18 November 2025

Three Jakstas refugees on the First Transport, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Having noted the names Žilinskas and Smilgevičius three times each on the First Transport passenger list, Daina also wanted to know if the 3 Jakštas men were related.

Aleksas Jakštas (1921-1977)

Aleksas Jakštas started his working life in Australia by picking fruit for W Young of the Kelvin Orchards, Ardmona. He stayed more than one month at this assignment before returning to the Bonegilla camp on 3 April. He would not have needed to unpack because, on 5 April, he was off to Tasmania.

Aleksas in Tasmania

His Bonegilla card provides no more details but Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, says that he was sent to Premaydena locality in rural southeast Tasmania. Ramunas confirms that Premaydena involved more fruit picking. Both Ramunas and Aleksas’ obituarist, Aleksas Kantvilas, write that his next destination was Ida Bay. If you look back at our entry on the Electrona Carbide Factory, you’ll find that Ida Bay was the source of the limestone needed for the Factory to manufacture its calcium carbide.  The Factory was located near Ida Bay in a place that became Electrona.

Aleksas Jakstas' identity photo on his Bonegilla card

Ramunas quotes from Adomas Stasytis, who he says arrived at Electrona in mid-1948 with his wife, Veronika, both Second Transport (General MB Stewart) refugees, to find that there were 3 Lithuanians there already. From Bonegilla cards, we know that they were Kazys Alseika, Anicetas Grigaliunas and Algirdas Jonas Smelstorius. Either Jakštas arrived later still, or he really was moving limestone at Ida Bay into its transport to Electrona than moving it into the factory.

Aleksas' Personal Life

In Tasmania, he met and married another refugee, Klavdia. His obituarist wrote, in Lithuanian, "They had a daughter but she died early".  From the family's grave (see photograph below), it looks more like Klavdia brought Nina into the marriage from a previous marriage -- perhaps to someone who did not migrate to Australia as there is no public record of him.*

The Klavdia spelling of Aleksas' wife's name and Cyrillic script plus an orthodox cross on the family's grave are among hints that she and Nina were refugees from Russia.  Also, Utkina on the grave is the feminine form of a Russian surname, Utkin, meaning Duck.

Aleksas originated from Kaišiadorys, a village near Kaunas on the road to Vilnius. He was born on 5 October 1921. He spent his childhood and started his education in Kaišiadorys. His AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP (Displaced Person) Registration form says that he was born in Trakai, a town 50 Km from Kaišiadorys and closer to Vilnius. The form says also that this was his last place of residence.

His parents were Jonas Jakštas and Marijona, maiden name Jurskaitė. His occupation was still student and he hoped to go to Canada. Australia must have come up first.

Aleksas' Education

From Trakai, he moved to Vilnius and studied architecture at the Vilnius Technical University. After the War, according to his obituarist, he continued his studies in Darmstadt, but it was not at the Technical University. That University’s Archives has written to us to say that he is not on its list of past students.

His education is downgraded in the papers which survive from the selection process for his migration to Australia. The tertiary education becomes instead “2 years building technical school” and “2 years secondary in Germany”. Given that Aleksas was already 24 at the start of the 1946 academic year, tertiary study is much more likely than attending a secondary school. Indeed, the selection papers later say that he did not work at all but was a full-time student, making secondary study all the more unlikely.

Aleksas in the Community

Aleksas was part of the Lithuanian community in southeast Tasmania from the start. In 1953, he was first elected to the committee of Hobart Lithuanian Community as its secretary, as reported in the Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) of 21 February that year. Soon he became its treasurer instead.

In 1956, Aleksas represented Tasmania at a Lithuanian sports festival in Sydney. Back home, his goal was to put together a team of Lithuanian basketballers for the 1957 festival in Geelong. The Hobart sports club he founded, Perkūnas (Thunder) was the result of that effort. He managed for it for a long time.

The Perkūnas Sports Club organises its 50th anniversary celebration

Like Juozas Zilinskas in Canberra, Aleksas and Klavdia were to be seen “everywhere and often” in Hobart community life. There were said to be no gatherings, commemorations or entertainment of the Lithuanian community without their participation.

On 30 January 1963, both Klavdia and Aleksas Jakstas of 623 Seventh Avenue in the Hobart suburb of West Moonah received their citizenship certificates.

Aleksas' Early Death

In 1970 Aleksas was diagnosed with a serious illness, threatening the rest of his life.

Aleksas was an amazingly caring and talented person, his obituarist wrote. What he did, he did well, so that it was beautiful, perfectly finished; he had "golden hands", people used to say. He was open and honest; he didn't have any anger or deceit.

A hundred of his friends, compatriots and acquaintances gathered for his last farewell on 2 April 1977. He had lived for only 55 years, destined never to see the forests and fields of his motherland again. Accompanied by song, he descended to the ground covered by the tricolour flag and a handful of sand from the Neris river in Lithuania, as a farewell trumpet sounded.

The deceased left behind his lovely wife, who was loved and respected by everyone. He also left behind his father in Vilnius and three sisters and their families in Lithuania. Klavdia passed away early also, less than 15 months after Aleksas.

They are interred with Nina in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart.

The grave of the Jakštas family in Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart:
the Cyrillic at the top translates as "Ninochka", clearly her mother's pet name for Nina and
it is likely that "Aliusik" was Klava/Klavda's pet name for her husband, Aleksas;
note also the Orthodox cross at the top of the grave, which is in the Cemetery's Methodist section

*  The Arolsen Archives has a file for Klavdia Utkina (b 21 May 1928) and her daughter, Antonina (b 5 March 1948) which reveals that Klavdia married Peter Ivanovich Utkin, a fellow teacher, in Harbin, China, in 1947.  As of 1 May 1957, they were separated and his whereabouts were unknown.  

Klavdia and Nina set out for Tasmania from Hong Kong on 30 December 1957 by ship, with Klavdia's aunt, Cleopatra Krasovskaya.  They would have been travelling under an immigration program which Australia ran for White Russians from China.  This program was started after lobbying co-ordinated by the Australian Council of Churches and was at its peak during 1957-59.  The Utkina/Krasnovskaya party was headed for Klavdia's friend who was living in the inner Hobart suburb of Glebe.  All of this is to say that Aleksas and Klavdia would not have met until 1958 at the earliest. 

Algirdis Jakštas (1926-1999)

Algirdas or, in a more familiar manner, Algis, Jakštas hit the page 1 headlines in various editions of Sydney’s Daily Mirror afternoon newspaper on 25 August 1949. They reported that he had been found that morning with a knife wound above the heart, in the East Hostel, Yallourn, Victoria.

In most of its editions, the newspaper added that Algis has sought treatment the previous day for mental illness from a Yallourn doctor. It added that he now was in a serious condition in the Yallourn Hospital.

He must have recovered both from the knife wound and the mental illness, as his life continued for nearly another 50 years. He was 73 years old when he died on 26 February 1999. He was buried in Melbourne’s Springvale Botanical Cemetery on 2 March 1999.

Indeed, he was the longest lived of the three Jakštas men from the First Transport.

Algis in Germany

Algis was born 16 January 1926. His Australian Selection Report says that he had “Fled from Russian regime with parents”. He had 6 years of secondary schooling in addition to 6 years of primary, so he was well educated.

Algirdas Jakštas from his October 1947 selection papers

The selection team thought that his General Appearance was “Good” and he could be suited to heavy labour. His previous work experience was on his father’s farm, for 2 months every year (doubtless during the summer).

He was quite a linguist, with a knowledge of Russian and Polish in addition to the expected Lithuanian and German. In addition, his knowledge of English was “fair”.

Someone has added in pencil to another form used in the selection process, “Parents lost in East Prussia”.

His identity photographs came from a photographer operating in the Baltic Camp Watenstedt, where he was living. Another First Transport Lithuanian living in the same camp with his parents and siblings was Vladas Akumbakas.

Algis' First Jobs in Australia

Accepted for migration to Australia, his work contract took him to the pine forests of Mt Gambier in South Australia where he worked for the State Forestry Department.

By August 1949, he had been transferred to Victoria’s State Electricity Commission, Yallourn, where he made page 1, at least of the Daily Mirror.

Algis Starts a Family

The RecordSearch index to its digitised documents maintained by the National Archives of Australia shows only one Algirdas Jakstas entering Australia. Therefore, it would be the same person who next appears in the Australian press prior to his marriage, on 10 February 1951, to “Heather Jean, second Daughter of Capt. and Mrs A. Moore, Kew Street, Indooroopilly.” This notice appeared in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper of 8 February 1951.

During the next year, Capt. and Mrs A. Moore announced in the Courier-Mail that Heather Jakstas had given birth to a son on 13 July.

Algis Goes Flensing

So it would be the same Algirdas Jakštas who had an article headed, Beprotnamis Ar Banginių Medžioklė (Madhouse or Whaling), published in the Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) newspaper of 10 January 1953. It describes the author and his wife travelling by motor boat to Moreton Island, where they met the director of a whaling company. This director had promised his wife a job as a cleaner previously.

Moreton Island is a large sand island sheltering Brisbane, in Moreton Bay, from the Coral Sea. The former whaling station at Tangalooma now is an education and conservation centre.

Algirdas was put to work on the flensing deck, presumably on one of the 3 Norwegian ships whose crews were teaching Australians how to process the whales they had caught. The Australians, so Algirdas wrote, then started to attack him verbally. 

Flensing deck at Tangalooma Whaling Station, 1960

Those Australians were replaced by others but “they” (the new employees? the company?) “began to use other methods (so runs the translation into English) such as not letting him sleep during the day to recover from his night shift, threatening to fence his accommodation off with barbed wire, and even to deport him”.

As a result of this, Algirdas wrote, he was admitted to a Brisbane hospital where he remained for 2 weeks. In view of his previous medical history, the reader does have to wonder if this was a mental hospital or ward.

In the same issue, Algirdas inserted an advertisement which advised that people wishing to write to Liutaveras Januškevičius should use the address, “Algirdas Jakštas, 21 Bromston Street, Gladstone, Queensland”. Gladstone is a coastal city still more than 500 road kilometres and 6 hours driving north of Brisbane. 

Algirdas must have thought that moving further north would help him escape tormenting Australians. Ann, who lived even further north in Queensland for 6 years more than 50 years ago, know that this was a mistake: the further north you go, the more isolated from the outside world and its events the other residents become …

Algis Writes Again

Three years later, Algirdas had another long article headed, “Įdomūs Kelionės Įspūdžiai ...” (Interesting Travel Impressions) published in Australijos Lietuvis. This piece was based on a story Algirdas found a magazine published by a Melbourne Lithuanian sports club, about a drive from Melbourne to Adelaide. A friend who was driving in his small car was so worried about making the trip that he made his will beforehand. 

The driver, his wife and passengers saw the car in front of them leave the road and land upside down in a field but no-one was injured. Adelaide was disappointing because the friend’s Melbourne sports club did not win and for other, apparently minor, reasons. Algirdas suggested that his friend’s next trip to Adelaide should be by train or even plane.

Algis Back in Victoria

On 3 December 1960, Algirdas was granted Australian citizenship. He had left Queensland for Victoria, wisely in Ann’s opinion, and was living at Clarke House, Elmshurst Road, Bayswater, then on Melbourne’s rural-urban fringe. As far as we can find, Clarke House was the residence of a Clarke family, identified as such for the Post Office and visitors before the new Elmshurst Road received street numbers from the local government.

And that’s all the public information we have about Algirdas, until the appearance of his 1999 burial on the Find A Grave Website.  The headstone shows that his marriage to Heather Jean did not last, as the person buried with him is called Wanda.

Algirdas and Wanda Jakstas' headstone at Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne

Fridrikas Jakštas

Fridrikas came from Žiogaičiai village in the county of Tauragė. The summary report on him by the Australian selection committee categorises him as someone “forcibly evacuated by the Germans” from Lithuania in 1944.

He had 5 years of primary education and 2 years of secondary. His employment experience consisted of 2 years of farming in Lithuanian plus one year as a lumber worker in Germany. He had no knowledge of English.

His Bonegilla card shows that his next of kin was an uncle living in the Rotenburg DP camp in Hannover, in the British Zone. As this was where Fridrikas had his medical examination for migration, he probably was living there too.

Fridrikas' identity photo on his Bonegilla card

Did Fridrikas' Uncle Stay in Germany?

The uncle did not come to Australia nor was he resettled in another third country according to the available evidence. Indeed, one of two Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Cards describes him as ineligible for IRO assistance. He was a 56-year-old farmer. Maybe officialdom had decided that he would be better off returning to Lithuania or saw him as helped already by another program, perhaps run by the Germans. Maybe he became one of the older, sicker Lithuanians in Germany for whom those in Australia collected money frequently.

Fridrikas Goes to Bangham

Fridrikas was one of the 62 Balts who arrived in Wolseley, a small town halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne, on Wednesday night, 14 January 1948. They were sent there to work for the South Australian Railways. They were to widen the district’s railway gauge. From Wolseley, they were moved to a camp of their own at Bangham.

During their five-weeks' sojourn in Bonegilla migrant camp the new arrivals learned some basic English, but only three or four of the men could converse fluently. They adopted German as the common language of conversation. While the men hoped to improve their English, it would be extremely difficult while living together in such an isolated spot. The camp was situated about 14.5 kilometres from Custon, where the predominant features of the surrounding country were scrub and sand. The men were housed in tents.

The men had been promised by Australian immigration authorities in Germany that they would only be required to work one year. After having spent years in limbo in DP camps, they hoped to find permanent positions quickly so as to end camp life.

A representative of the Commonwealth Employment Service met the party at Wolseley. The twenty Lutheran members of the party were welcomed on Wednesday afternoon at the Bangham camp by Pastor K. Hartmann, of the Lutheran Church, Bordertown. Pastor Hartmann planned to conduct services at the camp. Fridrikas was of the Lutheran faith.

Fridrikas Goes to Adelaide

There is no notation on Fridrikas’ Aliens Registration record card, now in the Adelaide collection of the National Archives of Australia, to say that he was released from his contract to the Australian Government on 30 September 1949. There also is no known reason why he would not have been released on that date. Along with the others, he probably headed for the State capital, Adelaide, as quickly as could be arranged.

The Aliens Registration record card notes that his next employment was as a labourer with Chrysler Dodge and his residential address had become 16 North Parade, North Adelaide. This change is undated.

The next notation of the record card is employment as a labourer with Hansen & Yuncken of Torrensville, builders. Fridrikas’ new personal address was 10 Athol Street in Woodville North, as of 27 October 1949.

Fridrikas Goes to Sydney

The following notation records that the South Australian Department of Immigration file of papers about Fridrikas had been sent to the Department’s Sydney office on 6 January 1950. Fridrikas had spent less than 2 years in South Australia.

He had moved to St. Mary's, now a western suburb of Sydney, 45 Km for its Central Business District. Although closer to the Blue Mountains than to central Sydney, the area has seen European settlement, initially in the form of land grants, since 1807. Even the Anglican Church after which it was named was built more than 180 years ago, between 1837 and 1840.

In St Mary’s, Fridrikas built a house with his own hands.

Fridrikas is Married

Fridrikas Jakstas and Lidia Ruta Jakstas, both of 160 Bestic Street in Kyeemagh, a Sydney suburb where the Georges River meets Botany Bay, obtained Australian citizenship on 30 October 1960.

If we knew more about the life history of Lidia Ruta Jakstas, we might know why Fridrikas moved to Sydney rather than staying in South Australia. The vast majority of First Transport men sent to South Australia lived the rest of their lives there.

The person who wrote his obituary less than 18 months after the citizenship ceremony, for Mūsų Pastogė, someone who signed himself only as J, wrote that Fridrikas had moved to Rockdale “a few years ago”.  Rockdale is the larger, better known suburb to the west of Kyeemagh, so the reference is to his Kyeemagh move.

Fridrikas Goes into Business

The obituarist wrote that Fridrikas had bought a “colonial goods store”.  The 160 Bestic Street address is indeed part of a commercial street front with second floor residences. The Jakstas’ address now houses a personal fitness and weight-loss business, according to Google Street View.

The shops at 158-164 Bestic Street, Kyeemagh, as recorded by Google Street View in June 2022;
160 Bestic Street is second from the corner, now housing Advanced Personal Training

The building’s style is 1930s Art Deco, so it would have been about 20 years old when Fridrikas and Lidia owned or were buying part of it.

Fridrikas Dies Young

Fridrikas died in Rockdale Hospital on 31 March 1962 after being unwell for three days. This young man, just 34 years old, left behind a grieving wife and parents and brothers in Lithuania.

In death, Fridrikas returned to his previous Australian home. Fr. E. Lyenert and Fr. Kosticin officiated at the funeral rites in St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in St Mary’s and at the graveside. A representative of the Sydney Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Parish Council spoke beside Fridrikas’ grave, in St Mary’s Cemetery. More than 70 people accompanied him to his eternal resting place.

The anonymous obituarist saw Fridrikas as a sincere Lithuanian and a quiet, hardworking and dutiful family man.

From her gravestone next to that of her husband, it looks like Lidia lived another 44 years without remarrying. She was buried there on 9 August 2006.  

Frederick has been buried under the Australianised version of his forename.  Since we know so little about Lidia Ruta, we do not know if Lidia was an Australian version of the Lithuanian Lidija or a variant from another language, let alone if Lida on her headstone is her proper name, a misspelling or a pet name.  We can tell that her married name is misspelt, however.

Lidia's burial in 2006 was next to the grave of her husband,
who had died too young 44 years earlier

CONCLUSION

There are no hints at relationships between these three men on their Bonegilla cards, and we cannot find any other evidence that these three men with the family name Jakštas are related. 

Another nine people with the same surname arrived in Australia in the following years. They also were unrelated to the first three, we believe.

CITE THIS AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Three Jakstas refugees on the First Transport', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/11/three-jakstas-refugees-on-first-transport.htm.

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record, ‘Aleksas Jakštas’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67433246, accessed 23 September 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1953) ‘Chronika’ (‘Chronicle’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 21 February, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280311807, accessed 23 September 2025.

Border Chronicle (1948), '62 Balts at Bangham, to help broaden rail gauge', Bordertown, SA, 15 January, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212918125, accessed 19 April 2024.

Border Watch (1948) ‘Broad Gauge Engineer Gives Amazing Facts Of Huge Undertaking’ Mount Gambier, SA, 25 September, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78591298, accessed 19 April 2024.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1963) 'Certificates of Naturalization', Canberra, 24 April, p 1428, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241013003, accessed 23 September 2025.

Courier-Mail (1951) ‘Family Notices’ Brisbane, 8 February, p 16 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50091069, accessed 23 September 2025.

Courier-Mail (1952) ‘Births’ Brisbane, 15 July, p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50512361, accessed 15 November 2025.

Daily Mirror (1949) ‘Migrant Found with Knife Wound’ Sydney, 25 August, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/273698139, accessed 24 September 2025.

Dalyvis (Participant) (1955) 'Hobart' (in Lithuanian), Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian), Adelaide, 7 February, p 8 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280313783, accessed 23 September 2025.

Find a Grave 'Algirdas Jakstas (1926-1999)' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231318643/algirdas-jakstas, accessed 16 November 2025.

Find a Grave 'Frederick Jakstas (1928-1962)' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/211910034/frederick-jakstas, accessed 16 November 2025.

Gravesites of Tasmania, 'Jakstas Aliusik' http://gravesoftas.com.au/Cornelian%20Bay%20Live/Methodist%20Weslyan/EM/3/Jakstas%20Aliusik.jpgaccessed 16 November 2025.

Jakštas, Algirdas (1953) ‘Beprotnamis ar Banginių Medžioklė’ (‘Madhouse or Whaling’, in Lithuanian), Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) Adelaide, 10 January, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280311958, accessed 23 September 2025.

Jakštas, Algirdas (1956) 'Įdomūs Kelionės Įspūdžiai ... ', (‘Interesting Travel Impressions, in Lithuanian) Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian), Adelaide, 5 March, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280316318, accessed 23 September 2025.

J (1962) ‘Naujas Lietuvio Kapas’ (‘A New Lithuanian Grave’, in Lithuanian’ Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 7 April, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1962/1962-04-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 24 September 2025.

Juragis, Juozas Almis (Ed.). (1961) Australijos Lietuvių metraštis I (Australian Lithuanian Yearbook I, in Lithuanian) Sydney, Australijos Lietuvių Fondas.

Kantvilas, A. (1977) ‘Hobartas, A A Aleksas Jakštas’ (‘Hobart, RIP Aleksas Jakštas’, in Lithuanian), Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), Melbourne, 23 April (No. 16), p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1977/1977-nr16-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 22 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1953) ‘Išrinko naują Valdybą, Hobartas’ (New Board Elected, Hobart’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 11 February, p 4 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259366077, accessed 23 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1956) ‘Hobartas, Nauja Apylinkės Valdyba’ (Hobart, New District Board’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 8 February, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259359765, accessed 22 September 2025.

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, 1947-1947; 98, JAKSTAS Aleksas DOB 5 October 1921, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005530, accessed 15 November 2025.

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, 1947-1947; 97, JAKSTAS Algirdas DOB 16 January 1926, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005529, accessed 15 November 2025.

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, 1947-1947; 117, JAKSTAS Fridrichas DOB 11 March 1928, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005546, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; JAKSTAS ALGIRDAS, JAKSTAS Algirdas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187680, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; JAKSTAS FRIDRIKAS, JAKSTAS Fridrikas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1950 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187681, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1957; JAKSTAS ALEKSAS, JAKSTAS, Aleksas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 497, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620931, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1957; JAKSTAS ALGIRDAS, JAKSTAS, Algirdas : Year of Birth - 1926 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 496, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620932, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1957; JAKSTAS FRIDRIKAS, JAKSTAS, Fridrikas : Year of Birth - 1928 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 514, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620933, accessed 15 November 2025.

'Personal file of UTKINA, KLAVDIA, born on 21-May-1928, born in HARBIN and of further persons' 3.2.3 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/81637386?s=utkin%20klavdia&t=3229806&p=0accessed 15 November 2025.

Sengalvėlis (Old Timer) (1956) ‘Hobartiečiai Rinko Valdyba’ (‘Hobart People Elected a Board’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 15 February, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259359981, accessed 22 September 2025.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle : Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, Tasmania, p 165.

Wikipedia ‘Moreton Island’ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreton_Island, accessed 24 September 2025.

13 November 2025

Vladas Dailydė (1914-1970): Hard working, hard living, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Vlad Dailydė worked hard for nearly 23 years in Australia until an unknown health issue brought an early end to his life. Although his family name means ‘carpenter’ in Lithuanian, he was to be found in places where hard manual labour with metals or their ores was required: on the South Australian railway tracks, Woomera, Radium Hill and steelworks in Perth.

Vladas Dailyde's 1947 photograph from his selection papers
Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was an early supporter of the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, donating £1/4/- in April 1950, together with Juozas Sabeckis (an arrival on the Tenth Transport, the Svalbard). With inflation, that donation is the equivalent of more than $75 now. Given that we know from the story of Romualdas Zeronas that civilians in Woomera, where he would have been working then, were earning at least £9.10.0 per week, it was a high proportion of their income.

Four years later in 1954, Vladas was working in the uranium mine at Radium Hill. The Australian Lithuanian newspaper reported that there were at least six other Lithuanians there at that time. They gathered together to commemorate 16 February, Lithuania’s Independence Day.

They were commemorating not with patriotic speeches but an opportunity to donate money to the Vasario 16 (February 16) school in Germany. This was the name was of a Lithuanian-language senior high school, a gymnasium, in Hüttenfeld. At that time the school was the only full-time high school outside Lithuania offering courses in Lithuanian history, language, and culture. It is renowned for having played a critical role as a symbol of freedom for Lithuania during the Soviet occupation and was greatly supported by Lithuanian displaced persons around the world.

A later issue of the Australian Lithuanian recorded that he was one of those who had donated £5, not only likely to be about half his weekly income then, but the modern equivalent with inflation of more than $213.

Vladas applied to become an Australian citizen while working at Radium Hill. Closer to Broken Hill than Adelaide, in the same sort of desert country, it was Australia’s first uranium mine, having operated from 1906 to 1961.

That application shows that he was able to move on from the Bangham railway camp to a better paying job at Woomera in February 1949, before his contract with the Australian Government was ended by the Minister for Immigration on 30 September 1949. He stayed at Woomera for nearly one and a half years, until July 1950.

He was in Adelaide for around one year, from July 1950 until June 1951. During that time, he worked for General Motors Holden. Then he lived and worked at Mount Gambier for 6-7 months, from June 1951 to January 1952, working with JM Clements Ltd. He returned to Adelaide, to the suburb of Nailsworth until 4 April 1952, at which point he moved to Menindee, NSW, for one month. From there he left for Radium Hill, back in South Australia, where he was still on 1 June 1956, the date on which he swore an oath of allegiance to become an Australian citizen.

There had been one blemish on his record. He had been charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm after he threw a bottle over his shoulder at another Woomera worker. It was night, so his friend probably could not see the bottle coming. The result was a gash on the forehead which needed 22 stitches to close.

Vladas pleaded not guilty but admitted guilt to the lesser charge of common assault. Mr Justice Abbott ordered that Vladas be imprisoned with hard labour for one month. He took into account that Vladas had been held in custody for 25 days already. This means that Vladas had to serve an additional 6 days only – 6 days because ‘one month’ meant a ‘calendar month’. And the ‘hard labour’ could be anything from quarry work or road-building, to workshop and farm labour under strict supervision.

Vladas faces court
Source:  Whyalla News

Fortunately for his citizenship application, a wise public servant wrote on it, “In view of the time which has elapsed since the above conviction in July ’50 and the fact that he has not come under further adverse notice, recommended that application be listed for approval”.

Vladas was one of the older men on the First Transport, having his 33rd birthday 2 days after it sailed from Bremerhaven. He was born in the small village of Širvydiškis, in the region of Utena. At the time of his birth on 1 November 1914, the village had a population count of only around 30.

He had two or three years of high school – sources differ -- which was more than average for a country resident. He spent five years in the Lithuanian Army, from 1935 until the Soviet invasion in 1940. In the Army, he had been a driver for three years.

The return of Soviet forces in 1944 saw him leave his homeland, making his way to Germany, where he arrived in October. There he found his way to a Displaced Persons camp in Hannover-Buchholz. He had been working as a driver for two and a half years until it was time to leave for Australia. The Australian medical team after carrying out their pre-migration tests, declared him fit and healthy.

After Radium Hill, Vladas moved to Perth where he became as steelworker. He participated in the Perth Lithuanian community. He never married.

On 16 November 1970, he returned from work in high spirits, had dinner, sat down and smoked a cigarette. He had a medical episode and fell from the chair. Suddenly falling off his chair is likely to have been caused by some sort of circulatory issue, like a heart attack or a stroke.

He was taken to hospital and operated on, but his health did not improve, and he passed away on 6 December.

Members of the Perth Lithuanian community were present at his funeral service led by Father Laurynas Kemėšis. Words on behalf of the community and the ex-servicemen’s group, Ramovė, were said by Andrius Klimaitis. Vladas is buried in Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.

Vladas Dailyde's photograph from his obituary

A notice under the Trustees Act in the West Australian Government Gazette of 12 March 1971 confirms Vladas’ date of death as 6 December 1970, advises that he was a steelworker and his last address was in Marchamley Street, Carlisle, and states that 26 April is the last date on which claims against his estate might be lodged. The remainder of his modest savings were left to his sister in Lithuania.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1950) 'Port August Circuit, Before Mr Justice Abbott, Remanded on Assault Charge, Adelaide, 19 July, p 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44915098, accessed 13 November 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1954) ‘Aukos Lietuvybes islaikimo reikalams’ (‘Donations for the preservation of Lithuania’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 17 May, p 8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280316071, accessed 11 November 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1954) ‘Lietuviai Australijoj’ (‘Lithuanians in Australia’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 8 March, p 8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280313491, accessed 11 November 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Vladas Dailyde’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213720453/vladas-dailyde, accessed 13 November 2025.

Government Gazette of Western Australia (1971) ‘Trustees Act, 1962, Notice to Creditors and Claimants’ Perth, 12 March, p 764 https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/gazettes1971.html, accessed 13 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė ( Our Haven) (1950) 'Mūsų Pastogēs prenumeratoriai' ('Mūsų Pastogē subscribers’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 5 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259361880, accessed 11 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1970) ‘A A Vladas Dailyde’ (‘In memoriam, Vladas Dailyde) Sydney, 21 December, p 2, https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1970/1970-12-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 11 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-2001; 1956/10716, DAILYDE Vladas, 1955-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12147622, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; DAILIDE (Sic) VLADAS,  DAILIDE, Vladas : Year of Birth - 1914 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 462A2571, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203657752accessed 13 November 2025.

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, 1947–1947; 62, DAILYDE Vladas DOB 1 November 1914, 1947–1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005498, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42) 1937-1948; 37/116, DAILYDE Vladas born 1 November 1914; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL STUART HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 29 November 1947, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7249185, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-1965; DAILYDE V, DAILYDE Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4074152, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; DAILYDE VLADAS, DAILYDE Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, accessed 13 November 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 11 November 2025.

Vasario 16-osios gimnazija (February 16 Senior High School, in Lithuanian) https://www.gimnazija.de/, accessed 12 November 2025.

Whyalla News (1950), ‘New Australian Charged with Assault’, Whyalla, SA, 21 July, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197619822, accessed 13 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Radium Hill’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Hill, accessed 12 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Sirvydiskis’ https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirvydi%C5%A1kis, accessed 11 November 2025.

Elena Kalvytė Augutis (1917-1996): ‘Special Circumstances’ by Rasa Ščevinsienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

We have just met Elena Augutis as the fellow Lithuanian who accompanied Bronislava (Bronė) Jutkutė (later Umbražiūnas-Amber) from the Bonegilla camp in northern Victoria to the Hotel Ainslie in Canberra. There we mentioned that Elena Augutis was said to have had ‘special circumstances’.  Here we look further at these and her life as a whole.

The only photograph we have of Elena, from her Bonegilla card, is so out of focus
that Ann has used a Web service, Unblurimage.ai, to improve it a little
Source of original:  National Archives of Australia

Pregnant Women

When the 839 First Transport passengers had yet another medical examination, at the Bonegilla camp, at least their third in the migration process, the examining doctor reported that, “Two of the women are pregnant”.  One of them was Ann’s mother, pregnant with Ann.  Since Ann read that sentence, she has taken a particular interest in the story of the other woman, Elena Kalyvte Augutiene.

We know from several sources that Elena Kalvyte had married Jonas Augutis in Germany in 1947, before she boarded the General Stuart Heintzelman.  Probably because she knew that all the Heintzelman passengers were supposed to be single, she appeared before the selection panel using her maiden name.

Jonas follows

Perhaps Jonas applied too, but was rejected for the First Transport. He was not accepted for resettlement in Australia until his application for the Tenth Transport, the Svalbard, which reached Melbourne on 29 June 1948, when his daughter was already one month old. Perhaps it was her imminent birth that finally got him on a ship to Australia. This ship had sailed from Bremerhaven before her birth, on 8 May 1948, but its 52 days (7½ weeks) sailing time was more typical of ships of that era than the fast Generals.  His brother, Juozas, 8 years younger than him, came also.

Jonas Augutis from his 1948 Bonegilla card
Elena's early life

Elena Kalvyte, the mother of the new Australian, was born on 31 August 1917 in Berciškiai village, Šilute district, in Lithuania, to Jurgis Kalvis and the former Ona Kaulickaitė.  An American Expeditionary Force’s (AEF) Displaced Persons (DP) Registration form completed on 19 July 1945 gives her previous occupation as clerk, her languages spoken, in order of fluency, as German and Lithuanian and her last residence in Lithuania as the city of Pagėgiai.

It is worth noting that her religion is stated to be Evangelical, unlike the vast majority of Lithuanians.  Various writers using various sources suggest that around 85 per cent of the population in 1939 were Catholic – they probably would be excluding the more varied Vilnius region, still in Polish hands.

Elena left the Hotel Ainslie in Canberra on 10 or 11 February to return to the Bonegilla camp.  By this time she would have been more than five months pregnant.  Her pregnancy would have been visible and probably interfering with her work. Nonetheless, as far as officialdom was concerned, both Elena and Ann’s mother had signed a contract to work in Australia in jobs where they were needed for two years (even though the paper they signed said one year only).

Pregnant women work in farm households

The issue was solved, at least until childbirth and perhaps later, with help from the Lutheran Church.  Both women were sent from the Bonegilla camp to assist nearby farmer’s wives.  In the case of Elena Augutis, it was to a Mr and Mrs RG Molkentin in Jindera, New South Wales.

Jindera is only 25 Km northwest of the north side of Lake Hume; another 7 Km brings the driver to the Bonegilla camp.  Or the driver could take the better roads through Wodonga and Albury, then head a few kilometres northwest to Jindera.

Elena’s Bonegilla card records a baby girl’s birth on 23 May 1948 at the Albury District Hospital.

Jonas Augutis' story

We know a lot about the baby girl’s father from an obituary in the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, in 1983.

Former Lieutenant Jonas Augutis of the 6th Regiment of the Lithuanian Army was born on 21 September 1914, almost 3 years before his wife, in the Sadutiškis parish of Utena county. When he finished Utena senior high school, he entered Lithuania’s Military School, graduating with its 17th class to the rank of Junior Lieutenant and joining the 7th Regiment in Klaipėda. Later, he was transferred to the 6th Regiment and served in Pagėgiai, Elena’s last place of residence in Lithuania. In 1938, he was promoted to the rank of Senior Lieutenant.

After the Soviets occupied his country in 1940, he was transferred to the Vilnius garrison with his regiment. As Soviet officials judged him to be unreliable, he was soon arrested and imprisoned in Lukiškės prison in central Vilnius. After the German Army invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the prisoners were transferred to the Vilnius railway station to be taken to Russia. When the Germans bombed the railway station, several wagons were uncoupled, saving some of the prisoners, including Jonas.

During the German occupation of Lithuania in 1941-44, Jonas became the deputy governor of Utena County. On Lithuanian Independence Day, 16 February 1944, General Plechavičius made a radio appeal to the nation for volunteers to fight Soviet-backed partisans. Some 19,500 men responded to the appeal. Amongst them was Jonas, who was sent to fight the partisans in southeastern Lithuania.

When the Germans tried to transform the squad into SS units, Plechavičius resisted, was arrested and sent to the Salaspils concentration camp. His battalion was disbanded with Jonas being sent to Germany and assigned to an aviation unit. When the War ended, Jonas found himself in the American zone of Germany. He lived in a Displaced Persons camp, served in an American labour company and met Elena Kalvaitė.

Jonas goes to Canberra

Finally selected for resettlement in Australia and housed initially in the Bonegilla camp, it is likely that Jonas was able to reunite with Elena and meet his daughter. Two days after his 34th birthday, he was off to Canberra to work for the Department of the Interior, probably as a labourer. Let us hope that his wife and daughter were able to travel with him or join him soon after.

The Department of the Interior was responsible then for all official aspects of life in Canberra, as well as a wide range of other activities, including elections, meteorology, surveying and lands. The range is so wide that it is impossible to tell what Jonas was tasked to do. We know from his obituary that he joined Australia’s Bureau of Statistics after completing his employment contract and stayed there until his retirement in 1979, aged 65, the then compulsory maximum age of employment. (Ann notes that she was working across the road from the Bureau, in the Department of Immigration from 1977, and may well have crossed his path in the local shopping mall.)

In the early 1950s, the couple and their small daughter were living at 3 Ross Street, a short thoroughfare in suburban O’Connor. Given their circumstances, it may well have been built by the Government to rent. The address was confirmed by the Commonwealth Government when a notice of grant of citizenship to the couple was published in the gazette in December 1959.

Jonas appears before a magistrate

When Jonas came the before Canberra Court in June 1955, charged with both assaulting a policeman in the execution of his duty and drink-driving, at least one reporter for both the Queanbeyan Age and Canberra Times chose to describe him incorrectly as resident on the longer, more prominent, Queanbeyan address of Ross Road.

Jonas made counter allegations of having been assaulted by the police after his arrest. Elena gave evidence in support of her husband, one of the occasions when we have a record of the marriage having occurred in 1947.

Police evidence included Augutis having lost his driving licence once before, in November the previous year, while being fined £20 for drink driving. He had applied successfully to have the licence restored on 16 February. This, therefore, was the second occasion in less than a year when he had been found driving erratically when under the influence of alcohol. Still, he only was fined, £35 on the drink driving charge and £20 for assaulting the policeman. He was given 3 months to pay the total of £55, a hefty amount when you consider that its buying power then was equivalent to more than $2,300 in 2024.

Drinking too much alcohol is also on record for a number of the men from the General Stuart Heintzelman. Considering what they, as well as Jonas Augutis, had gone through during World War II, it is no surprise that they were using this approach to deal with what then was seen as, “Forget the past, look to the future”. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (now commonly PTSD) was not recognised until 1980, when it entered the American Psychiatric Association‘s third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) as a result of the behaviour of Vietnam War veterans.

Jonas’ occupation at the time of his 1955 court appearance was still ‘labourer’.

Elena and Jonas' daughter

Elena and Jonas’ daughter started appearing in the local press, the Canberra Times, in September 1958. She attended Turner Primary School and had placed in the Junior High Jump competition at the School’s first athletics carnival. She also won a place in what the School called its Junior Championship. In the following year’s athletics carnival, she also placed in the 75 yards (69 metres) race for 11-year-old girls. 

In another crossing paths moment, the sports ground used by the Turner School is across the street from where another First Transport arrival, Valeria Mets, was living. She probably was at work, though, when her friend’s daughter was competing successfully.

Citizenship

Elena and Jonas received Australian citizenship at the same ceremony on 17 June 1959. They were with 54 other recipients, all of whom were given bibles either from the British and Foreign Bible Society or the Roman Catholic Church in Canberra. They would have been an excellent source of reading practice for English language development so long as they were much later versions than the 1611 King James Version still in common use at that time.

Jonas is recorded on his passenger list as Roman Catholic, while we know already that Elena identified as a Protestant. Which version of the bible they accepted, how they reconciled their religious differences or if they even bothered, are unknowns.

What is known is that Elena, newly back in Canberra with a baby, had help from nuns who were associated with Canberra's St Christopher's Cathedral.

Now that Elena and Jonas were Australian citizens, they were required to be on the electoral roll and to vote in elections. Electoral rolls for the period 1961-77 show them still living at Ross Street, with Elena’s occupation shown as cleaner and Jonas (recorded as John) shown as a machine-operator.

Elena, Jonas, their daughter and the Bureau of Statistics

Since John or Jonas spent his life working for the Bureau of Statistics, it is possible that the machine he was operating was a computer.

The citizenship ceremony was shortly after Elena was photographed with someone probably well known to her from some months together in early 1948, identified in the Canberra Times as Miss A Molkentin. They were said to be among visitors at the opening on 26 May of an exhibition of statistical equipment by the Bureau of Census and Statistics, then co-located with the Treasury in Parkes. We would not be surprised if they were staff gathered around for the purpose of a publicity photo, meaning that both Elena and Miss Molketin were employed by the Bureau, now the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).  (We will add the photograph if we can find a version which is not mostly black.)

At that stage, the Bureau was conducting complete censuses of the Australian population every 7 years. A very useful one for our purposes had been conducted in June 1947, just 5 months before the First Transport arrived. The 1954 census included most of the Eastern European refugees, still known as former Displaced Persons or New Australians. The next was to occur in 1961. However, the Bureau may well have been employing temporary staff, likely to have been female, to prepare punch card records of surveys, for example.

Ann has been told that their daughter also was a good musician. The Canberra Times of 12 July 1962 records her passing the Grade IV examination of the Australian Musical Examination Board, a hint that her parents had been able to afford a piano at home for some time. The next year she passed the 5th Grade examination. In 1965, she passed the 6th Grade examination.

The 1 June 1967 issue of the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette announced her appointment to the Commonwealth Public Service as a Clerk in what then was called the Third Division. She followed her parents into what then was called the Statistician’s Branch of the Department of the Treasury.

This was the first step on the ladder of a public service career and it looks like a step which she might have taken as soon as she finished high school at the end of the previous year. If she wanted further education, the Commonwealth Public Service provided time off for classes and other support.

Her promotion into the position of a Clerk Class 2/3 in the Public Finance and Taxation Section of the Statistician’s Branch was confirmed on 14 January 1971.

The daughter’s Canberra friends were told of her marriage in Canada in June 1976 by an advertisement in the Canberra Times 4 days after the event. We have no idea if there was sufficient money for her parents to fly from Canberra to attend.

A marriage and new life in Canada should have led to a resignation in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, but the search engine for the National Library of Australia’s Trove digitisation service has been unable to find one. Nor can Trove find appointments to the ABS for either John/Jonas or Elena. It is highly likely that they were temporary employees only, able to be left without employment when the Bureau did not need them. This would explain why Elena was prepared to give her occupation as ‘cleaner’.

The parents move; Jonas dies

By the 1980 electoral roll, Elena had moved to a new address, Dexter Street in the Canberra suburb of Cook, but had no occupation, while John was living still at the Ross Street address. It is quite possible that this is a record of John not get around to updating his residence before that electoral roll was finalised. (Newer electoral rolls are not available to the public for privacy reasons, which was not an issue in the 1970s and earlier.)

The family’s next appearance in the press was in April 1983, when Jonas died aged 68. The advertisement indicated that Elena and “John” had 2 granddaughters in Canada. It also tells us that Jonas’ brother, Juozas, who came to Australia with him in June 1948, had left for the United States. There, another Augutis brother, Mikas had settled.

An older Jonas Augutis in the photograph accompanying his obituary

The advertisement also said that Jonas had died “after a long illness”, often code for cancer. Whether it was cancer or not, Elena probably had devoted herself to care for him throughout, maybe even into his last days.

Jonas’ obituary in Mūsų Pastogė described him as being of an open nature, a keen reader of books, interested in Lithuanian and general history, and someone who subscribed extensively to the Lithuanian press. He was cremated at the Norwood Park Crematorium on April 21 1983. His farewell included a speech on behalf of the Lithuanian returned servicemen’s organisation, Ramovė.

The family donates

Public thanks appeared in a Lithuanian publication for a donation from the Augutis family in 1990, a very generous $100 from Elena.  She had donated it to the Independent Lithuania Foundation in Canberra.  This was only months after Lithuania had announced its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990.

The Augutis name previously appeared on a list of donors in 1951, for 10 shillings to the National Fund. The purpose of this fund was assumed known to readers. Ten shillings, the equivalent of $1 in decimal currency, may appear small but was the largest amount a number of donors were giving and corresponds in buying power with more than $25 in 2024.

Elena's last years

In another possible moment of paths crossing, Elena lived in the same suburb as Ann in her later years. They may well have been at the local shops at the same time.

Elena joined Jonas in Norwood Park with a plaque on the same rock after her death on 6 October 1996 aged 79, in Morling Lodge, Canberra’s first aged care home. She did not receive an obituary. We are doing the best that we can here.


Augutis plaques, Norwood Park
Source:  CAMCF on Find a Grave

SOURCES

‘AEF DP Registration Record’ (Kalvyte, Elena) Folder DP1750, names from KALVITE, ELLA to KAMBROWSKA, Ruth, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, ITS, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/67568764?s=elena%20kalvyte&t=2738679&p=0, accessed 7 November 2025.

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