Jonas Bimba (1926-2011), Long Life Despite Scares, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Jonas Bimba was one of the 62 men from the First Transport sent to the sand and scrub at Bangham, near Wolseley in South Australia, to serve out their work contract with the Australian Government by widening a rural railway track.

He was born on 31 October 1926, in a village with his family name, Bimbos, in the Panemunėlis Eldership* of the Rokiškis Municipality. His family were farmers. Jonas had at least one younger brother.

As the second Russian occupation approached Jonas, together with an uncle from Klaipėda, took a ship to Germany.

While in Berlin he was intercepted by a German patrol and taken into the Army. For a time, he looked after the troop’s horses in Hanover.

As the front approached, and the German Army retreated, Jonas simply took off his uniform and joined other refugees. He lived in several displaced persons camps.

His uncle had relatives in America and was able to emigrate to the United States. Jonas’ request to go there was rejected.

In his American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP Registration, he said that he had an uncle in the United States. That uncle might have been a brother to the uncle who went to Germany with him, so a close enough relative for the Americans. Mere uncle for Jonas could have been too distant in American eyes. Jonas ended up in Australia on the First Transport.

Jonas in Germany, photo from his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When interviewed by Australia’s selection team, he advised that he had completed 6 years of primary education plus 2 years at a trade school learning to be an electrician. That ship to Germany with his uncle had become “forcibly evacuated by (the) Germans”.

In Germany, he had been a “lumber worker” for half a year and a labourer for a full year. He had worked as an electrician in Lithuania for only half a year.

None of those occupations approximate the šaltkalvis recorded on the AEF form. That word translated directly into English as “whitesmith”.

In case you, like us, have never come across the opposite of blacksmith before, it further translates into someone who works with metals which are not iron or steel, like tin or pewter, silver or lead. It applies also to tradesmen plating iron with tin, including for the drainage elements on the outside of buildings. The copper used by electricians does not get a mention though.

Either Jonas was versatile in his training and experience or a mistake had been made.

He was described as being fluent in Russian as well as Lithuanian, while his English and German skills both were fair.

He nearly missed out on Australia too, because of high blood pressure, but was declared fit in the end.

This photo of Jonas probably was taken in December 1947,
in the Bonegilla camp

Source:  National Archives of Australia

After the Bangham days were over, he lived in Adelaide for a while, Brisbane and Melbourne, but finally settled in Sydney.  Jonas married a Lithuanian, Margarita Blažytė, and had a family.

He became an Australian citizen on 11 March 1958, when he was living at 18 Fisher Street in the Sydney suburb of Petersham.

He did not participate in most Lithuanian activities, but all the time was a supporter and a regular visitor to Sydney Lithuanian Club. There was one group, however, in which he was particularly active, according to a series of reports in the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper during 1987 to 1995: the Darius and Girėnas shooters association.

In 1982, KPB in the Tėviškės Aidai newspaper reported that Jonas had been attacked and robbed at a Sydney railway station. His leg was broken in the attack and $350 was stolen before the robbers fled. Mūsų Pastogė reported that he had been admitted to Marrickville Hospital as a result of the attack.

Despite this vicious event, he was one of the survivors who attended a dinner to celebrate 50 years since the arrival of the First Transport in 1997 in Sydney – or, as they put it, 50 years since the start of the Lithuanian community. Any member of the Bauzė family or Jonas Mockūnas in his early Lithuanians blog can tell you that there were Lithuanians in Sydney before December 1947, but perhaps they were too few and isolated to form a community.

Jonas Bimba in later life
Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 26 January 2011

The funeral of the Jonas Bimba took place on 14 January 2011 at Rookwood Cemetery. This was more than 84 years after his birth, so that high blood pressure did not matter in the long run. It was nearly 30 years after the violent robbery which, if anything, might have had the effect of shortening an even longer life.

He was cremated and his ashes were to be transferred to Lithuania. As we write, their placement has not made it onto Lithuania’s Website for the deceased, Cemety.lt. It is possible that they were scattered.

FOOTNOTE: * An eldership is the smallest Lithuanian local administrative unit, part of a municipality, equivalent to a ward in the United States or parts of Australia.

CITE THIS AS: Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/jonas-bimba-1926-2011-long-life-despite-scares.html.

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record, ‘Jonas Bimba’, in Folder DP0362, names from BIMANIS, ELZA to BINDELS, Jan (1), 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps; ITS/Arolsen Archives, DocID: 66606458, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66606458, accessed 3 October 2025.

KPB (1982) ‘Iš Mūsų Parapijų, Sydnėjus’ (‘From our Parishes, Sydney’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland), Melbourne, 10 July, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1982/1982-07-10-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 3 October 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1982) ‘Informacija, Pastaruoju Metu Sydnejuje’ (‘Information, Recent Times in Sydney’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 14 June, p 12 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1982/1982-06-14-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 3 October 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (2011) ‘A A Jonas Bimba’ (‘In Memoriam Jonas Bimba’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 26 January, P ?

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; 40, BIMBA Jonas DOB 31 October 1926 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005478, accessed 3 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; BIMBA JONAS, BIMBA Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Unknown per Unknown, 1951-1951, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7187427, accessed 4 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956: BIMBA JONAS, BIMBA, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1926 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 440 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203666752, accessed 4 October 2025.

Žalys, B (1997) Sydnėjus atšventė atvykimo 5O – mėtį (‘Sydney Celebrated 50 years since the Arrival’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 1 December, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-12-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 4 October 2025.

Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Hospital history

The site on which this hospital was built has housed a hospital since the 1890s.  The family which owned the site bequeathed it to the government in 1937 so that a public hospital could be built on it.  The first government-owned and run hospital was opened as a general hospital for the Australian Army in 1941.  It was known as the Yaralla Military Hospital after the name of the property on which it was built.

After World War II, it became a hospital which specialised in the needs of returned service personnel.  The name was changed to Repatriation General Hospital, Concord.

First Transport refugees sent there to work, 1948

Voldemars Briedis, a Latvian who had been a medical student, was sent there on 7 April 1948, specifically to work as a medical orderly.  He had been working at the Bonegilla camp already from 8 December, so the day of arrival the previous year.  His English was good enough for him to have been nominated by cable from Berlin as one of 15 suitable for work as teachers or interpreters.

Voldemars was accompanied to his new workplace by another Latvian, Ojars Springis, and 4 Lithuanians:  Bronius Šaparas, whose story we have just looked at, plus Jurgis Arlionis, Ceslovas Sviderskas and Vladas Navickas.  All except Voldemars had been sent off the the fruit-picking exercise in the Goulburn Valley first.

This is what the entrance to the Repatriation Hospital looked like
when the First Transporters were sent there

Source:  Photograph by Frank Hurley, National Library of Australia

At this stage, I understand that Ojars and Vladas moved later to Tasmania, so Ramunas Tarvydas should have something to say about them.  They are on the list in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, but he has nothing more to add.

The Hospital today

The Hospital is now a district general hospital, on Hospital Road in the Sydney suburb of Concord.  It is a teaching hospital of the Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney.

Location of Concord Hospital

Source:  Wikipedia Maps

CITE THIS AS:  Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Repatriation General Hospital, Concord', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/repatriation-general-hospital-concord.html.

SOURCES

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office;  A445, Correspondence files, multiple number series (policy matters), 1922-1968; 174/4/8, Bonegilla Centre - Education of New Australians, 1947-1945  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=75444, accessed 3 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia:  Migration Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, Fifty years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania, Hobart, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, pp 158-187.

Wikipedia, 'Concord Repatriation General Hospital'   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Repatriation_General_Hospital, accessed 3 October 2025.

Bronius Šaparas (1909-1970), Airman Grounded, by Rasa Ščevinskienė with Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 29 October 2025.

Bronius Šaparas was a pilot in independent Lithuania between the World Wars, a senior non-commissioned Air Force officer who trained also as a radio telegraphy operator.  He was sufficiently important to have his later civilian work noted also.

An example is these paragraphs from ‘Lėktuvai Percival Q6’ (‘Percival Q6 Aeroplanes’) by Saulius Štulas and Jonas Monkevičius, translated from Lithuanian by Rasa.

Civil aviation, Lithuania

“When purchasing the planes, it was planned to connect Kaunas and Klaipėda, adding Palanga during the summer season, but in the spring of 1939, when the Germans occupied the Klaipėda region, only Palanga remained.

Wikipedia articles say that 2 of the 27 Percival Petrel Q6s ever built were sold to 
Lithuanian Air Lines, which operated during 1938-40, one plane named Stepas Darius
and the other, Stays Girėnas, both here
with possibly the terminal of the Air Lines' Kaunas hub behind them

Source:  Lietuvos Aviacijos Istoria 1919-1940 m.

“A small station with two rooms was built at the Palanga airfield — for radio equipment and for the crews to spend the night.  A radio operator, V. Jackūnas, was assigned to service the station, who maintained contact with the flying plane and sold tickets to those returning to Kaunas.  The price of a one-way ticket was 38 litas - similar to the price of a second-class train ticket.  The plane took off from Kaunas at about 3-4 pm, and flew back to Kaunas at 8 am the next day.

“Over the three months of the 1939 flying season, planes on the Kaunas-Palanga-Kaunas route made 218 flights, flew 48,200 km, transported 784 passengers, 3,546 kg of luggage, and 3,476 kg of mail.  After the season ended in Palanga, the Air Traffic Inspectorate agreed with Latvia to start communication between Kaunas and Riga.  In Riga, radio operator Šaparas, who spoke Latvian, was appointed to receive planes and handle other matters.  Planes flew to Riga daily, carrying passengers, if any, and mail.”

S (Simas) Mockūnas wrote separately in his memoir (again translated by Rasa) that, “... In Riga, a radio operator named Šaparas, who spoke Latvian, was assigned to receive our planes and handle other matters.  We flew every day, transporting passengers and mail if we found any ...”

One of the Percival Q6s went to Australia, sold to the Civil Aviation Board in May 1938

Source:  Airways Museum

Bronius' youth

An obituarist has written that Bronius was born on 26 January 1909, in Riga, where his parents lived at the time.  However, anywhere that Bronius himself nominated his birthplace, he gave it as the Lithuanian town of Skapiškis, in Rokiškis county.

It could be that the family moved to Riga in his infancy, given that both were part of Tsarist Russia at the time.  The obituarist advised that the family fled the chaos of World War I from Riga to St Petersburg, where Bronius finished elementary school. After the War had passed, they settled in or returned to Skapiškis, where Bronius continued his education until he was drafted into the Lithuanian Army.

Bronius dreamed not only of flying around the world, but also into space.  The dream came partly true, as he reached the rank of pilot non-commissioned officer while in the Army.  After completing his military service, he joined civil aviation and also studied Social and Political Science at the Vytautas the Great University, Kaunas.

Young adult Bronius

Bronius married Genovaitė Kazlauskaitė on 10 October 1936 in the church in Kudirkos Naumiestis.  He was still a non-commissioned pilot in the Air Force, living in Kaunas. His mother, maiden name Ona Vaiciekauskaitė, had died while his father, Antanas Šaparas, had moved to Brazil.  He was already 27 years old, but his bride was only 16.  Their daughter, Jūratė Regina, born on 27 October 1937 in Kaunas.

The next public record is from a 1942 census and shows Bronius Šaparas living with his wife Genovaitė and daughter Jūratė Regina on Vytautas Street in Prienai, a rural municipality just south of Kaunas.  The census shows that Bronius had finished high school and now worked as a supplier at the Sudavija brewery.

In the later 1944 summer, as the battle front moved past Prienai, the Sudavija brewery was blown up during a German air raid.  It would have been time for this family to retreat westwards, to Germany.

Bronius in Germany

An Arolsen Archives digitised record shows that the date they left was 10 August 1944. The document also shows that they had lived in Kaunas until the end of 1940, before moving to Prienai. In Germany, they lived in the Dillingen Displaced Persons camp. Of the two towns called Dillingen in Germany, it is more likely that they were in Dillingen an der Donau, or somewhere in the surrounding Dillingen district in Bavaria, in the far south of Germany.

Another Arolsen Archives document describes Bronius as a radio-telegraphist, who knew the Lithuanian, German, Russian and Polish languages. Given that apparently he lived in Riga until he was 5 or older and worked there as an adult, we think that someone forgot to include the Latvian language, which S Mockūnas said that Bronius spoke.

By October 1947, Bronius was being interviewed for possible resettlement in Australia. He made the grade and was one of 439 Lithuanians boarded onto the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman. This ship left Bremerhaven for Fremantle, Western Australia, on 30 October 1947.

Bronius Saparas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup

On the passenger list, under marital status, it looks like an S and a D have been overtyped against Bronius’ name. That is to say, it was assumed he was single, like nearly all the passengers, until someone pointed out that in fact he was divorced. The divorce is confirmed by the marriage of Genovaitė Sapariene to Vytautas Musinskas, on 14 August 1948, again recorded on a document digitised by the Arolsen Archives. Genovaitė and her daughter, Jūratė Regina, later emigrated to the USA. There Jūratė Regina married a Mr Bagdonas.

Bronius starts life in Australia

Like one-quarter of the Heintzelman men, Bronius’ first job in Australia was picking fruit. In his case, he worked for VR McNab of Ardmona for two months, returning to the Bonegilla Centre on 1 April 1948. Within the week, he was one of a group of 4 men sent to provide labour to the Concord Hospital in Sydney. At that time it was known as the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, and operated by the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, which is to say that it was for military service personnel who were injured or sick.

Bronius marries again

In 1949, Bronius Šaparas and Sofija Butkeviciutė were married by priest Petras Butkus. There was a separate marriage at the Registry on 14 January, a Friday.

Sofija had also been born in 1909, some eight months after her husband. The Lithuanian spelling of her first name is Zofija, but she must have changed the initial letter in Australia to make it easier for those in her workplace, for a start.

A Mūsų Pastogė obituarist was to write some 52 years after the marriage that she was a “Lithuanian woman of very strong character”. The Tėviškės aidai obituarist said, when her husband died, that she was a “a hardworking and healthy-minded woman”. She gave her occupation as dressmaker. In Lithuania, her last job was in a grocery shop. She had arrived in Australia on the Second Transport, the USAT General MB Stewart, on 12 February 1948.

Zofija Butkeviciute, in early 1948, from her Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When Sofija sponsored a cousin who also was a refugee in Germany, in May 1948, she had given her occupation as domestic staff member at the Concord Hospital. They both gave their usual place of residence on the marriage certificate as the Repatriation Hospital, Concord, although their paths may have crossed already at the Bonegilla camp before Bronius went fruit-picking. Their daughter Karmen (or Carmen to the Aussies) was born in February 1950.

Bronius in the community

Lithuanians living in the western Sydney suburb of Wentworthville and its surrounds met to establish a new Eldership of the Australian Lithuanian Community 23 August 1953. The meeting was chaired by J. Gardis and its secretary was Bronius. After brief discussions it was decided to temporarily establish the Eldership, and the following year to transform it into a District. Bronius and J. Gardis were elected as the 2 deputy Elders at this meeting.

Bronius’ next milestone was naturalisation, alongside Sofija, on 10 June 1958.

The house in which the Šaparas family was living at the time Bronius and Sofija applied for naturalisation:  49 Ringrose Avenue, in a suburb then called Wentworth, now Greystanes

Source:  Google Street View

Bronius and Sofija make a living

Like Juozas Šuopys, the Šarapas family got into Sydney real estate. Unlike Juozas Šuopys, the Šarapas family turned at least one large residence into a boarding house, where food as well as lodgings were available for singles. Boarding houses were used by couples too, until they had saved enough for a deposit on their own home.

Both Bronius and Sofija renovated the houses that they bought, before Sofija organised the residents’ meals and anything else with which she could help, including the laundry.

Bronius' ill-health

It was in October 1968 that Bronius experienced his second heart attack. He was admitted to hospital for surgery. Pulmonary thrombosis – blood clots on the lungs – were identified also. Around the same time, Sofija received serious head and arm injuries in a traffic accident.

After she began to recover, she tripped in the yard of one of the houses, fell and broke her other arm. Their daughter was at home, probably because it was summer school holidays in Australia, so she nursed both the parents. The family was able to continue to look after their tenants fully despite these accidents.

One year later, in October 1969, Bronius was reported to be in hospital again but in improving health.

Bronius dies

His heart gave out finally on 2 May 1970, during another hospital visit. This was at the time when Karmen was in her last year of secondary education in a Catholic girls' high school and preparing for her final exams.

On May 5, Father Petras Butkus, the priest who had married Bronius and Sofija, assisted by priest Martūzas, conducted Bronius' funeral service at the Lidcombe Catholic Church. Father Petras’ sermon for the large crowd gathered described Bronius’ life and his value to the Lithuanian community and to the church.

Bronius' photo from his Tėviškės Aidai obituary

Source:  Tėviškės Aidai

The coffin was escorted to Rookwood Cemetery. After prayers, Stasys Pačėsa delivered a farewell speech on behalf of the local Ramovė ex-servicemen’s group, while Major Garolis’ farewell came from all Lithuanian pilots.

Sofija dies

Thirty-one years later, in November 2001, Sofija joined her husband in the same Rookwood plot. Sofija was from Samogitia, which is Žemaitija to Lithuanians. Writing about the 3 Smilgevičius First Transport refugees from Samogitia, Daina Pocius told us that a Žemaitis trait is stubbornness: they never give up when in trouble and stubbornly pursue a goal. That sounds like Sofija’s focus on running her boarding house or houses.

Sofija Šaparienė in later life

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Indeed, writing (in Lithuanian) in Mūsų Pastogė in 1976, Vladas Miniotas said, “It is not for nothing that Samogitians were revered in Lithuania for their stubbornness, diversity of opinions and hospitality. Such Samogitians have remained in exile even today. And as an example, I can present Mrs. Sofija Šaparienė, who lives in Sydney.

“Poor Zosiu [familiar version of Zofija] did not give up [after the death of Bronius], even though with tearful eyes she was trying to finalise her business interests and move on to rest, creating … a more comfortable nest for a single life. Which she managed to do, buying beautiful houses in the Burwood area, near the railway station and right next to the shops.”

Vladas was writing after Sofija had hosted what he called "a feast” for her friends and new neighbours after her successful downsizing. During this occasion, all stood for a minute of silence in memory of Bronius.

Either Vladas or the newspaper headed his report “Žemaitė Nepražus”, meaning in English, “A/The Samogitian woman will not die”, an apt tribute to Sofija. Rasa adds that the Samogitian stereotype includes calm, reservation, yet stubbornness and “a determined person who stands by their word”.

Their headstones

In her obituary, Sofija was described as a comedian who enjoyed fishing. The Lithuanian text on Sofija’s headstone means in English, “Where the land is green and the cuckoo alights, there is my dear native Lithuania” and she is honoured by her daughter and granddaughter.

Wife and daughter were able to honour Bronius on his headstone, where the text means, “You flew over your native land, but a foreign land shelters you for eternal rest”.

The Saparas headstones in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney

Source:  Milly McCarthy on Find A Grave

CITE THIS AS Ščevinskienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann  (2025) 'Bronius Šaparas (1909-1970), Airman Grounded' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/bronius-saparas-1909-1970-airman-grounded.html.html

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