Many of the men who were brought to Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, were sent to where they could contribute to the production of materials for houses. It often was timber-cutting but, in the case of Vladas Akumbas, it was rooftile-making followed by a career in carpet manufacture.
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| Vladas Akumbakas ID photo from his selection papers for migration to Australia Source: National Archives of Australia |
We have looked at the lives of Juozas and Jurgis Zilinskas, 2 of the 5 men from the First Transport sent to work for the Department of Works and Housing in Canberra on 3 August 1948. Vladas was another of this group but an Alien Registration record shows that he was not directed to the Canberra Brickworks like the Zilinskas brothers. Instead, he was sent to the recently opened Monier factory in The Causeway in Canberra, where machinery to make roof tiles had been installed at the start of the year.
ACT Representative Basketballer, 1949
By November 1948, there were known to be about 70 Lithuanians in Canberra, plus Latvians and Estonians, so the Lithuanian men had started a basketball team, Balts. Vladas was a member. The team was so good that it had won its 5 first matches against locals by more than double the other teams’ score, but a major test came in when it met the visiting senior Sydney YMCA team.
The Sydney team contained 3 former State representatives and was on the hunt for that season’s State title. Despite Balts’ “play (being) the cleverest seen in Canberra” according to the Canberra Times, the Sydney team succeeded when the locals could not. It won with a score nearly double the Balts.
Vladas continued to play while in Canberra, although sometimes with Balts II team. He still was good enough to be chosen for an ACT representative team sent to the 1949 NSW country championships. Fellow researcher and Blogger, Jonas Mockūnas, says that the team did so well it finished second.
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| Balts basketball team, perhaps in Newcastle: we think that Vladas is number 10, second from the left Source: Canberra Lithuanian Community |
While making roofing tiles in Canberra, Vladas lived in the Capital Hill Hostel. The location will be familiar to most Australians as the place where Australia’s permanent Parliament House now sits. Operating roof tile machines was Vladas’ second job in Australia. His first was as kitchenhand in the Bonegilla camp from 15 December 1947 for 7 months. He was one of the men who did not go fruit-picking.
While there, he was a member of the table tennis team called, again, Balts, along with Gunars Berzarrins (whose story we have visited already), Janis Belousovs and someone called Nimrods Miltins who had arrived on the Third Transport. (The Third Transport was the General WM Black, which reached Melbourne on 27 April 1948 with 860 Displaced Persons, that is, refugees.)
Table tennis reports in the Border Morning Mail indicate that various other Bonegilla residents were on the team at various times, perhaps depending on whether playing conflicted with their work schedule. On both occasions when Vladas was reported as playing, he was a partner in a winning doubles combination.
Vladas’ German Heritage
Vladas had German parentage on both sides. His paternal grandfather was an Achenbach. That family name was Lithuanised gradually according to Vladas’ obituarist, JNP, to Achumbachas before Vladas’ father changed it to Akumbakas.
His father, a shoemaker, had started life as Pranas Achumbachas, born on 22 April 1899. His mother was Emilija Meyer, born on 21 January 1899. Vladas had been born on 1 September 1928 in Veliuona, on the Nemunas River. At school, Vladas learnt German as well as Lithuanian.
Vladas had fled the Soviet return to Lithuania with his whole family: both parents and at least 3 of his 4 siblings. In 1947, the family was living in the Watenstedt Displaced Persons camp. Watenstedt is part of the conglomeration of towns and villages which form the city of Salzgitter in Lower Saxony.
That's what he told the Australian interviewers in October 1947. One source has a contrary account, that his family were among those of German descent assisted out of the Baltic States by the German Government in 1939.
Returning to the Fatherland in 1939
Hitler's Germany ran a Heim ins Reich ("home to the Reich" in English) program from October 1936 for Germans whose families had migrated eastwards in recent or long-ago decades. Propaganda was used to create a belief in those of German ancestry that they should return to contribute to the fatherland.
The foreign ministers of Germany and the Soviet Union, Ribbentrop and Molotov, signed a secret non-agression pact on 23 August 1939. Significantly for residents of the Baltic States, Germany ceded to the Soviet Union the right to occupy these countries. Presumably it was about this time that Germany intensified its efforts to bring Baltic residents of German descent back, as 1939 is the widely used reference year for their departure.
They were not taken to Germany though, but to the recently occupied Poland, where they were likely to find themselves placed on farms which had been seized from their Polish owners. How they then got from there to Germany when the Soviet Union decided to invade Poland is another story.
After the War, international organisations were set up to organise orderly resettlement of those stranded in Germany because they were unwilling or unable to return to their homelands. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was the first, eventually folded into the International Refugee Organisation.
Most of those of German descent who had gotten as far as Poland during 1939–41 were deemed by the international organisations not to be eligible for Displaced Person status. They were seen as having accepted Nazi citizenship and resettlement privileges voluntarily.
When he interviewed at the Buchholz camp for possible settlement in Australia, Vladas’ parents were recorded as his dependents. That meant that he would not have been one of those moved as a minor during the war.
The only work that he had done in the previous five years was as a lumber worker for the previous six months.
Migration to Australia
A fit young Displaced Person who was willing to undertake heavy labour was an ideal for which the Australian selection team was looking. On 28 October 1947, Vladas found himself on the First Transport to Australia. His parents, Pranas and Emilija, with his sister, Marija, 4 years younger than Vladas, also migrated to Australia. They arrived together on 13 April 1950 on board the General WM Black, the 105th Transport.
Another sister, Ona, with her Latvian husband, Arnolds Dreijalds, had arrived in Adelaide on board the 28th Transport, the Goya, on 2 May 1949. This was the first time that one of the ships bringing Displaced Persons to Australia under the IRO Mass Scheme had gone directly to Adelaide. It meant that Pranas, Emilija, and Marija also went to Adelaide one year later to join Ona, rather than staying in their city of arrival, Melbourne.
The youngest member of the family, son Vytautas, made the trip when he too was 19 going on 20, in March 1956 on board the Himalaya. Perhaps the family had left him behind in Germany to continue his education there. Or, see below, perhaps he had arrived first much earlier but returned to Germany.
After Bonegilla
The Alien Registration record still held by the National Archives in Adelaide shows that Vladas was in Melbourne by December 1949. The card shows 4 different addresses in Melbourne up until August 1951. The employment details have been left blank. It is hard to believe that Vladas spent this time unemployed, the alternative being that his Canberra employer, Monier Tile Co, applied to his Melbourne employment too.
Old Folks Home, Magill, an Adelaide suburb, is the next place of employment, with Vladas living in the adjacent suburb of Rostrevor. He must have decided to try rejoining his family.
The Alien Registration card records that his documents were transferred back to Melbourne in June 1953. We know from an obituary that he had married a Lithuanian, Genė Karčiauskaitę, in 1952. At a guess, this was in Melbourne and was one of the reasons why Vladas did not stay in Adelaide.
The marriage produced one daughter in 1953, recorded variously as Diana or Dana. Perhaps, like the lead author of this article, her name actually is Daina.
40 and more years in Melbourne
This seems to be the time when Vladas joined Red Book Carpets, working with this manufacturer for the next 40 years. He rose to the position of supervisor. He even started a company basketball team which won a few evening competitions.
Another reason for returning to Melbourne could have been his involvement in its Lithuanian community. Vladas became such an active member of the Lithuanian Club that he was made an Honorary Member. He organised and participated in sports, danced with folk dancers and sang with the choir. He also had a passion for billiards, donating a table to the Club.
Daina asked followers of the Australian Lithuanian Archive (which she directs) Facebook page what they remembered of Vladas. They definitely remembered the billiard table donation. “A lovely gentleman … a good friend of my parents”, one person wrote. “I remember him as someone with a kind, gentle demeanor.”
Citizens
Vladas’ parents with daughter Ona were the first members of the family to become Australian citizens, on 26 February 1958. Despite his apparently short time in Australia, the youngest, Vytautas, was next, on 28 September 1959. (The publicly available 1956 arrival must have been his second time to Australia, as he must have met the 5 years’ residence requirement before applying.)
Vladas and Genė followed on 13 December 1960.
Back to Adelaide
After his retirement, with his daughter and her family moved to Queensland, he began to feel lonely. As well, he was living with high blood pressure and experiencing heart problems. Ona and Marija worried about him, so they asked him to Adelaide again. This time, in 1999, he moved in with Marija and her husband, Fritz Schmelzle. Once again, he missed his Melbourne friends and the Club but, this time, there was no going back.
He died in the Royal Adelaide Hospital on 15 August 2002. His funeral was held one week later, in Adelaide’s St. Casimir's Lithuanian Church, with the priest celebrating Mass in English and preaching in both Lithuanian and English. His ashes were buried with his parents in the Enfield Cemetery.
Obituaries
Vladas was so special that he merited not just one obituary, but two, both in Tėviškes Aidai. The first, from the Lithuanian community’s Melbourne District Council, begins with some poetry from J. Mikštas. This is of note because J. Mikštas was the pen name adopted by another First Transport passenger, Juozas Silainis. It could be translated as
My grave is far from Lithuania,
and none of my friends in the motherland will visit me.
The leaves from my garden's trees will not fall on it –
and larks will not feed in the native fields ...
CITE THIS AS: Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Vladas (Vlad or Wally) Akumbakas (1928-2002)'.
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| Vladas' name had not been added to this gravestone when it was photographed in 2017 Source: Find A Grave |
SOURCES
Adelaide Cemetery Authority https://aca.sa.gov.au/aca-records/, accessed 8 January 2026.
Anon (2002) 'Obituary of Vladas (Wally) Akumbakas, 17 August 2002', unpublished obituary held by the Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide.
Australijos Lietuvis (The Australian Lithuanian) (1948) 'Lietuviai Australijoje’, Adelaide, 20 December, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280322550, accessed 30 Aug 2025.
Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Table Tennis', Albury, 10 June, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263466128, accessed 31 August 2025.
Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Revised Draw', Albury, 1 July, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263775553 accessed 31 Aug 2025.
Canberra Times (1948) 'Tile Output to Reach 5,000 a Day Next Month', Canberra, 8 January, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2734498, accessed 30 Aug 2025.
Canberra Times (1948) 'Balts To Meet Visiting Sydney Basketball Team', (ACT : 1926 - 1995), 26 November, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2778013, accessed 30 Aug 2025,
Canberra Times (1949) 'Basketball Games', Canberra, 1 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2797427, accessed 30 August 2025.
Canberra Times (1949) 'Men's Basketball', Canberra, 9 June, p 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2808185, accessed 30 August 2025.
Canberra Times (1949) 'Men's Basketball', Canberra, 24 June, p 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2810491, accessed 30 August 2025.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) 'Certificates Of Naturalization’, Canberra,18 September, p 3097, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240882136, accessed 30 August 2025.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1960) 'Certificates Of Naturalization’, Canberra, 11 February, p 548, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241002076, accessed 30 August 2025.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1961) 'Certificates Of Naturalization’, Canberra, 6 April, p 1358, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241005016, accessed 30 August 2025.
Find a Grave, 'Vladas Akumbakas' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158706787/vladas-akumbakas, accessed 5 September 2025.
'JNP' (2002) ‘A † A Vladas Akumbakas’ (‘In Memoriam, Vladas Akumbakas’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškes Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), Melbourne, 2 October, pp 7-8 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/2002/2002-10-02-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 1 September 2025.
Melbourno Apylinkės Valdyba (Melbourne District Council) (2002) ‘A † A Vladas Akumbakas’ (‘In Memoriam, Vladas Akumbakas’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškes Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), Melbourne, 18 September, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/2002/2002-09-18-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 1 September 2025.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series (1946-1976); AKUMBAKAS VLADAS, AKUMBAKAS Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1947-1953) recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8108201, accessed 1 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); 6, AKUMBAKAS Vladas DOB 1 September 1928 (1947-1947) recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005449, accessed 1 September 2025.
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947-1956); AKUMBAKAS VLADAS, AKUMBAKAS, Vladas : Year of Birth - 1928 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 406 (1947-1948) recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203672805, accessed 1 September 2025.
Petraitis, Father Juozas (2002) 'A † A Vladas Akumbakas' (‘In Memoriam, Vladas Akumbakas’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškes Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), Melbourne, 18 August, p 8
Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Card, ‘Dreijalds, born Akumbakas, Ona’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66925788, accessed 31 August 2025.
Šventadienio Balsas – Lietuvių žinios [Sunday Voice – Lithuanian News] (2002) [No title] Adelaide, 25 August, p 4, held by the Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide.
Wikipedia ‘Salzgitter’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzgitter, accessed 1 September 2025.
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