Viktoras Žeimys (1914-1997): Footballer, Cook, Telephone Technician, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

More than one year before the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, at Fremantle with 839 Displaced Persons on board, about to settle in Australia, in 1996 the Mūsų Pastogė Australian-Lithuanian newspaper was publishing reminiscences.

One of them was from Viktoras Žeimys, a professional footballer in Lithuania and even in Germany before selection for Australia. Let’s translate what Viktoras wrote from his Lithuanian.

Professional footballer in Germany

“I lived in the Rotenburg DP camp in the British zone of Germany. [Rotenburg is about 45 km west of Bremen, more by road]. At the end of July 1947, when emigration to Australia began, I did not think of emigrating there because I played football for the German team, and the club urged me to stay in Germany — they would give me a good job, I would live closer to my homeland...

“In the camp, those who wanted to emigrate were examined by Dr Ivinskis. He advised me to emigrate. He said — you will not play football all your life, but there you may find a better life. When I decided to go, he filled out the necessary forms and checked my health.

“After that, they sent me to Hanover to check my health and political past, and after a few weeks, to the Diepholz camp, where they mainly checked my lungs, blood, etc. Later, my health was also checked by Australian emigration and UNRRA officials.

[Viktoras’ selection papers for emigration to Australia have been lost, so we no longer have access to what Dr Ivinskis or the others wrote, nor a photograph of the footballer from those days. Further, we don’t know what the Australian officials recorded about his arrival in Germany or his work there or earlier. We do know that he passed the medical exams or we would not be writing about his now.]

“During the last inspection, we had to take off our underwear and raise our hands — they checked whether we had SS signs (tattooed blood groups on our arms, near our armpits). [Lots of the men with whom Ann was able to talk twenty years ago spoke about raising their arms so that they could be checked for the blood group tattoo, but Viktoras is the first so far to put this aspect of the checking for migration to Australia into writing.]

“We received our personal documents, and a few days later we were taken to the port of Bremerhaven, where we boarded the beautiful USAT General Stuart Heintzelman. Goodbye to our homeland, Lithuania, goodbye to Europe!

The Mūsų Pastogė caption for this photograph said that it was taken in Bremerhaven,
just before boarding the Heintzelman, and Žeimys was second from the left:
we think that meant that he's the one in the light-coloured coat with the shrug

Mūsų Pastogė captioned this photograph, "Five future Australians on board": Žeimys was fourth from the left and Teresevičius was next to him, but Žeimys could no longer remember
the other names 49 years late — do you recognise anyone?

Source: Mūsų Pastogė

A Soviet Submarine!

“Upon entering the Red Sea, rumours spread on the ship that a Soviet submarine was following us and, possibly, wanted to sink us. Of course, these were just rumours, and on November 28, 1947, we arrived in the port of Fremantle, Western Australia, having spent 28 days on the journey.

Viktoras Žeimys, identity photography from his 1947 Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

“After spending [nearly] a week in a military camp near Fremantle, on December 5, we boarded the Australian warship HMAS Kanimbla. We were taken to Melbourne. From there we took a train to Bonegilla, Victoria, an emigrant camp set up in a former barracks. I was put to work in the kitchen.

Google's Gemini AI thinks that the man on the far left of this photo of Bonegilla staff,
most of them working in the kitchen, could be Viktoras Žeimas

Source:  Collection of Galina Vasins Karciauskas

From Bonegilla to Bathurst to Tully, Queensland

“A few months later, when an emigrant camp opened in Bathurst, NSW, I was with a group of other workers who were transferred there. I worked as a cook again.

“Later, I worked for a season in the sugar cane harvest in Queensland, but, not having made a fortune, I returned to the kitchen.

“In 1949, I was sent to the Army Cooks School. After graduating, I worked as a cook in an army unit, where I completed my two-year government contract. But even after graduating, I did not give up my job as a cook and worked at the Sydney Yacht Club, and from 1952 to 1979 — at the NSW Post Office.”

Viktoras Becomes an Australian Citizen

The digitisation of Australian Government gazettes by the National Library of Australia’s Trove service shows that Viktoras was amongst the very first from the General Stuart Heintzelman to apply for and be granted Australian citizenship. He received his citizenship certificate on 5 June 1953, only 6 months after he became eligible.

He then lived on Hugh Street, in the Sydney suburb of Belmore. The Australian citizenship means that Ancestry.com allows us to follow any changes of address or occupation until 1980, the year of the last digitised electoral roll. During this period, he and his wife continued to live at the same address, while Viktoras continued to record his occupation as telephone technician. By the time he died, though, the family had moved into the neighbouring suburb of Belfield.

Mūsų Pastogė correspondents have filled in more of Viktoras’ life. “AVK” for example, undertook the sad duty of an obituary after Viktoras died before that 50th anniversary, one month after his 83rd birthday, on 17 July 1997.

Chef? Footballer! Telephone technician ...

AVK pointed out that while Viktoras worked at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron club in Kirribilli, he had the opportunity to cook lunch for Sir Robert Menzies. He received a very large tip from the Prime Minister that afternoon.

AVK explained that Viktoras was a member of the Sydney branch of Ramovė, the organisation for former members of the Lithuanian military. His military speciality had been communications. After completing his military service, he worked for the Lithuanian Post Office and was an active athlete. As a member of the Lithuanian football team, he travelled all over Europe.

[While AVK described Viktoras, apparently also known as "Stasys", as a member of the "Lithuanian football team", we have been unable to find him in any lists of players for Lithuania in the late 1930s.  It looks as if Viktoras was good enough to travel with the squads but never had the opportunity to take to the field in any FIFA-recognised international match for Lithuania.]

Viktoras Žeimys in military uniform

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

We also learn from AVK that Viktoras’ speciality with the Lithuanian and NSW Post Offices was as a telephone technician. Abandoning his cooking career, despite Prime Ministerial patronage, indicates that Viktoras found the challenges of sorting telecommunications problems more to his liking than the challenges of new recipes.

Return to Lithuania

In 1991, Viktoras returned to Lithuania for the 4th World Lithuanian Games. Mūsų Pastogė published 3 articles about this visit. The first was based on an interview in the Mūsų Pastogė office and appeared on 1 July 1991.

The footballer about to return to Lithuania

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Viktoras was asked what prompted him to return to Lithuania. To that he replied, love of one’s native land, youthful memories, the desire to participate in the 4th World Lithuanian Games, and also the opportunity to meet with footballing friends. He hoped to renew acquaintances about whom he had dreamed in exile for more than forty years.

Viktoras explained that he started to play for the Žemaitis team in his home town, Kretinga, when he was only 13 years old. Given that he was born on 14 June 1914, this would have been in 1927. Three years later, he was invited to join the Klaipėda team, Švyturis. That was in 1936, he said, meaning that 6 years were lost somewhere in the explanation.

in 1938, the chairman of Kaunas football club, Kovas, asked him to join this team. He played there until the war began.

Viktoras had been told that former sports people in independent Lithuania were invited to participate in the opening of the 4th World Games in Kaunas. He was waiting excitedly for that day and hour.

The second article in Mūsų Pastogė, on 23 September, repeated an article in the Klaipėda city newspaper, which also was called Klaipėda. Their honoured visitor had started a Sydney football team in 1954, later coached Australian football players [meaning members of the national team?], and then coached juniors. However, he had said goodbye to active football completely in 1971, when he was 56 or 57.

The third report was published on 2 December 1991. During the opening ceremony for the Games in Klaipėda, 77-year-old sports veteran Viktoras Žeimys walked onto the field, knelt down and kissed the green grass. Before the War, he had played there many times with his father, he told Robertas Mackevičius, who was responsible for the stadium’s maintenance.

When he left, Viktoras handed Robertas 100 dollars and told him, "Tidy up our field, I really want everything to be beautiful here like before."

Robertas Mackevičius did not spend this money on the maintenance of the grass. When it was necessary to pay salaries to the stadium employees one month later, and “the winds were whistling through the bank account”, he took those dollars to the bank and exchanged them for roubles. Mentally thanking the Australian Lithuanian, he paid modest salaries to his small group of colleagues.

Robertas consoled himself with the thought that he still had 38 light bulbs left in the storeroom.

Still supporting Kovas at 80

In April 1995, the sports reporter for Mūsų Pastogė noted that Viktoras was still involved in sports. He was always present when the Sydney team, Kovas, trained. He always supported the athletes with donations and took care of their problems. He was unable to attend to the 1995 World Lithuanian Games but he had donated $50 to the athletes who were going and wished them good luck. [The Reserve Bank of Australia advises that, 30 years later, $50 would buy a basket of goods and services worth nearly $110.]

Viktoras the Scout

Two years later, after Viktoras’ death, an initial report in Mūsų Pastogė noted that he also had been a scout in his youth. In 1933, on 17 August, he had participated in a massive rally in Palanga, Lithuania, which brought together Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Lady Olave Baden-Powell, and a contingent of 650 British Scouts and Guides with nearly 2,000 Lithuanian Scouts and Guides. The British delegation was received by the President of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, at his official summer residence in Palanga, and a street was named in Baden-Powell‘s honour.

The end, and the family

Viktoras was not well in the last few years of his life, so he was rarely seen at Lithuanian events in Sydney — apart from training sessions for Kovas, it would seem. His cause of death was a heart attack.

Viktoras Rufinas Žeimys was buried on 21 July 1997 in the Lithuanian section of Rookwood Cemetery after a funeral service conducted by Fr Jonas Girdauskas. The chairman of the Sydney Ramovė branch, Antanas Vinevičius, farewelled him on behalf of his comrades. We note that his name was Australianised for the burial: Victor Rufin Zeimys.

He met and possibly married his younger wife, Anna Katerina in Germany. She died 14 years later and is buried with him.

We know that they had at 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. That’s because a daughter accompanied Viktoras on his 1991 return to his homeland and the 4th World Lithuanian Games. Sadly, the son, John Phillip, born in March 1954, lived for only 63 years, dying in March 2017. His ashes rest in a wall among other Lithuanians in Rookwood Cemetery. We hope that the 2 daughters, named as Anna and Elizabeth in the obituary by AMK, are doing well.

The father with whom he played football on the grass of the Klaipėda field was Juozas, who had married Marijona Zmidaitė according to the details on an American Expeditionary Forces DP Registration Form completed for him somewhere in the south west of Germany in October 1945. That form also reports that he left in December 1945 for a DP camp in Freiburg in the French Zone of Occupation. Perhaps he had heard that the Displaced Persons there were keen on football.

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record, ‘Žeimys, Viktoras’ Document ID 69001742, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69001742, accessed 22 June 2026.

Alfas (1995) ‘Sportas’ (‘Sport’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, NSW, 17 April, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1995/1995-04-17-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

Australian Cemetery Index, Name/Cemetery Search https://austcemindex.com/?family_name=zeimys&cemetery=1150, accessed 21 June 2026.

“AVK” (1997) ‘A † A Viktoras Rufinas Žeimys, 1914.6.14 – 1997.7.17’ (‘RIP Viktoras Rufinas Zeimys’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, NSW, 1 September, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-09-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Viktoras Zeimys’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203728731, accessed 21 June 2026.

CM/1 No.207702 ‘Zeimys’ 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from SA, Folder DP3618, names from SEJMICKI, WACLAW to ZEZNELOVICH, Shaban (1), ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69001743, accessed 22 June 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1953) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 16 July, p 1978 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232810367/25083994, accessed 22 June 2026.

Find a Grave ‘Anna Katarina Zeimys’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180428496/anna-katarina-zeimys, accessed 21 June 2026.

Find a Grave ‘John Phillip Zeimys’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/272633188/john-phillip-zeimys, accessed 21 June 2026.

Find a Grave ‘Victor Rufin Zeimys’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180428497/victor-rufin-zeimys, accessed 21 June 2026.

Mundrys, Virgilijus (1991) ‘Kai pristinga pinigų …’ (‘When money is tight...', in Lithuanian) Respublika, 12.10.1991, reprinted in Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, NSW, 2 December, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1991/1991-12-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1991) ‘“Pašaukė tėvynės ilgesys”’ (‘“Called by longing for the homeland”’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 23 September, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1991/1991-09-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1995) ‘Mirė a.a. Viktoras Žeimys‘ (‘Died, RIP Viktoras Zeimys’) Sydney, NSW, 28 July, p 7, https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-07-28-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; ZEIMYS VIKTORAS, ZEIMYS, Viktoras : Year of Birth - 1914 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 737, 1947-1958 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203728731, accessed 24 June 2026.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Inflation Calculator, https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualDecimal.html, accessed 20 June 2026.

Ryerson Index, Search for Notices https://ryersonindex.org/search.php, accessed 21 June 2026.

“V.A” (1991) Pasiilgau gimtosios žemės (‘I Miss My Native Land’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, NSW, 1 July, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1991/1991-07-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

Žeimys, Viktoras (1996) ‘Pirmieji metai Australijoje, Emigrantu į tolimqjq Australiją’ (‘First Years in Australia, Emigrant to distant Australia’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, NSW, 5 August, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-08-05-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 June 2026.

Nikolai Müristaja (1912-1989): Watchmaker, Jeweller, Gardener, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Nikolai starts Australian life with a job in his speciality

By some fluke, Nikolai Müristaja, recruited as a Labourer to Australia from Estonia via Germany after WWII and travelling here on the General Stuart Heintzelman, was sent for his first job after arrival to employment which really suited him.

Might this have been because his first employer, recorded on his Bonegilla card as “Geo. W. Speirs of Griffiths” (sic) had thought to ask at Bonegilla if any of the new arrivals had trained as a jeweller or watchmaker?

The fluke would have been anyone know that Nikolai had this training, and advising Mr Speirs of it. (I am assuming that Nikolai's own English and knowledge of his industry in Australia was not yet up to the task of making his own enquiries.)

Nick Müristaja with friend, Griffith, NSW, 1948

Source:  Collection of Valeria Mets Blackburn

Watchmakers and Jewellers

The Estonian Pärnu Päevaleht newspaper reported, on 9 February 1935, that Nikolai Muristaja was about to receive a certificate commemorating his passing of examinations in the field of working on time-pieces.

The one known newspaper advertisement for the business opened by Nikolai in the northeast Estonian town of Kiviõli, as a watchmaker who also sold moderately priced crystal, gold and silver object, optical requirements, etc.

Source:  Rahvaleht, 30 May 1940, through DIGAR

George W Speirs, according to a notice about his will published in the Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales on 30 November 1962, was a Jeweller and Farmer in Griffith, New South Wales. Since Jewellers often are Watchmakers and repairers too, what a match with Nikolai!

In time (no, that pun was not intended), Nikolai opened up his own business as Nick Muristaja the Jeweller. This was not in competition with George's business, but because it was getting more work than he and Nick could handle in the one workshop.

Nick the Jeweller opens his second business, this time, in Griffith, NSW

Source:  Estonian Archives in Australia

The Estonian Archives in Australia, in its collection of papers relating the Nick and his wife, Nora, has an advertisement for Nick Muristaja, The Jeweller, clipped from an unknown Australian newspaper with no date. It also has a clipping from the Riverina Daily News, dated 21 October 1970 and titled, Griffith Jeweller Bows Out.

The latter reports that Nick worked for “this particular jeweller for about 15 years”, meaning that he would have started his own business in perhaps 1963. This was soon after George Speirs died, but a business in the family name still exists in Griffith. It is likely that Nick first helped the family and executors with the handover to its heir or heirs.

Selling his business in 1970 means that Nick ran it for only 7 years.

Nick the Jeweller bowing out from his Griffith shop

Source:  Daily News, Griffith, 21 October 1970 via

Estonian Archives in Australia

His plan was to retire to the coast. An  anonymous, undated summary of Nora’s life, including Nick, held by the Estonian Archives, places this on the NSW Central Coast.

Nick's Birth and Death

Having been born on 16 August 1912 (in Leisi, on Saaremaa Island) Nick was aged only 58 in October 1970 and 71 in July 1984. He died on 5 August 1989, just before his 77th birthday. Either he was temporarily unwell in 1970 but recovered in retirement, or he had made and invested enough money for his foreseeable needs and those of Nora.

In July 1984, Nick still had enough money saved to travel to North America for ESTO (the global Estonian cultural festival) held every four years, this time in Toronto, Canada. According to Vaba Eesti Sõna (Free Estonian Word), he also had stopovers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Lakewood (New Jersey, where many Estonians lived) and Long Island, New York, and would move on to Europe.

Nick Marries

Nick and Nora had married on 8 December 1951, not in Griffith where Nick was living, but in another Riverina town, Leeton. It is about 45 kilometres away from Griffith as the local birds fly, more by the local indirect roads. Why Leeton was chosen we no longer know.

The Riverina Daily News journalist, Jim Mulcair, told his readers that the couple had first met in Germany and their marriage was followed by a one-day honeymoon in another local town, Narrandera. Nora then flew to Adelaide, where she was working as a nursing aide in the Northfield Mental Hospital.

Nikolai's early life and War

Jim Mulcair summarised Nick’s early life in Estonia as training in the village of Vändra, about 45 Km northeast of the city of Pärnu, and in the capital city, Tallinn. He than opened his own shop in the northeast town of Kiviõli. This is where he was located, close to Russia, when the Soviet Union first invaded in the summer of 1940.

He told Mulcair that, “I lived an adventurous life during the War, experiencing the good and the bad. I found myself at the front line, fighting the Nazis, who captured me 3 times. I escaped from their prison camps in Germany, Russia and Czechoslovakia, the last one of which was the worst camp I have seen.”

It is interesting that Nikolai focussed on fighting the Germans, yet finished the war in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. I suspect that he told the Australian journalist what he wanted to hear, knowing that the Germans were Australia’s enemy during the War. For Estonians and other Baltic people, the Germans were unwanted invaders but the Soviet Union, based in Russia, was even worse.

The Australian selection team’s report on the intending immigrant has him working as a watchmaker for 5 years (from that 1935 certification), followed by 7 years as a labourer, including the last 5 months labouring for a farmer in Germany. It looks everyone was too busy to get watches and clocks repaired during the War.

The selection report leaves empty the places where the team might have recorded Nikolai's date of arrival in Germany and his reason for coming.

Mulcair’s report continued, “After the War, no-one seemed to know what Nick was so he was placed in a Displaced Persons camp.” An Arolsen Archives record card for a file destroyed in 1951 reports that Nick was in “DP Shop Oldenburg”, presumably the workplace associated with his camp. His medical examination for migration to Australia was carried out in Oldenburg, confirming the separate record of being in a DP camp there. Another sheet records his address as “Assembly Centre 224”, which a Web search confirms as likely to have been in the Oldenburg area, where there were camps for Baltic people and Poles.

Photo of Nikolai Müristaja from his 1947 selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

While Nick has only two records in the Arolsen Archives, his wife-to-be, Nora Lellep, has 6. She was in DP Camp 2515, and DP Camp Sandplatz, in Oldenburg, explaining how she and Nikolai may have met in Germany. She was classified then as a Nurse. (She had been the Head Housekeeper on a farm owned by the President of Estonia, Konstantin Päts, an association which would make her, even now, prima facie a political refugee.)

More on Nora

Soon after the marriage, Nora was touring northern Tasmania in February 1952 when she was involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident. The driver of a panel van which collided with the car in which she was travelling, with a driver and 4 others but not Nikolai, died before he could be moved to a larger hospital in Launceston. The accident was front page news in the North Eastern Advertiser based in Scottsdale.

The anonymous, undated, summary of Nora’s life says that she worked as a nurse in Tasmania but says nothing about the time. She also had nursed at a mental hospital near Newcastle, at the Concord Hospital in Sydney (which we have considered in some detail already) and in Melbourne. It does not mention Adelaide.

Nick and Nora Become Australians

Nick became a naturalised Australian on 20 November 1957. Nora was naturalised in the same ceremony, but for some reason known only to officialdom, this was confirmed in a Commonwealth Government Gazette 4 months after Nick’s naturalisation was announced.

Retirement and Gardening

According to the Archives’ summary, Nora and Nick had retired to the Central Coast before moving to the Estonian Retirement Village in Thirlmere, NSW. After Nick died, on 5 August 1989, days before his 77th birthday, Nora moved into the Retirement Village’s Hostel. That is where I met with her 20 years ago.

Nora Müristaja's own photograph of her late husband, Nikolai

Source:  Müristaja collection

scanned 7 August 2006

She was in her nineties then, and thought that the man in the large framed photograph might be her brother when it was her husband. She could still remember winning gardening competitions with the garden she and Nick developed in Griffith though. Jim Mulcair reported first prizes in Griffith, Riverina and Sydney garden competitions. Nora showed me the certificate for what might have been a Sydney Morning Herald competition, but it appears not to be in the Estonian Archives collection.

Ülle Slamer, who had worked with Nora when both of them had first arrived in Australia, celebrated Nora’s 100th birthday in late 2012 in Meie Kodu. She confirmed that the first prize was in a Sydney Morning Herald competition, in 1963. Retirement to the Central Coast was a home in Gosford, where they also won a first prize for gardens in small towns.

Nora accepts a sash for winning one of the garden competitions

Source:  Estonian Archives in Australia

They also created a new garden around their unit in the Thirlmere retirement village.  When Nora moved into the hostel, she started a rock garden there.

Jim Mulcair and Ülle Slammer both mentioned Nora’s bark paintings. They were popular with purchasers in Griffith and, later, in Newcastle (a major city north of Gosford).

In 1987, “O.P.” reviewing the art exhibition at the 13th Estonian Days gathering at the end of the previous year, included both Nikolai and Nora as less well known exhibitors. We could expect someone who made his living from jewellery as well as watch repairs to have something of an artistic bent.

Nora Müristaja on her 100th birthday

Source:  Meie Kodu via DIGAR

Nora lived to be 101 years old. Her ashes now lie next those of her husband of 38 years, in a repository in the Thirlmere Cemetery.

A plaque for Nigoolas Müristaja in the Thirlmere Cemetery
(The Estonian version of Nikolai usually is spelled 'Nigulas';
'Puhka rahus' means Rest in Peace)

Source:  Ken on Find A Grave

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I wish to thank Terry Kass, Archivist at the Estonian Archives in Australia, for copying that Archives' file on the Muristajas for this project.

FOOTNOTE:  Estonians think that the Müristaja name might have been handed to the family as a joke, given that Nikolai's meek appearance might have been inherited from his male forebears.  It means "Thunderer".

CITE THIS AS:  Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Nikolai Müristaja (1912-1989): Watchmaker, Jeweller, Gardener'

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record 'Muristaja, Nikolai' https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/68364350?s=muristaja&t=2740782&p=0, Reference Code 03010101 16 266, Folder DP2802, names from MURINAS to MURNIEKS, Modris (1), ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/68364350?s=muristaja&t=2740782&p=0, accessed 9 June 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) 'Certificates of Naturalization, Nikolai Muristaja’ Canberra, ACT, 8 May, p 1442, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240891976, accessed 3 June 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) 'Certificates of Naturalization, Nora Muristaja’ Canberra, ACT, 4 September, p. 2870, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240881940, accessed 3 June 2026.

Geni 'Nikolai Müristaja' https://www.geni.com/people/Nikolai-M%C3%BCristaja/6000000007645412229, accessed 9 June 2026.

Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (1962) ‘RE will of GEORGE WILLIAM SPEIRS, late of Griffith' Sydney, NSW, 30 November, p 3619, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220383899, accessed 17 March 2026.

Mulcair, Jim (1970) ‘Griffith Jeweller Bows Out’ Riverina Daily News, Griffith, NSW, 21 October, p 1.

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; 206, MURISTAJA Nikolai DOB 16 August 1912, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4105816, accessed 7 June 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; LELLEP NORA, MURISTAJA Nora - Nationality: Estonian - Arrived Sydney per Svalbard 29 October 1948 Also known as NEE LELLEP recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9195434, accessed 7 June 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; MURISTAJA NIKOLAI, MURISTAJA, Nikolai : Year of Birth - 1912 : Nationality - ESTONIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 602, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203729837, accessed 7 June 2026.

North-Eastern Advertiser (1952) 'Serious Accident Near Derby' Scottsdale, Tas, 26 February, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149421507, accessed 17 March 2026.

“O.P” (1987) ‘XIII Eesti Päevade näitusel’ (‘At the 13th Estonian Days Exhibition’, in Estonian) Meie Kodu, Sydney, 29 April, p 4, https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1987/04/29/4, accessed 4 June 2026.

Pärnu Päevaleht (Pärnu Daily Paper) (1935) ‘Uusi ostustöölist’ (‘New Craftspeople’, in Estonian) Parnu, Estonia, 9 February, p 3 https://dea.digar.ee/page/parnupaevaleht/1935/02/09/3, accessed 3 June 2026.

Rahvaleht (National Paper) (1940) [Advertising] Tallinn, Estonia, 30 May, p 8 https://dea.digar.ee/page/rahvalehtvabamaa/1940/05/30/8, accessed 4 June 2026.

‘Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Card (Lellep, Nora)’ Reference Code 03010101 14 150, Folder DP2339, names from LEKES, Vavrinec to LELIONKA, Vincas (2), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from L, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68011981, accessed 7 June 2026.

‘Resettled file, Muristaja, Estonian’ Reference Code 03010101 16 266, Folder DP2802, names from MURINAS to MURNIEKS, Modris (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from MI, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68364349, accessed 4 June 2026.

Slamer, Ülle (2013) ‘Nora Müristaja pühitses 15. detsembril 2012 oma 100 aastast sünnipäeva’ (‘Nora Müristaja celebrated her 100th birthday on 15 December 2012’, in Estonian) Meie Kodu, Sydney, NSW, 30 January, p 8 https://dea.digar.ee/article/meiekodu/2013/01/30/25.1, accessed 4 June 2026.

Vaba Eesti Sõna (Free Estonian Word) (1984) ‘Reporteri Märkmikust’ (‘From a Reporter’s Notebook’, in Estonian) New York, NY, 5 July, p 8 https://dea.digar.ee/page/vabaeestisona/1984/07/05/8, accessed 7 June 2026.

Vaclavs Kozlovskis Escapes Pyramid Hill! translated by Monika Kozlovskis

Vaclavs taped this ticket to yet another Pyramid Hill entertainment into his diary
without further comment

PYRAMID HILL, 3.11.48, Wed

I washed my clothes and cursed to myself at such a ridiculous job. After all if I was married, then this washing headache would be over. Often enough lately I’ve played with thoughts of marriage, I think the devil is rearranging my clear thinking. But this problem isn’t as simple as it seems. It would be nice to come home after work to my wife’s clean, nicely furnished house, but that would mean giving up my idea of the sea. A seaman’s life would put off the possibility of marriage for a while at least - how will I unravel this damned knot? I’m already twenty-four years old, how much longer will I have to wander the world alone? But a wife would, after all, hinder a short return to Latvia, you could even say that it would be completely out of the question. Where can I find the solution to these damned problems?

PYRAMID HILL, 6.11.48, Sat

What an unpleasant day. The whole disaster began in the morning, when I woke to find something pressing my heart in an iron fist. Trying to ignore the pain, I got up and went outside, but had to come straight back to bed, because multicoloured circles span before my eyes and I felt that I was about to die. I had cramps and lost consciousness.

When I woke after a few minutes, I was half-sitting at the table and Lembit was holding me with both hands to prevent me from battering the walls - apparently I was also thrashing about. Then I suddenly felt hot, then sweated with cold shivers. I felt so bad that they sent for the doctor. But by the time he got here I felt much better and when he came the second time I was just getting up. I spent a few hours shooting rabbits, then went to look at the exhibition, although I still felt fairly weak.

PYRAMID HILL, 7.11.48, Sun

As is usual on weekends, today the wind blows fiercely again, this time mixed with desert dust. I feel as if I’m broken - all my bones are stiff and my back aches, it’s difficult to bend. It’s too windy for tennis, I’m too tired for table tennis, Anita is working until eleven, and as a result I was home by seven

PYRAMID HILL, 8.11.48, Mon

Memories and sadness flood my heart with renewed strength, my thoughts fly far away to my silent homeland once more, and unable to be called back, linger with my family. A small piece of paper, which a few months ago my sister held in her hands, today lies in my callused palm and pours warm waves into my heart, but my soul floods with new unbearable longing.

When the red tyranny ends, I’ll take the first chance I have to be amongst my loved ones again, to gladden my grey-haired mother and let young Ivars ride on my back as he did once, before the long lonely years…. if only the red tyrant’s power would end, if only there was the possibility for however brief a moment to be among my near and dear ones. But fate is merciless and people even more so. I can’t even write to my family for fear they’d be persecuted. When will this diabolic oppression end? If only it would end before the red beast has time to destroy and swallow everything that is so dear! Am I really fated to never again see my father and dear mother, to whom I’ve caused such worry? Please, God, protect her, and help her to endure these dark days!

PYRAMID HILL, 18.11.48, Thurs

We’ve received welcome news - our “hard labour” period has been shortened to eighteen months, so I’ve only six months left to slave, until 28 May. This news has been announced over the wireless and also written in the newspaper, and the boss and fat Maloney talk about it as well, so I’ll have to believe it.

In Germany increasing numbers of people are fleeing death by escaping to the western sector. It would be interesting to know where it will all end. Meanwhile the DPs have a good life in Australia and create all sorts of trouble.

One of 3 newspaper clippings which Vaclavs had taped into his diary at this point;
the others were headlined "50 Balts to Work at Sugar Factory" and "30,000 From East In DP Camps"

Source:  Sun News-Pictorial, Melbourne, 8 November 1948 through Trove

BENDIGO, 19.11.48, Fri

I didn’t go to work today for I’d arranged to travel to Bendigo to collect my suit. In the morning the boss appeared, and dismissing my ideas of travelling by train, offered to drive me in his own car. He brought some changes with him - next week Percy, Edgar, Kukusinski and the tall Ukrainian will leave us. This is solely the work of the foreman and I’m angry, but what can I do about it? It only strengthens my resolve to leave here after Christmas. The drive proceeded very enjoyably and by two I was in the familiar hotel. My business took up most of the afternoon, and I made it to the pub only just before closing time. After all I had to christen my new suit, which turned out very well. Later in the evening I went to the cinema, then fell into the soft hotel bed.

BENDIGO, 22.11.48, Sun

Now the soup’s begun to boil - this evening the boss arrived and said that Percy is leaving tomorrow morning. Although this was nothing unexpected, suddenly my blood began to boil, and I said that I’m leaving too. Antanas [Martisius?] joined me, then almost all the others, and we went to the boss with our announcement. The boss became angry and waved his hands in the air, but I was angry too and I couldn’t help him, he has to be satisfied with our decision. It’s just as well that yesterday we all drank together to celebrate our first year in Australia, as it turns out it was our farewell celebration as well.

PYRAMID HILL, 23.11.48, Mon

I’d decided to go to Bendigo this morning, but the foreman arrived, and knocking politely at the door saying good morning, told me that at eleven the boss and the employment officer would be here. If that’s the way he wants it, then I waited - it saved me an unnecessary trip to Bendigo. But Snell arrived alone. This didn’t interfere with us having a good exchange of words and clarifying to our listening boss that the only reason we want to leave is because of the foreman McDonald and his two sons. The boss blushed and paled, but what’s that to me. We just want the issue to be resolved somehow and to stay here until Christmas, but we became too heated and we’ve let off too much steam, there’s no going back.

Except for Lembit, Faterir and Gurski, we all received our accounts and didn’t worry overmuch that Snell raced off as if he was on fire. And why wouldn’t he, when suddenly all the work in the quarry stops? Let McDonald and his two sons make three hundred yards a day! Of course, this particular path costs good money, no-one’s going to pay us for the days we don’t work and I’ll no longer get four shillings and fourpence per hour, but I have to stand by my friends. Although I’m not so happy to leave this easy detonating job, which I could have put up with quite easily until Christmas, there are only six months left and after that I would be leaving anyway.

BENDIGO, 24.11.48, Tues

The day has come for me to leave Pyramid. I walked around to say goodbye to my friends. This parting wasn’t at all that pleasant - all the Australians are on our side and cursed the boss. On top of everything else, we found something new to curse, for we were told we had to hire a car from town to take our bags to the station, even though there were several free ones standing in the quarry.

A final wave of the hand, a final glance at the mountain through the train window, then Pyramid Hill also became part of my past. Snell had already advised the employment officer about our arrival, so by four everything was in order and we were each clear about our destinations. Kukusinski has been given a dustless job because of his eye problem and the rest are going to Mildura, but I’m being sent to somewhere near Hamilton. All I have to do now is to spend tonight in a hotel, and my journey to the new workplace can begin.

Vaclavs Kozlovskis in Pyramid Hill, Bendigo, Kerang, September-October 1948, translated by Monika Kozlovskis

PYRAMID HILL, 5.9.48, Sun

I’ve never played so many games before as I did today. It started with tennis at two in the afternoon, then I moved over to the table tennis and didn’t get home until eleven thirty, so I’m sure I’ll be stiff tomorrow. Yesterday’s newspaper again carried some salient words about the Balts and their prospects in Australia …

PYRAMID HILL, 15.9.48, Wed

It seems that summer has arrived already - since Sunday there has been no wind, there are no clouds in the sky and the bright Australian sun soaks our backs in perspiration. I’m working without a shirt, and only short pants. The cold weather months went quickly, almost unnoticed, will the hot ones speed by so swiftly too?

Source:  Vaclavs' diary, clipped from the
Melbourne Sun-News Pictorial, 15 September 1948, p 3

PYRAMID HILL, 18.9.48, Sat 

Damn it, the newspapers are already reporting problems - it seems that we won’t get out of the soup without the full two years. It’s possible that I’ll have to spend a second year in this same cabin, breaking up the same rocks. I’m going to take every opportunity to change my workplace. Perhaps if I have a good talk with the Employment Officer I could get a somewhat better job, but if not, I’ll get through the second year of “hard labour” as well somehow; after all, is that the only unpleasantness in the world?

Source:  Vaclavs' diary, clipped from

Smith's Weekly 18 September 1948

This morning I’d intended to do some washing, but instead I accompanied the schoolmaster to some sort of bushes to find firewood. This afternoon I arrived at the tennis court early, for today there was a so-called “tournament,” which I had no thoughts of winning. After the game I started a set with a quite young girl, we seem to understand each other well enough. We didn’t finish the set because it became too dark, and after a few more table tennis matches I hurried home in time to empty a bottle of wine before going to the dance. My head felt comparatively dull, and after the dance I had a few more at Fred’s, and got home at two in the morning.

PYRAMID HILL, 19.9.48, Sun

Early this morning Vik shook me to get up to go to church, but how could my head be inclined towards church, when it’s fully occupied with roaring and strange heaviness? I went to tennis in the afternoon, however - by then my head was clear again. After tennis I was invited for dinner, and again I enjoyed Australian hospitality. I really have landed in a country of wonderful people. I enjoyed the music, for the host has a large collection of records with wonderful compositions by the grand masters.

PYRAMID HILL, 20.9.48, Mon

Some peaceful, some fast and stormy winds blow my years into non-existence - today is my twenty-fourth birthday. That may not seem a lot, but I’ve seen and experienced so much that sometimes it seems I’ve become an old man. Except I haven’t achieved anything, I’m still a wanderer of the world, who lives here temporarily and at every moment must have my suitcase packed to continue on my way …

PYRAMID HILL, 21.9.48, Tues

Tonight I went to a concert, and I must say that I’ve never experienced such rubbish before. There was nothing wrong with the concert itself, but after it came reviews, presentations, speeches and more speeches, which lasted longer that the concert itself and dragged on until midnight. It was so boring that I wanted to get up and leave, but just as I was about to, the national anthem played and happily the business was at an end. I’m never going to one of these functions again!

The ticket to the boring speeches

Source:  Inside Vaclavs' diary

PYRAMID HILL, 3.10.48, Sun

My five year anniversary is here, but my God, how it differs from other anniversaries, for it is a sorrowful occasion. Five long wandering and unsettled years have passed since I left my mother’s warm nest, and during all these years troubles have followed me like the moon follows the earth. As well as these troubles I am pursued by longing for I don’t know what; perhaps it’s longing for my home and family. I try to escape the thoughts of home, but I just can’t succeed.

Like it or not my thoughts often fly there and in my heart spreads a sudden, painful fear as to whether I will ever return and see what has become of my native land? I think of my father and also my mother, who I last saw as she wept over my fate, then my hands form into fists and my thoughts feverishly seek something else to think about. Hatred ferments in my heart against the tyrants who separated me from my kinfolk and forced me to wander around the world. Difficult, endlessly difficult it is for the one without a country, home or family. Lately I’ve started to think occasionally of starting my own family, but with what? Australians make expensive wives, and after all I haven’t any money.

PYRAMID HILL - BENDIGO, 8.10.48, Fri

After all I can’t always work, sometimes I have to enjoy a holiday as well, therefore today I travelled to Bendigo. After two hours in a comfortable Australian train I got out at Bendigo station at lunchtime, wondering which street to take to find a hotel. The result of my wondering was that I climbed into a taxi which quickly drove me to the “Metropolitan” hotel, where a fat, courteous woman asked me to spell my names, wrote them in a book and showed me my room. After lunch, I went shopping and looked around the city with all its 40,000 inhabitants.

Not the postcard in Vaclavs' diary but another view, from 1920, of the centre of Bendigo, 
called Charing Cross after the "centre" of London

Source:  Wikipedia

The town is very appealing, it has many streets, and an amazing number of young, smiling lasses. If I could only get to know one, I’d stay here longer if it was possible to do so. I’ll have to try to wheedle a job in Bendigo next year from the Employment Office. I’d like to live here, even though I would spend my money faster here than living in Pyramid’s isolation. I went into a clothing store, Ashman’s, but couldn’t find a suit I like, so I chose a light blue striped cloth, and went to be measured for a suit to be made for me. I was led into the tailor’s shop itself and was amazed when I saw about fifty young girls working there, one of whom will sew my summer suit in six weeks.

Vaclavs' receipt for his suit, scanned from his diary

Next I looked for a watch, and after looking through three shops, found what I wanted in the fourth. Although it cost me twelve and a half pounds, I like it and paid for it. I wandered around some more, bought some shoes in the American style as well as a few more trifles, then it was time for dinner. Afterwards I tried to find a bar, but they all close at six and there isn’t a night local in the whole of this wide city, it’s quite amazing. Although here and there in large red electric letters I saw the signs “Bar,” all you can buy in such places are milk and ice cream, therefore the only thing I could do tonight was walk to the cinema and afterwards enjoy the comfort of the soft hotel bed.

BENDIGO - PYRAMID HILL, 9.10.48, Sat

My wallet twenty-five pounds lighter and my holiday over, I began the return journey. Of course, first I went into a bar to make up for yesterday, and made it to the station only ten minutes before my train left. It feels quite strange when people call me “sir,” but I’ll have to get used to it, after all I’m no longer a DP, and I pay the taxi driver with my own money. I half-dozed in the carriage almost all the way, but despite this when I climbed out at Pyramid station my head still hadn’t cleared. It only cleared a little when after the usual tennis games we emptied the cherry brandy and wine bottles and went to the dance. I don’t know why I didn’t enjoy it this time, even though I danced every dance, I don’t know what the matter was. Perhaps the Bendigo lasses have left their impression on me?

PYRAMID HILL, 12.10.48, Tues

It’s amazing that such a tremendous wind can blow here - at night it shakes the whole cabin and jolts my bed, so that it seems the whole lot will fly off to the devil. This afternoon five new men arrived, but they aren’t the hoped-for Balts. Only one is a Lithuanian; the rest are three Poles and a Ukrainian. They seem to be good people, but we’ll have to wait and see.

PYRAMID HILL, 16.10.48, Sat

This afternoon my tennis team played at Calivil North courts, so I had to ride ten miles to get there. As it turned out I had to play against Pyramid, and my own team. There was no dance this evening so we played table tennis at the café.

PYRAMID HILL, 26.10.48, Tues

Summer’s here in earnest now - this week suddenly began with unbearably fierce heat, and it doesn’t seem to want to disappear. At night I have to remember how to sleep when it’s thirty degrees. Due to the heat, time lags and work hours crawl forward like snails, much more slowly than they did on cool days. Often I have to put my watch to my ear to make sure it hasn’t stopped. A difficult time lies ahead. I have no desire at all to stand on my feet breaking rocks, sweating while the hot sun beats down. Worst of all is the hot southerly wind, which doesn’t provide the least relief, and the water bottle is quite warm. I don’t have any appetite at mealtimes.

KERANG, 27.10.48, Wed

As it turned out, today the schoolmaster was going to a conference in Kerang and he told me there were two free seats in his car. I have to visit Kerang at least once, so without much ado Vik and I were standing by the big shop shortly before eight, and within the hour we were in Kerang. Of course, our first business was with the Employment Office. We explained how “bad” our situation is, complained about the “heavy” work and low wage, but nothing helped. Although he promised to do whatever was in his power and said that he will suggest a change in workplace to the government, he added that it will be very difficult to arrange. He said that in accordance with the contract we must work a full two years, and that he had grave doubts as to whether anything will eventuate concerning a change.

It seems that the only way to change jobs is to pack all our belongings and return to Bonegilla, but whether I would take such a stupid step, I doubt myself. After all it’s not that bad in the quarry, perhaps I will be able to survive the next year as well, only I’ll have to go much slower than I did this year. After all if I try, during the coming year I’ll be able to save two hundred pounds. I do want to go somewhere else, but you can’t have everything you want. After we left the old office building we wandered around town, bought a few items and found a few bars. By five we were seated in the car again driving home.

PYRAMID HILL, 30.10.48, Sat

One whole year has passed since I last rode in a German cattle car and since I took my last step on the European continent. Whether I will ever return is in the hands of Destiny. This anniversary really lends itself well to remembrance - it rained all afternoon. In the evening I rode to the café to play table tennis, and again the road splattered my bicycle with mud. I don’t know how I made it to Fred’s - I was drunk as a lord coming home

Vaclavs Kozlovskis in Pyramid Hill, August 1948, translated by Monika Kozlovskis

PYRAMID HILL, 1.8.48, Sun

I prayed for rain, but as usual when it’s needed it doesn’t arrive, and at ten minutes to two we left home, with me wondering how things will turn out. First of all we met Jan and Barreli going in the opposite direction. They told me to come to the tennis court straight away, and we kept walking. Velma and the other girls had already gathered and so we started playing basketball. Who knows, maybe everything will be all right, I told myself, because the first tennis court was taken and the other didn’t have a net. But unfortunately it wasn’t all right- after some ten minutes Jan and the other girl showed up and, looking in our direction, started putting the net up. I definitely had to go over there, but couldn’t think up a reason to leave. This reason came of its own accord, quite unexpectedly.

Apparently with my nervousness and poor playing I annoyed Velma a little - she went to the other end of the court, and sent the little lass in her place. If that’s how it is - I put Krysis in my place and walked over to the tennis court. I occupied many hours with the racquet and ball, and I must say that this game is better than any other I’ve played in Australia. In future I’ll have to stick with tennis. It doesn’t matter that Velma and the others are annoyed, sooner or later their anger will burn itself out, especially if it peaks next Sunday, when even Vytas is supposed to come and play tennis.

PYRAMID HILL, 8.8.48, Sun

I turned the calendar and judged by the date that the fierce southern wind, which rattles the Australian dentures every morning, is still supposed to be blowing. But not always does what’s written on paper coincide with the truth - an ever-clearer smile is beginning to appear on the sun’s face. Less and less she seeks cover behind the clouds, and more and more surely her warriors engage in combat, hurling brilliant boomerangs and incandescent spears to stab the quickly fleeing strength of winter.

We have sung many songs of praise of winter, and cursed summer too often, therefore these spears attack us too. It seems the time is near when the last of winter’s strength will be beaten, then the brilliant boomerangs and whitehot spears will turn their full force against us, leaving little white water blisters on our skin once more. The sun will smile widely as she tyrannises, while our sweat pours down and we search for relief in the waterhole’s brown water, waiting patiently until the next winter monarch invents an atom bomb and comes to deliver us again. My body weapons factory, with increasing tempo, is desperately attempting to convert my thick northern blood to thin southern blood, but this job, despite the urgency, is occurring damned slowly.

Today I rose at eight. Yesterday I had a drop too much, and as a result of the gin and beer I became completely stupid, but today like a miracle my head is quite clear. At ten thirty I said a few quiet prayers in the church, after that I had lunch with the local schoolmaster, who kindly invited me. He is a very nice person, which perhaps is the reason I feel so comfortable in his company. This afternoon I played tennis again, this time it turned out quite well. I was so carried away by the game that I returned home completely exhausted, but better acquainted with several pleasant people.

The longer I live here, the clearer it is to me that Australia really is becoming my home. Whether I want to or not, now and again I compare both countries, and each time I conclude that it’s better in Australia. What is waiting for me in my distant northern land if I return? Even in peace time it was difficult to find work, the wages were low and the living conditions weren’t much good. Could I earn a bicycle or a wireless there, in one month? And what’s wrong with living here? I don’t have to worry about finding a job, everything is cheap and abundant. Would it really be worthwhile to return now, or even later, to the wreckage, and begin my life all over again? I’m too old for that, and too tired of this constant starting up of new lives.

But despite everything, home is home; it will always pull me, and precious memories will always remain. After all, I spent my happiest childhood days there, and all my family is there. Will Destiny lead me back one day?

It seems as if the wheel of time is somehow turning awry, and all is not right with the change in weather, for on work days the sky is clear and the weather itself is fine without wind, but as soon as Saturday is here, then it’s usually raining. Today instead of rain, a fierce wind blew, considerably testing the strength of the papering inside my cabin. Although it’s difficult riding against the wind on bicycles, the three of us struggled to the tennis court, for after all, we’d promised to play. We had little hope of anyone else turning up, but miraculously a car soon drove up and out of it climbed four girls with their tennis racquets. Might as well: we started playing, but it was too difficult to control the ball in the strong wind, so after an hour we stopped our fruitless running after the balls that we hit over the fence.

On our way home we turned into the local pub for a few beers, but these “few beers” turned into a party, which continued on even after the pub’s formal closing time. By the time the pub’s doors were behind us, a huge swarm of bees had begun humming in my head. At the crossroads we met Jim’s wife, who said that next Saturday it’s her birthday, but she can’t have a party at her house, therefore she’d like to have it in our kitchen, and invited us as well.

PYRAMID HILL, 15.8.48, Sun

A huge wind is blowing again today, it’s a wonder as to when it will stop. I stayed home all day and pottered around. It’s cold and my head aches a little…

PYRAMID HILL, 21.8.48, Sat

From everything only sadness remains And pale dust and ashes, cover it all My hands are tired - I cannot light the fire My eyes are blinded - they are sore and cannot see. From everything only emptiness remains, And the ash from dying embers drifts onto the ground. What I longed for yesterday - today I don’t desire, The lips I pined for, the kiss will never come. From everything only disappointment remains. You ask yourself and wonder: was that reality? With a dim mirror you exchange glances Like Judas, hating yourself, as you tie a noose around your neck. Only emptiness, disappointment and sadness remain.

One after the other the days rush by, the weeks pass and the months are overlaid with the quilt of the past, and the powerful river of time is unstoppable. Her waters wash away all pain, joy and sorrow; all that remains is an empty person, who walks along the bank against the current, without peace. Another week has flowed past, and so I have also come closer to my own inevitable peace. The remaining months will also pass like this, and then from the Pyramid days as well, only memories, several photos in my album and words in my journal will remain….

After the usual tennis game and short rest at home, Vik and I half-emptied a liqueur bottle and went dancing in a light mood. I happened to dance with the dark-haired lass, and often my eyes met her dark twinkling ones, and her face screwed up in smiles. Can it really be that Fate plans to send her to Melbourne at the start of next month! That’s no good, then there will no longer be any girl left here who I really like. But nothing can be changed - the flow of Time’s river is unstoppable, and it never stops echoing : “From everything only emptiness, disappointment and sorrow remains…”

At tonight’s dance lottery tickets were being sold, this time for the Red Cross. I bought two; who knows, perhaps I’ll win a house, and settle into my life in earnest? The receipt I’ve taped into this book is testimony that I’ve posted two pounds as a payment on a dancing course. Although I now know almost all the local dances, it would still be worthwhile to learn them perfectly. It will be very interesting to see how I can learn by mail, without music or a partner?

PYRAMID HILL, 22.8.48, Sun

Oh, quiet church, your sombre, holy walls let me forget worldly things for a while; they enclose me in peace, why search anywhere else… and Mary, clothed in such a beautiful, holy dress! This afternoon I smiled back at the black-haired lass again as we played tennis. In the late afternoon an enormous wind blew up, driving before it a large pile of sand. The wind came from behind us, so we hastily began our ride home.

PYRAMID HILL, 24.8.48, Tues

Work is work, and play is play - tonight Vytas and I emptied the remaining liqueur and went dancing again. Of course, the liqueur wasn’t enough, and some beer and nice wine joined it from our friends’ direction, and with each glass my mood improved. As usual at a large dance, all the women were wearing long dresses, so it paid to be careful. The schoolmistress’s dress was so long that whether I wanted to or not, I couldn’t dance with her without treading on it, but should I worry about that? If she can’t wear a shorter dress, let her go home!

PYRAMID HILL, 31.8.48, Tues

It’s no good drinking on workdays like that - today I’m sleepy and my head aches. No work has been done in the quarry since the middle of last week because all the vehicles have broken down, so this morning I occupied myself with the old task of restacking the iron. This afternoon I finally returned to the peace of the quarry. The crusher isn’t working and the trucks don’t come, so we crawled into a corner while one of us went up to look out for the boss.

But the rogue obviously wasn’t being careful, for the boss swanned up completely unnoticed and immediately his “blessing” followed. Thus it turned out that we had to practically warn our sentry of the boss’s arrival.

While the boss was in the quarry we applied ourselves industriously, and continued production for an hour or so after he left, until it started raining, and we once more crawled under the shelter until work finished. Around five Father O’Connor came to visit us. He is a likeable man and knows the communists well; on Sunday he will hold a service for our loved ones and families.

This Australian wind is terrible - it comes from I know not where, blows, almost tips us off our feet and tries to wrench my cabin roof into the air. The buffeted cabin walls make the table shake so it’s difficult to write anything, the roof paper flaps, and all the cabin joints rattle.

From this page of Vaclavs' diary but from an unknown newspaper
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