 21 May, p 5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127299932 accessed 24 July 2024.
The News (1948) ‘Dance at Open House for Balts’ Adelaide, 19 February, p 11 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128385028 accessed 24 July 2024.
The News (1949) ‘All “Given chance to learn English”’ Adelaide, 5 May, p 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130191874 accessed 24 July 2024.
Wikipedia ‘Bedford Park’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Park,_South_Australia accessed 23 July 2024.
