Vladas Mituzas (1919-1956): An Early Death, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Rasa found a sad report in a May 1956 issue of the Lithuanian-Australia newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė: “Vladas Mituzas, aged 38, tragically ended his life in the Yarra River on 7 May. It seems that the deceased jumped from a city bridge into the river, seeking death”.

So what was Vladas' life like before this decision?

Vladislavas Mituzas was born on 7 April 1919 in Žagarė, Lithuania, to Jonas Mituzas and Zuzana, whose maiden name was Juknaitė. He finished high school, and apparently started studying at Vilnius University.

Vladas Mituzas' photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Migrant Experience

Documents from the Arolsen archive tell us that Vladas’ profession was bookkeeper and he spoke Lithuanian, German, and Latvian. He probably had learnt the Latvian from neighbours, since his hometown of Žagarė is on the Lithuanian-Latvian border.

Vladas had left Lithuania on his own, as shown by a 1946 message in the newspaper Žiburiai stating that he was looking for relatives and friends. At that time, he lived in Oldenburg.

At his interview for resettlement in Australia, Vladas must have talked about prior farming experience, as his potential occupation was recorded as “medium farmer”. As a bookkeeper studying at a university, he would have completed high school, but the interview records says only “5 years elementary school”.

He was selected to travel to Australia on the First Transport. His first residence in Australia, as for all the other passengers, was the newly opened Bonegilla migrant camp.

From 15 January 1948 to 23 January Vladas was in Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne. This probably was due to ill health or, perhaps, suspected tuberculosis (TB).

His first job in Australia was fruit-picking for Messrs Dundas Simpson of Ardmona, in northern Victoria, where he was sent with at least 180 others on 28 January 1948. This lasted for a good 6 weeks, as Vladas did not return to Bonegilla on 13 March 1948. Soon after, on 18 March, he was sent to Tasmania to pick more fruit – apples this time.

He immediately integrated into Tasmanian life, playing soccer for the South Launceston team, as reported by the local press in May and June. His integration should have been helped by the good English noted on his Bonegilla card.

At that time, he was probably happy, with hopes that his new life would be successful. We can say this because here is what is written about Vladas in a November 1948 publication from the Department of Immigration, Tomorrow’s Australians, under the title, Happy Picking Apples:

Lithuanian, Vladas Mituzas grins as he munches an apple while helping to harvest the crop at an orchard near Launceston, Tasmania.

“One of the many Balts employed by orchardists in the district, Mituzas is described by his employer as ‘well educated and an excellent worker’.

“A first class soccer player, Mituzas was selected to represent Tasmania in an interstate soccer carnival at Melbourne recently, but had to decline because of seasonal work.”

(In the past few years, Australians have been asked to call soccer by its international name of football instead, but problems can arise because there are 3 other codes of football played widely across the country.)

Vladas Mituzas and apple

Source:  Tomorrow's Australians

Alcohol was a problem for many of the early migrants who had survived World War II. Vladas was no exception.

On the same day that Tomorrow’s Australians was reporting his soccer success and his excellent apple-picking, the Hobart Mercury was reporting his appearance in the Launceston Police Court after being arrested for “having charge of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor”.

Vladas had been wheeling his motorcycle in Charles Street, Launceston, while drunk. He explained his behaviour by saying that, in his homeland, it was not an offence to wheel a cycle while drunk. He knew he had too much to drink, and was taking the machine to a garage until he sobered up.

A passing Dutchman had to be brought into the court to interpret proceedings for Vladas, despite that “good” English.  The irony of this situation and the headline used in the Mercury (Dutchman was Easy to Understand) is that, back then, Australians used to refer to anyone saying something they could not understand as speaking "double Dutch".

The judge said he was satisfied Mituzas thought he was not doing wrong, and placed him on a good behaviour bond for six months. The “interpreter” said Mituzas sorry for the offence, and when he wanted to come in from Lilydale again to have some drink, he would travel by bus. At that time, Vladas lived in Lilydale, an area about 27 km north of Launceston.

We know that he decided to sell the motorcycle in July 1949, because Rasa found in a notice that he wanted to get 75 pounds for it. The advertisement was in a Launceston newspaper, with his contact details being “c/o H. Wilson, Lilydale”. A record card kept by the South Australian Office of the Department of Immigration says that he spent some time in Hobart, working for Cadbury, Fry, Pascall, a confectionery manufacturer, as a labourer, presumably after Lilydale.

The card then has an East Richmond address in inner Melbourne for Vladas, without any dates or remarks about his workplace or type of work. From inner Melbourne he moved to the inner Sydney suburb of Paddington and to work in central Sydney, in the St James Hotel in Elizabeth Street.

The card has him notifying the Adelaide, South Australia, office of the Department of Immigration in November 1952 that he now was living on South Terrace, in the central city, while working on North Terrace, in the Botanic Hotel. His occupation was cook, something of a change for a former bookkeeper and fruit-picker.

He must have arrived in Adelaide before reporting as required under the Aliens Act, since the Australijos Lietuvis newspaper reported that, on 23 August 1952, the football team Vytis (Chase) has been joined by the famous football player Vladas Mituzas from Sydney. On 27 September Australijos Lietuvis recorded, “Last Sunday, Vytis football players easily defeated the Australian team, Woodville North. Goals were scored by Kitas (4), Mituzas (2) and Armonas (1)".

The next move was back to Melbourne, with the Adelaide Office of Immigration transferring its file on Vladas on 4 September 1953. We await access to more files in the National Archives of Australia to find out what happened next.

The announcement of Vladas Mituzas’ death in Melbourne in May 1956 noted that “at first (he) participated in the life of Lithuanian athletes. Later, he was not seen at all among Lithuanians. Those who knew him say that he was fond of alcohol.

“After getting a fever, he was in the hospital for 10 months and only shortly before his death was released from it, having lost half of his lungs.

“During the war and post-war period, the deceased had to survive many difficult hours, and this could have broken his morale.

“The deceased did not leave any savings”. It seems that the hat was passed around among those who knew him, as was the case for another drowning death — but accidental then — 8 years earlier, that of Aleksandras Vasiliauskas.

The obituarist guessed at Mituzas’ last thought in life: “let (this) life and death be a serious lesson to the living who follow a similar path”.

Alcoholism and depression were purely moral issues to this obituarist, clearly, not problems which could be alleviated with medical support. This view would have been widespread at the time though, and persists even today.

Mituzas was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery in the inner north suburb of Carlton, said the obituary. Sadly, the online search engine for Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, responsible for the Melbourne General Cemetery, cannot find him under his Mituzas last name, the Motuzas variant used by the obituarist, or either the long or short forms of his first name without a family name. Apart from this tribute and its sources, he appears to have become lost.

A decade after Vladas’ death, the Consulate-General of Lithuania in New York was looking for him in 1967. Its advertisement was published in three newspapers: Sandara in Chicago, Keleivis in Boston and Tėvynė in New York. Perhaps the search was being carried out at the request of relatives. If the search was tried in Australia, the family may have received their answer without the need for publication.

It was a pity that Vladas was separated from his family by circumstances beyond his control and was less fortunate than his older brother. Julius (1911-1999) lived in Lithuania as a Doctor of Physical Sciences who was a building materials specialist. He published more than 120 articles and patented 7 inventions. He had a wife and two children. The two brothers had completely different destinies.

CITE THIS AS:  Ščevinskienė,  Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Vladas Mituzas (1919-1956):  An Early Death'

SOURCES:

‘AEF DP Registration Record, Mituzas Vladas’, Folder DP2742, names from MITUKIEWICZ, Wiktoria to MYZEQARI, Andrea, DocID: 68318293, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68318293, and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68318294, accessed 7 October 2026.

Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1952) ‘Futbolas’ (‘Football’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 30 August, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280312004, accessed 7 October 2026.

Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1952) ‘Futbolas’ (‘Football’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 27 September, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280312637, accessed 7 October 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Vladas Mituzas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203899158, accessed 6 October 2026.

Elektroninis Archyvų Informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archives Information System), ‘Joniškio dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Joniškis deanery’, in Lithuanian), New Žagarė church birth Record 25, 1919.04.07, p 177 https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267630300/275710919/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=177, accessed 6 October 2026.

Elektroninis Archyvų Informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archives Information System), ‘Joniškio dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Joniškis deanery’, in Lithuanian) New Žagarė church birth record 65, 1911.04.27, p 54 https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267629677/275689986/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=54, accessed 7 October 2026.

Examiner (1948) ‘Soccer, Seniors’ Launceston, Tas, 8 May, p 14 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/52635583, accessed 6 October 2026.

Examiner (1948) ‘Today’s Teams, Soccer’ Launceston, Tas, 17 July, p 13 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/52642552, accessed 6 October 2026.

Keleivis (Traveller) (1967) ‘Konsulato Ieškomi‘ (‘Wanted by Consulate’, in Lithuanian) South Boston, MA, 15 March p 5 https://spauda.org/keleivis/archive/1967/1967-03-15-KELEIVIS.pdf, accessed 7 October 2026.

Mercury (1948) ‘Dutchman was easy to understand’ Hobart, Tas, 9 November, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27771241, accessed 6 October 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1956) ‘Melbournas, Tragiška Tautiečio Mirtis’ (‘Tragic death of a compatriot’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 23 May, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1956/1956-05-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 7 October 2026.

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; 601, MITUZAS Vladas DOB 7 April 1919, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005832, accessed 7 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; MITUZAS VLADAS, MITUZAS Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1952 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9196162, accessed 6 October 2026.

Sandara (The League) (1967) ‘Prašaini Atsiliepti’ (‘Please Respond’, in Lithuanian) Chicago, IL, 17 March, p 3 https://spauda2.org/sandara/archive/1967/1967-03-17-SANDARA.pdf, accessed 7 October 2026.

Saturday Evening Express (1949) ‘Classified advertisements, Motors, Cycles, Trailers For Sale and Exchange’ Launceston, Tas, 16 July, p 15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/265142734, accessed 6 October 2026.

Tėvynė (Homeland) (1967) ‘Paieškojimai‘ (‘Searches’ in Lithuanian) New York, NY, 7 April, p 3 https://spauda.org/tevyne/archive/1967/1967-04-07-TEVYNE.pdf, accessed 7 October 2026.

Tomorrow’s Australians (1948) ‘Happy Picking Apples’ Canberra, ACT, 9 November, p 8 https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2821961846/view?sectionId=nla.obj-2858970525, accessed 6 October 2026.

Vikipedija, Laisvoji Enciklopedija ‘Julius Mituzas’ https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Mituzas, accessed 7 October 2026.

Žiburiai (Lights) (1946) ‘Paieškojimai’ (‘Searches’ in Lithuanian) Augsburg, Germany, 27 July, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-07-27-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 6 October 2026.

Zigmas Griganavičius (1927-2016): Another Who Left for America, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Zigmas Griganavicius’ Bonegilla card records that he was sent to Mount Gambier in South Australia, on 9 January 1948, to work with the State Department of Woods and Forests there. He was one of a group of at least 32 sent there.

He must have taken one look at Mount Gambier and the work expected, and turned around. He was back at the Bonegilla camp 6 days later, on 15 January.

There is nothing on his selection for Australia file to indicate why he might have found what was expected of him so difficult. He was young, having 5 months before turned only 20. The interviewers judge him suitable for heavy labour. At 5 feet 10 inches (1.8 metres) tall and weighing 180 pounds (82 kilos), according to his Bonegilla card, he should have been sturdy enough.

Zigmas Griganavičius photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Migrant Experience

He had 4 years of primary education only, so he was unlikely to be looking for a more skilled job — or so it seemed at the time.  Could he have decided to move away from a personal issue?

Six weeks later, another job was found for him. He was sent back to South Australia, to Mr RO Burgh of Clare, to pick fruit. The Clare name will be very well known to Australian wine drinkers, so he may have been helping with the grape harvest. At the time, but no longer, the Clare region also was a major producer of fruits for drying, such as apricots in addition to suitable grapes.

Clare must have been kinder to Zigmas than Mount Gambier, because his next job, according to a card kept by the Department of Immigration, Adelaide Office, was with the South Australian Railways (SAR) based in Clare.

At some stage in 1949 he was sent to Leigh Creek, 400 km north of Clare, to work as a tractor driver for another State instrumentality, the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA). Leigh Creek was known for the mining of brown coal then used to generate the State’s electricity – in a State which now has generates three-quarters of its electricity from renewables, wind and solar.

The Department of Immigration card records that he was released from his “two year” contract to work where sent on the same date as most others from the First Transport, on 30 September 1949.

It also records that his personal file was sent to the Department’s Melbourne Office on 10 October 1950, indicating that Zigmas had moved there also.

We next come across Zigmas on the occasion of his marriage, on 7 April 1956, to Ramūnė Elena Barkutė. The wedding was celebrated in the church of St John the Evangelist in East Melbourne. As explained in this blog’s entry for Napoleonas Butkūnas, this church had been adopted by Melbourne’s Lithuanian community. The entry for Antanas Varapnickas points out that this may have been because a priest called Pranas Vaseris had moved there.

The Barkus family was well known to Melbourne’s Lithuanian residents since Liudas Barkus was actively involved in various committees of the time.

Zigmas became an Australian citizen on 11 December 1957, when living on Earl Street, in Melbourne’s inner southeast suburb of Windsor. Only one electoral roll with his details has been digitised by Ancestry. It’s a 1963 roll showing him now living on Clayton Road, Clayton, when this was a new, outer suburb of southeast Melbourne. He was working as a wood machinist. Ramune had become an Australian by then too and was working as a clerk, telling us that she was highly literate in English.

There’s only one digitised roll because two years later, the family left Australia for life in the United States. They departed on 18 June 1965. In its issue of 5 July 1965, Mūsų Pastogė reported that, in a letter written from a ship in Sydney Harbour, Zigmas and Ramunė regretted that they were not able to say goodbye to all of their family members due to the illness of their children. They were planning to start their American life with a stopover in Chicago.

Zigmas was born to Ona, previously Pukaitė, and her husband, Juozas Griganavičius, on 12 August 1927. He was born in the Riklikai village in the Ukmergė district. This was recorded on one of those American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) DP Registration Records that we are so fortunate to have still in the Arolsen Archives. His usual occupation was recorded as mokinys, Lithuanian for student. This makes sense when you consider that he was only 12 years old when Germany invaded neighbouring Poland to start World War II during his summer holidays from school.

Rasa has found an online database for notable residents of Anykščiai, a winter resort city about 100 km due north of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, if more by road. One of those notable people is an Albertas Griganavičius, whose parents happen to be Ona and Juozapas (the long from of Juozas). His brother Zigmas was born in 1927, like our Zigmas.

Albertas in described in an English translation as “Physician, civic activist, memoirist”. Later, the biography mentions that Albertas was a board member of the Lithuanian Neurosurgeons Society. Yes, a brain surgeon, if not a rocket scientist …

There were 5 children in this family altogether. The eldest, Petras (1923-2001) is described as a mechanical engineer and emigrant in Chicago. The next in age is Vytautas (1925-2008), who became a priest. Zigmas was the middle child. Next came Marija (b 1931), with the married name of Stalioraitienė, who became a medical professional. Albertas, born in 1934, died in 2015.

The database finds nearly 8,000 words to say about Albertas, when translated into English, including a few about his family. That’s much more than we are going to devote to Zigmas here, but we are now not surprised if Zigmas reacted badly to finding that he was expected to spend the next 2 years chopping down trees.

Juozapas or Juozas was a farmer, manager of the Svirnai manor farm and chairman of the Kavarskas parish committee. The Web describes Svirnai manor as a historic estate in the Anykščiai District, first recorded in 1593. Its ownership fluctuated frequently between different families until the 19th century, when the Tanski family acquired it. They were aristocrats originally from the Mazovia region of Poland. From 1944, with the Soviet invasion, the estate belonged to the State, of course, and probably became a collective farm or part of one.

Ona was no mere housewife and mother, either. The biography of her youngest son describes her as an educator, civic activist, and a tretininkė, a Catholic layperson who followed a rule of life approved by the Church. In addition to such devotions as daily prayers and fasting, the life focusses heavily on charity, community service, and helping the poor.

The influence of his family on Zigmas might have made him much happier helping with a harvest, probably a frequent activity in Lithuania, than doing what was expected of him first in Australia.

Remembering that Petras was described as a mechanical engineer in Chicago, he may well have felt much more settled into his preferred profession than Zigmas felt while working as a wood machinist in Melbourne. Petras may have offered to help his brother find more satisfying work. While Ramūnė had family in Melbourne, Zigmas’ family in Chicago must have won the discussions.

In Albertas’ biography, Zigmas is described as a businessman in Chicago. He had moved to the Los Angeles district before he committed himself to becoming an American citizen on 17 September 1976.

The witnesses to his petition to naturalization swore that they had known him since 1971, indicating when he and his family might have left Chicago.

Various entries in Ancestry and Newspapers.com do not tell us much more about Zigmas than some changes of address. We do not know what business this “businessman” was conducting, or if he moved to another line of work.

There is confirmation of Ramune’s death on 20 February 2005, when she was only 68. She had been born in Lithuania in 1936, so was only 20 at the time of her marriage and 7 years younger than Zigmas. They had two sons, Victor and Edward in the English spelling, the children who were sick when the family sailed from Sydney Harbour. All of this is in an obituary published in the Los Angeles Times on 27 February 2005.

According to an entry on the Find A Grave Website, Zigmas died on Christmas Day in 2016, yet the photograph of the plaque for Ramune and Zigmas is blank where his details ought to be. The plaque tells us the Ramune preferred her middle name of Elena. There is no accessible evidence elsewhere in support of the death date for Zigmas. He was to be buried with her in the Laurel Cemetery, Murrieta, Riverside County, California.

The Griganavicius plaque in the Laurel Cemetery, with Zigmas' birth details only.

Source:  Find A Grave

If accurate, he had passed his 89th birthday at the time of his death. He had been lost to Australia, though, for more than 50 years.

SOURCES

‘AEF DP Registration Record, Griganavičius, Zigmas’ Folder DP1297, names from GRIGAL, ALBERT to GRYGIENCZA, Michal (2), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from G, DocID 67239918, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67239918, accessed 5 October 2026.

Anykštėnų biografijų žinynas (Biographical Directory of People from Anykščiai, in Lithuanian) ‘Albertas Griganavičius’ https://www.anykstenai.lt/asmenys/asm_print.php?id=113, accessed 6 October 2026.

Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980, ‘Zigmas Griganavicius’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1207/records/91133150?tid=&pid=&queryId=31519525-0f15-4e34-8679-740afa5e3900&_phsrc=mmH97&_phstart=successSource, accessed 6 October 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Zigmas Griganavicius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203643701, accessed 6 October 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 1 May, p 1362 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240891896/25975951, accessed 5 October 2026.

Find A Grave, ‘Zigmas Griganavicius’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174887914/zigmas-griganavicius, accessed 6 October 2026.

Los Angeles Times (2005) ‘Obituaries, Funeral Announcements, Griganavicius, Elana Ramune’ https://www.newspapers.com/image/192635355/?article=5299ff31-f626-457b-98cc-52114ee0ed77&focus=0.26300535,0.21829554,0.38208008,0.3228447&xid=3355, accessed 6 October 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1956) ‘Nauja Lietuviska Seima’ (‘New Lithuanian Family’, in Lithuania) Sydney, NSW, 2 May, p4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259365600, accessed 6 October 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1965) ‘Kiek As Sužinojau!’ (‘As far as I know’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 5 July, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1965/1965-07-05-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 6 October 2026.

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; 540, GRIGANAVICIUS Zigmas DOB 12 August 1927, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005777, accessed 6 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; GRIGANAVICIUS ZIGMAS, GRIGANAVICIUS Zigmas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7199430, accessed 6 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; GRIGANAVICIUS ZIGMAS, GRIGANAVICIUS, Zigmas : Year of Birth - 1927 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 914, 1947-1949 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203643701, accessed 6 October 2026.

US, Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) ‘Zigmas Griganavicius’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1629/records/7943978?tid=&pid=&queryId=a91a67c2-25b6-44ce-8707-e756664dff1a&_phsrc=bUj251&_phstart=successSource, accessed 6 October 2026.

Wikipedia ‘Leigh Creek, South Australia’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Creek,_South_Australia, accessed 5 October 2026.

Viknius brothers: Cyclone Tracy victim and his long-lived brother, Petras and Antanas, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Petras Viknius (1925-1974)

Cyclone Tracy is remembered still as one of the most devastating weather events to impact Australia. Sixty-six people were killed by it, including a First Transport arrival, Petras Viknius. Petras was been injured badly during the cyclone on Christmas Day 1974, and died 6 days later, the last day of the year. He was aged only 49.

Damage caused by Cyclone Tracy in the Darwin suburb of Wagaman:
in the foreground, whole houses have been wiped off their elevated foundations

Source:  National Museum of Australia

He had been born in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 2 October 1925 and recorded as having “fled from (the) Russian regime” to Germany when being interviewed for resettlement in Australia 22 years later. The interview record shows that he had completed 6 years of elementary schooling, plus 4 years of an apprenticeship to become a motor mechanic.

Petras Viknius from his 1947 selection papers for resettlement in Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

From the Bonegilla camp, he was one of the 64 or 65 men sent to Adelaide to work for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) in early January 1948. He seems to have escaped from the group’s Bedford Park camp before his “two-year” work contract was over. In June 1949, he was admitted to hospital after his motorcycle collided with a car in the Adelaide suburb of Thebarton. His address in 2 newspaper reports of the accident was given as Cowandilla Road, Cowandilla, another Adelaide suburb.

Cowandilla Road, Cowandilla, also was the address from which he advertised his urgent need for a flat, rooms or a caravan for a young couple with one child in September 1949. The advertisement appeared in the Southern Cross, a newspaper published by the Catholic Church in South Australia. Presumably Petras was the male of the young couple.

If his contract with the Federal Government to work where sent had ended normally, it would have finished on 30 September 1949. We note that the newspaper reports of his accident describe his occupation as motor mechanic. 

It would be nice to think that he had returned to his preferred occupation but, instead, a record card kept by the Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration suggests that he was employed as a labourer.  His employers, with the date of notification of each omitted, were the Highways Department at Murray Bridge, on the border with Victoria, HW & LG Kiswick of the former Adelaide suburb of Grassmere (now part of Kurralta Park), and Hume Steel of neighbouring Keswick.

By July 1950, Petras had moved to Milner Street, Richmond, and was working for R Mitchell and Company.  Google Maps suggests that the home address should have been recorded as Milner Road, Richmond.

In August 1951, Petras and his motorcycle had another meeting with the authorities. This time he was arrested for riding it “while so much under the influence of intoxicating liquor as to be incapable of exercising effective control”. In November that year, he was fined £30 with £7/16/- costs and suspended from holding a driver’s licence for nine months for the offence. Another charge, of having driven without due care, was dropped.

Just before the court appearance, in October 1951, Petras had reported that he still was living on Milner Street or Road but his new employer was the Wiles Manufacturing Company of Manchester Street, Mile End.  He lived maybe than half a mile (0.8 km) from his workplace.

Since Petras’ occupation at this time was given as Driver, the loss of his licence for 9 months must have had a major effect on his income. It could explain his change of occupation to Tradesman Assistant during January 1952 to November 1954 at Radium Hill, as recorded by Daina Pocius in her Australian Lithuanian History blog.

The Department of Immigration's record card confirms Petras' move to Radium Hill at that time, with a starting date of 29 January 1952.  

Radium Hill was Australia’s first uranium mine, worked between 1926 and 1931 on top of some older activity. After the SA Department of Mines commenced further exploration there in 1946, with a town developed, with a population of 1100 to 1200 peaking in the late 1950s. The mine was closed in 1961 and the town was deserted.

Petras' next move was reported as of 13 January 1955. It was to Hume Steel again — but in Hobart.  The residential address was reported as being on Orchard Grove, Springfield.  The street name and suburb no longer exist, but a Web search tells us that the Hobart suburb was incorporated into West Moonah.  The Hume Steel works were not in suburban Hobart, but 30 minutes drive along the Derwent River in New Norfolk.

The commuting time might have been one reason why this interstate transfer did not work.  There may well have been personal reasons as well.  Petras was back in South Australia only 3 months later or less.  This time his workplace was that of W Brown & Sons in Hindmarsh, where his occupation was noted as furnaceman.  He was living about 10 km away, on South Terrace, Plympton Park, still involving commuting but perhaps only 18 minutes' drive.

In October 1955, it was back to the courts again, this time to be found guilty of being drunk while driving.  This offence was added to the Department of Immigration's record card.

Since this was Australia, the drink driving could be overlooked for a citizenship application.  Petras became an Australian citizen on 5 April 1956, so 8 years after he had arrived.

That’s all we know of Petras’ life in Australia until it was ended by Cyclone Tracy striking Darwin, the Northern Territory’s capital city. In addition to killing 66, it injured hundreds and destroyed about 80 per cent of the city. Those who could left the city in its aftermath. In February 1975, the Australian Government established the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, which rebuilt the city in three years. The near-complete destruction of Darwin led to the introduction of improved building codes across Australia.

The plaque on Petras' burial place in Darwin:
the last line is Lithuanian for Rest in Peace

Source:  nataliegoes on Find A Grave

Presumably Petras’ relationship with the mother of one child had ended some time earlier, since it is only his brother in Hobart who gets a mention of the plaque marking his Darwin burial place.

The brother in Hobart, Antanas Viknius, in a photo supplied for 
his selection to migrate to Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Antanas Viknius (1918-1997)

The brother in Hobart was Antanas, 7 years older, who also came to Australia on the 1947 voyage of the General Stuart Heintzelman. Born in 1918, he was above the average passenger age of 24, which may be why had had to wait until late January 1948 for his first work assignment in Australia. 

We note that Australian documents on Antanas, plus his grave plaque, give his birth year as 1917 or a date of 30 July 1917.  The definitive document is a church record in Lithuania, which clearly shows Antanas being born to Antanas Viknius and his wife, Barbora, on 30 July 1918.

Antanas was one of the fruit-picking team sent to Messrs Dundas Simson of Ardmona.  He lasted there for more than 2 months, returning to the Bonegilla camp on 10 April.  Twelve days later, he was one of the 18 men sent to Railton, Tasmania, to work for the Goliath Portland Cement Company.

Antanas looks much more worn and older than his years
in this photo taken during October-December 1947 for his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

In From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, Ramūnas Tarvydas reports that their initial accommodation was shared huts in Goliath's single men's camp. The company soon built more huts from timber frames clad in “fibro cement” sheets made by Goliath. A folding iron bed, a mattress and a couple of blankets were provided to each man. Goliath then gave the men wood for making more furniture, but no tools. It eventually gave in on the question of tools, after which Antanas Viknius made the first set of furniture, to be copied by the others.

Thanks to Stephen Niaura, son of Povilas, Ann has a set of what are believed to be notes on the men compiled by Goliath for Ramūnas’ use. They show Antanas as one of 12 men who either “absconded” on a known date or “left of own accord”. Antanas and an Estonian, Endel Uduste, “absconded” on 28 February 1949, perhaps leaving Railton together.

In an earlier entry for this blog on the life of Endrius Jankus, we noted that Ramūnas’ book discusses 5 Lithuanians who decided that they had signed a contract with the Australian Government to work where sent for one year only and were not party to the decision, made while they were sailing to Australia, to change this to 2 years. Ramūnas reports on the 5 Lithuanians who had left Railton early in 1949, to whom presumably Endel Uduste should be added. The Lithuanians are known to have found various new jobs in Melbourne, where they were tracked down by the CES and sent letters directing them to return to Tasmania.

Failure to follow the direction would lead to deportation, the letters said.

Until the National Archives of Australia grants access to the file of papers relating to Antanas’ application to become an Australian citizen, we won’t know the likely details of what happened next.   From another file we do know that the date of grant was 3 October 1955, that is nearly 8 years after Antanas' 28 November 1947 arrival.

At the time of the grant, Anatanas was living in Springfield, presumably the Hobart suburb (there now being another Springfield closer to Launceston), but not at the Orchard Grove address given by his brother earlier in 1955.  Still, Petras might have boarded with his brother and family during his brief stay in Tasmania.

Antanas gave a sanitised account of his life in Australia to a Lithuanian-American newspaper in 1975, so more than 25 years after the events.  At the time, he and a daughter, Barbara, were visiting another brother who had settled in Chicago.  

Bronius Aušrotas in Dirva (Field) reported that “after completing a one-year employment contract”, Antanas got a job with a car company in Melbourne. He had to leave that job and return to Hobart, supposedly due to strikes. He remembered his first difficult years of work, including in a paint factory, until he finally learned a little English and got acquainted with the local business and living conditions.

Being talented and knowing those conditions, Antanas dared to start a risky job as a self-employed house builder. Although he had one setback, he did not lose courage and continued in the same line of work. Finally, he had managed to sell one house after another and earned enough not only managed to provide for his future but also saved enough to "throw away" about 8,000 Australian dollars for this trip.

Since Antanas was travelling with his daughter, that future presumably included a family as well.

We saw above the Antanas’ brother in Australia, Petras, had died at the end of the previous year from the injuries he received during Darwin’s Cyclone Tracy.  Although Antanas gave his reasons for travelling to America as wishing to visit his brother and friends from Lithuanian days, as well as show another country and way of life to Barbara, perhaps there was an element of doing something about his grief in the timing.  He certainly discussed his brother’s accidental death with Bronius.

Another event which doubtless caused some grief but which was omitted for the talk with Bronius was a housefire which Antanas and family experienced in May 1954.  During that fire, he lost his previous identity papers, which explains how we know about it on a Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Office, file.

We already have come across the 1933 visit to Lithuania of the founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, with his wife and a contingent of 650 British Scouts and Guides, when we learned about the life of Viktoras Žeimys.  Antanas and a friend he missed from those days, V Bacevičius, now a photographer, were members together of the Darius and Girėnas scout troop in Kaunas.  If you do not remember the story of airmen Darius and Girėnas, we have more in the life of Nikodemas Skidzevičius.

During the Baden-Powell visit, Viknius and Bacevičius had been selected to help with the catering.  They had so much work to do that they could not escape the field kitchen to mingle with the British visitors.  Decades later though, meeting together in the United States, they could reminisce about the day.  They could reminisce about how the President of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, and the founder of Scouting had drunk together at the Palanga airfield the coffee that Viknius and Bacevičius had brewed.

Scouts reunite 42 years later: 
Antanas Viknius (centre) with V Bacevičius from Cleveland OH
and S Ilgūnas from Rochester, NY

Source:  Skautu Aidas

Photographer Bacevičius recorded another meeting which Antanas had with a friend from 1933, V Kizlaitis.  The emotions at this meeting must have been very mixed, since it took place outside the Cleveland, Ohio, premises of the Dirva (Field) newspaper which had been devastated by fire on 30 July 1975.  The printing press, other equipment, and extensive historical archives of a periodical founded 60 years earlier, in August 1915, had been completely destroyed.

V Kizlaitis with Antanas Viknius in front of the burnt Dirva building, mid-1975

Photographer:  V Bacevičius for Darbininkas (Worker)

Kizlaitis was an employee of the newspaper who lived on the premises, so he too had lost almost everything in the fire. At the time of the fire, Dirva was being published twice a week; we understand that it is still being published on the reduced schedule of twice a month. It did recover from the fire, and we have to hope the V Kizlaitis did also.

Antanas’ Mūsų Pastogė obituary by Steponas Augustavičius, in 1997, discussed his personal life. He had been married already in Lithuania, to Genovaitė Varaneckaitė in April 1939, but his wife and young daughter remained there when he found himself in Germany at the end of WWII.

According to the Dirva interview, Antanas had witnessed the surrender of the German forces to the Allies near Hamburg and found sanctuary in the Hanseatic German town of Buxtehude from 1945 to 1947.  This is contrary to what Steponas wrote, but the account from the man himself should be preferred.

Steponas' obituary noted that Antanas had joined the Lithuanian army when he was aged 20.   After his period of service, he moved to the army reserve as a non-commissioned officer. During the German occupation of Lithuania, he had worked in the Legion Speer as a truck driver.  His employment by the Legion Speer is confirmed by a card now in the Arolsen Archives, which also gives his wife’s address in February 1944.

The Legion Speer was a paramilitary motor transportation corps founded in 1942 and disbanded in September 1944.  The drivers and mechanics who were its members were non-German citizens, recruited in occupied Europe.  They provided motor vehicle transportation and logistical support for Organisation Todt, a civil and military engineering organisation.  While the German word for “death” is “Tod”, in this case, the Organisation Todt was named after its founder, Fritz Todt.

In Germany after the War, he had continued to work as a driver.  This time it was for the relief organisation, UNRRA, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

As Buxtehude was in the British zone of occupied Germany, and Britain had suffered greatly during the War, so that the zone residents were much worse off than those in the American zone, it was no surprise that Antanas grabbed the first opportunity to move on to resettlement during the northern autumn of 1947.

While in Railton, Antanas fell in love with a 19-year-old local, Beverley Best. He knew that his wife and daughter were alive still in Lithuania, so he could not marry her. Instead, Beverley married another Lithuanian from the First Transport sent to Railton, Henrikas Surkevičius.

Meanwhile, Kazys Alseika asked his shipmate, Antanas, to be groomsman when he married Marcia Ina Paul in Hobart on 5 January 1950.  The wedding made the social pages of the Hobart Mercury newspaper, on 28 February 1950, under the heading of Some Recent Tasmanian Weddings.

After he found out that Genovaitė had died, Antanas married a Scottish migrant to Australia, with whom he had 2 daughters, Barbara and Katrina.

In the Eiguliai cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania, the 1957 grave of Barbora Viknienė (born in 1873) bears a handwritten plaque which says that her son, Antanas, is grieving for her. It is clear that Barbara is named after her grandmother.

The grave of Barbora Viknienė in Kaunas

The handwriten plaque which informs visitors that 
Antanas Viknius in Australia grieves for his mother

Source for both photographs:  Cemety.lt

Henrikas Surkevičius died quite early, in 1964, after only 16 years in Australia.  We hope to have more about him soon.   Antanas’ second wife died also, after which he and Beverley got together again.  During this time, he was able to visit Lithuania and his daughter there, Regina, after at least 47 years of separation.

As his health deteriorated, Beverly took care of him.  Death came on 9 December 1997. A funeral mass for Antanas in St. Teresa's Church in the Hobart suburb of Moonah was celebrated by Father Terry Bowman.  About 40 of Antanas' friends and acquaintances gathered in the church, near the tricolor-draped coffin.

The farewell words were spoken by Ramūnas Tarvydas, the chairman of the Australian Lithuanian Community, Hobart District, whom we have come across already as the author of From Amber Coast to Apple Isle.  The mass readings were by Judy Tarvydienė.

After the mass, everyone sang the Lithuanian National Anthem.  Antanas was buried in the Hobart Regional Cemetery in Kingston, near several other Lithuanians.  Eleven gathered at the grave.  Father Terry read the funeral prayers, then all poured a handful of earth onto the coffin.  Beverly poured a handful of earth that Antanas had brought back from Lithuania.

Whoever was responsible for the plaque on Antanas’ gravestone seems to have been carried away by his brothers, naming one of them also as Antanas and 2 as Petras.   His mother’s name is not spelled in the Lithuanian fashion but instead as Barbara, while the plaque confirms other sources, such as his birth record, that give his father’s name as Antanas.  The brother Joseph probably is Juozapas or Juozas for short, the one he visited in Chicago in 1975.

Another inaccuracy on Antanas' elaborate grave plaque
is the wrong year of birth
Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

By late 1997, Antanas’ family included not only the 2 daughters and a grandson, Darius, mentioned in his obituary, but also at least one member of the next generation, a great great grandchild.

Omitted was a sister, who got a mention without being named in a March 1989 issue of Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), when she was visiting from Lithuania.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1951) ‘Law Courts, Country, Mallala, Fined £30’ Adelaide, SA, 20 November, p 11 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45778864, accessed 27 September 2026.

Augustavičius, Steponas (1998) ‘A.a. Antanas Viknius‘ (‘In memoriam Antanas Viknius’) Mūsų Pastogė Sydney, NSW, 19 January, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1998/1998-01-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Aušrotas, Bronius (1975) ‘Nuo Tasmanijos iki Juno Beach Floridoje ...’ (‘From Tasmania to Juno Beach, Florida …’, in Lithuanian) Dirva (Field), Cleveland, OH, 23 July, p 2 https://spauda.org/dirva/archive/n1975/1975-07-23-DIRVA.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Australian Cemetery Index 'Inscription 7789283 - Petras Viknius' https://www.austcemindex.com/inscription?id=7789283, accessed 29 September 2026.

Australian Lithuanian History, Radium Hill 1951 to 1956, ‘Adults of Radium Hill 1951 – 1961’ https://salithohistory.blogspot.com/2008/07/, accessed 27 September 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Antanas Viknius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203719798, accessed 27 September 2026. [Note that this and other Australian documents give the wrong birth year, which should be 1918.]

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection, ‘Petras Viknius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203719799, accessed 27 September 2026.

Cemety ‘Barbora Viknienė’ https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1667393?type=deceased, accessed 27 September 2026.

Darbininkas (Worker) (1975) [No title] Brooklyn, NY, 22 August, p 4 https://spauda.org/darbininkas/archive/1975/1975-08-22-DARBININKAS.pdf, accessed 28 September 2026.

Draugas (Friend) (1975) ‘Iš Arti ir Toli, Australijoje‘ (‘From Near and Far, In Australia’, in Lithuanian) Chicago, IL, 22 July 1975, p 6 https://draugas.org/archive/1975_reg/1975-07-22-DRAUGAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Electronic Archives Information System, ‘VIKNIENĖ JURGEVIČIŪTĖ Barbora’ https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext/view/424417841, accessed 27 September 2026.

Elektroninis Archyvų Informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archives Information System), 'Kauno dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Register of Birth Records of the Churches of the Kaunas Deanery’, in Lithuanian), Record 140, 1918.07.30, p 163 https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267358658/280456150/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=163, accessed 27 September 2026.

ePaveldas, (1939) ‘Kauno Švč. Trejybės RKB santuokos metrikų knyga’ (‘Kaunas Trinity Church Roman Catholic Marriage Register’, in Lithuanian) Record 55, 10 April, p 8 https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=1428%2F1%2F74&wr=76, accessed 27 September 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Antanas Viknius’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212745761/antanas-viknius, accessed 27 September 2026.

Kantvilas, Aleksandras (1975) ‘Tasmanijos Padangėje‘ (‘Under the Tasmanian Sky’) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 30 June, p 8 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1975/1975-06-30-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Mail, (1949) ‘Motor cyclist hurt’ Adelaide, SA, 25 June, p 48 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55922859?searchTerm=viknius, accessed 26 September 2026.

Mercury (1950) 'Some Recent Tasmanian Weddings’ Hobart, Tas, 28 February, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26686218, accessed 27 September 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1975) ‘Kronika’ (‘Chronicle’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 3 February, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1975/1975-02-03-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1988) ‘Hobarte‘ (‘In Hobart‘, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 15 August, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1988/1988-08-15-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

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; 330, VIKNIUS Petras DOB 2 April 1925, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118036, accessed 29 September 2026.

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; 849, VIKNIUS Antanas born 30 July 1917, 1947 - 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4695244, accessed 29 September 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; VIKNIUS PETRAS, VIKNIUS Petras - Nationality: Lithuanian Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7182085, accessed 2 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1184, Registration papers for non-British migrants, lexicographical series, 1949-1966; VIKNIUS A, VIKNIUS Antanas [Antonas] [Lithuanian], 1947-1955 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1915253, accessed 2 October 2026.

‘Part 44’, 2.2.3.1 Card file of the "Organisation Todt" / File cards of foreigners who were deployed by the OT/Speer, 12.7.1934, 16.1.1941, DocID 77189402, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/77189402, accessed 27 September 2026.

Skautu Aidas (Scout Echo) (1975) ‘Po 40 M. Susitiko Buv. Dariaus Ir Girėno Draugovės Skautai‘ (‘Former Scouts of the Darius and Girėnas Troop Reunited After 40 Years’, in Lithuanian) Chicago, IL, September, p 19 https://spauda2.org/skautu_aidas/archive/1975/1975-Nr07-SKAUTU-AIDAS.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Southern Cross (1949) ‘Flats & Rooms Wanted’ Adelaide, SA, 16 September, p 14 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167726608?searchTerm=%22viknius%22, accessed 27 September 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1989) ‘Vasario 16-tosios minėjimas Hobarte‘ (’16 February Commemoration in Hobart’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 21 March, p 6 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1989/1989-03-21-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 September 2026.

Wikipedia 'Dirva' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirva, accessed 28 September 2026.

Wikipedia 'United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Relief_and_Rehabilitation_Administration, accessed 28 September 2026.

Aleksas Gabecas (1922-2013): Creative Sportsman, By Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

We already have come across Aleksas Gabecas (often shortened to Gabas) in several guises, as one of the first 12 Displaced Persons sent to Rosebery in Tasmania to cut paths through the bush for geologists, as a Rover Scout, as a writer reporting on the trip to Australia and the first few weeks here, as an artist who illustrated that report with his own cartoons and as crew for Jonas Lipsius’ shark-fishing venture off the Victorian coast.

When we look further, we can see that a man of many more talents who lived a long and doubtless interesting life.

Aleksas, as he was first known in Australia, was from the northern Lithuanian city of Šiauliai. He had been born there on 21 September 1922, to Danielius Gabecas and the former Juzė Urbietytė. They had another son, Viktoras, on 11 May 1926.

Aleksas’ willingness to crew for Jonas Lipsius might be explained by the establishment of a sailing club in Šiauliai by the Lithuanian aviation pilot Stasys Bulota (1913–1982). The club had about 40 sailors, including 19-year-old Aleksas and younger brother Viktoras. On 11 February 1944, by Resolution No. 204 of the Lithuanian Sailing Union, Aleksas was recognized as a third-rank yacht captain with the right to lead a yacht in local water races.

Aleksas wrote in his memoirs (not available to the public at this time) that from 1942, together with O Truchanas and other Šiauliai sailors, he often sailed on the Lake Rėkyva and participated in regattas.

Olympic-class dinghies on Lake Rėkyva, 1943, ready for a regatta

Source:  Interwar Siauliai Sports History Pages

Would that O Truchanas be Olegas Truchanas, born in Šiauliai one year after Aleksas, and later famed in Australia as a nature photographer and conservationist? Returning to the records of the Šiauliai sailing club (Interwar Siauliai Sports History Pages, in the Sources below), yes, the Olegas who sailed with Aleksas was born in 1923 and died in 1972, so he would be the Olegas who found fame in Australia.

Aleksas’ youth in Šiauliai also involved boxing. Representing the Šarūnas Sports Club, he became the champion in the middleweight category at the Lithuanian Boxing Championships in 1942 and 1943.

In his memoirs, boxer and trainer Vaclovas Peleckis wrote, “In 1940, A. Gabecas started attending boxing training. He was a talented young man. At first, it seemed that nothing good would come of him, because he trained superficially and was afraid of the ring. However, after half a year of training, the guy showed his character: he won all his friendly matches with a clear advantage. He was a technical boxer, very cunning in the ring. His friends nicknamed him the ring leaf.”

The report of his interview for selection for resettlement in Australia notes that he “fled from Russian regime”. At least he was not one of the many forcibly relocated by the Germans.

Aleksas Gabecas' photo from the file about his selection to resettle in Australia:
the sailor's outfit looks like it might have been surplus to the US or British Navy,
since both the Lithuanian Navy and the Lithuanian Sea Scouts had white tops

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The report noted that he had 4 years of elementary schooling and 8 years at secondary level. He had been employed as an “Electro Tech” in Lithuania for one year, giving us some idea of the specialisation in his later secondary schooling.

At the time of his interview, he was living in the Emigration Transit Camp, Hannover-Buchholz. He may have been cleared already by the American authorities for resettlement outside Germany.

Diepholz, October 1947, waiting to leave for Australia: 
Ann asked ChatGPT for a "very, very gentle clean-up" of this photograph from Aleksas' collection as reproduced in a thumbnail in 1996 issue of Mūsų Pastogė — how well the AI has done the job is best assessed by anyone who know the individuals in it, of whom Aleksas could remember
Povilas Baltutis, Petras Baltutis, Vytas Narbutas, Zenonas Janonis, Romas Krausas, himself and Vilius Janonis standing (7/8) but only Albertas Ūsas from the middle of the front row

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

We know from Jonas Motiejunas’ account of how the Lithuanian Scouts in Australia were started on the voyage and during first days in Bonegilla that Senior Sea Scout Patrol Leader Aleksandras Gabecas was one of the founders. Motiejūnas reported that Aleksas was one of the leaders of a Baltic scouting campfire on board the Heintzelman on 22 November 1947.

Again from Aleksas' collection and "very, very gently" enhanced by ChatGPT,
this photo shows a group of Lithuanian Sea Scouts gathered on a huge anchor
 on board the First Transport:  50 years later, Aleksas remembered
J Songaila on the left of the middle row, 
F Sirius on the right of the middle row, himself in the Sea Scout uniform,
N Skidzevičius to his left and A Jurevičius to his right

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

We already have some idea of Bonegilla camp life for the Lithuanians in the reports by Endrius Jankus, while Jonas Mockūnas has told us about life for the 12 Baltic men, including Aleksas, chosen to work with the Electrolytic Zinc company, nominally at Rosebery in the northwest of Tasmania. A report written at the time by Aleksas for a scouting publication has been translated for this blog. Aleksas wrote more for the 50th anniversary of the First Transport group’s arrival in Australia.

For the Mūsų Pastogė issue of 2 December 1996, he wrote, “After a 28-day journey on the ship General Heinzelman (30.10.1947–28.11.1947) and several days in Western Australia, on 7 December 1947 (actually 9 December) we were taken to the Bonegilla migration camp in the state of Victoria, where we lived until the beginning of 1948.

“During Christmas and the New Year in 1947–1948, it was, at least for us, quite hot —everywhere was full of dust, as a stormy, hot wind blew. Several of us celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas in the former military camp refrigerator room, the walls of which were covered with a thin layer of ice and frost... Having received a bottle of wine and tropical fruits — bananas, oranges — we spent our first holidays singing and singing in Lithuanian.

“While living in Bonegilla, after the holidays they began to divide us into jobs. We were distributed throughout the continent — wherever there was a shortage of ordinary labourers. We, seven Lithuanians and five Latvians, applied in advance for work somewhere further south — to Tasmania, King, Flinders or even Macquarie Islands.

“The application helped and on 17 January 17 1948, a dozen of us ended up in western Tasmania. Before that, while waiting for transport, we stayed in the Melbourne YMCA for a week, because the dock workers and sailors were on strike. We were flown to Tasmania by plane by the Electrolytic Zinc Company, for whom we would have to work.

“Then we went to our first workplace in the forests by what we called the Automatica, a rail motor operated by the local, private Emu Bay Railway. It was about 40 km from the mining town of Rosebery. At that time, the Railway was the only means of communication there with other areas.

“At the foot of the mountain, right next to the railway, there was an unloading platform and several tin houses. We immediately named this place Baltic Bushmen City and nailed a board with this inscription to the poles near the platform. Many people passing by on this small train would take pictures of the board and wonder where and how this Baltic Bushmen City came to be”.

This is ChatGPT's cleaner version of the Baltic Bushmen City photograph
you have seen already in Jonas Mockūnas' entry on the men sent to Tasmania's West Coast,
but only 11 of the 12 are here (one looking remarkably Asian)
as perhaps the photograph was taken by the twelfth: 
a reminder — you can see a larger version of any image in this blog
in a new Web page by clicking once on it

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, described Aleksas in terms which correspond with what we can see from other reports.  He wrote, "Whether in the bush or in Rosebery, Alex Gabas provided much of the entertainment.  He was an accomplished artist, musician and all-round entertainer.  He played tunes on a row of beer bottles filled with graduated amounts of water so as to produce notes when struck with a metal object.  On his guitar he accompanied himself and others; he used to walk 15 km to Tullah to play in a local band.  

"He performed magician's tricks, such as breathing fire, swallowing razor blades, walking and lying on glass; he also staged exhibition boxing matches.  One story has it that he walked the length of a viaduct on the Emu Bay Railway — on his hands!  In camp, he tried to stop the drinking by putting recalcitrants against a tree and throwing a knife at a spot just above their heads."

Ramunas recorded that Aleksas stayed at Rosebery or the Baltic Bushmen City for one year only.  He noted Gabecas’ next employer as the PMG Hobart.

PMG needs no explanation for older Australians but for anyone else, the initials stood for Postmaster General’s Department. The Department was responsible not only for Australia’s postal system but also for telecommunications. Its physical activities were devolved into Australia Post and Telecom Australia, later Telstra, on 1 July 1975 (1 July being the start of Australia’s financial year). Aleksas’ previous training and experience as “Electro Tech” must have been recognised.

In Hobart in July 1949, the Launceston Examiner newspaper found Aleksas demonstrating yet another sporting interest. Along with another Heintzelman arrival, Albertas Medisauskas, he was demonstrating fencing moves to a group which was interested in forming a fencing club.

We next come across Aleksas crewing for Jonas Lipsius’ boat when Melbourne Lithuanians visited them in San Remo, across a bridge from Phillip Island and its penguin parade. That was on 1 February 1953.

Aleksas married Stase Marcinkus in 1954 and acquired a ready-made family. Stase was 4 years older than Aleksas, having been born in December 1917, and had been married twice already. Presumably her first husband, with the surname Dimindavicius, had been killed during World War II. He was the father of Danute, born in March 1935, and Algimantas, born in March 1936. Knowing that she was a widow, Stase then would have been able to marry Zigmantas Marcinkus and bear his child, Eugenija, in August 1946.

One year later, on 30 November 1955, Alexander Mykolas Gabecas became an Australian citizen. He was living then at 314 Albert Road, South Melbourne, about 400 metres from the high school Ann attended during 1962-65. If and when the National Archives of Australia allows the public to look at the file containing his application for naturalisation, we will be able to see more information about his movements and work during his first 8 years in Australia.

Lithuanians often shorten their surnames to make life easier. In this case, Aleksas became Alexander Mykolas Gabas when he enrolled to vote, as is compulsory for Australian citizens. Finding him on electoral rolls digitised by Ancestry allows us his stated occupation and home address or addresses.

The earliest available electoral roll with Alexander in it is a 1963 roll for the suburb of Reservoir, north of central Melbourne. He gave his occupation then as Technician. He was at the same address in 1968, but Stase had joined him as a voter.

By 1972, they had moved south to the suburb of Beaumaris, on Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay. Eugenia (sic), having adopted the Gabas family name, had joined them on the roll. The last available roll is for 1977, when they had moved again, to another coastal suburb about 5 km north, Sandringham. Eugenia presumably had left home, because she was not on this roll. Alexander’s occupation was still Technician.

From the 1960s, when he was in his 40s, music seemed to take the place in his life previous occupied by sport. In 1966, Mūsų Pastogė reported on an original performance with skudučiai and other folk instruments.

“The performances featuring skudučiai (individual pipes, each with its own pitch) … were truly original, representing a revival of our folk instrument music. Aleksandras Gabas — a Sea Scout recently elevated to the rank of Scoutmaster and a highly talented organizer of various performances — is reviving skudučiai music in Australia.

“He prepared a skudučiai orchestra that played the Sparrow March (Žvirblių maršas) and, with his large comedic orchestra (20 members), performed Buvo gera gaspadinė (There Was a Good Housewife) and Du broliukai kunigai (Two brother priests). The audience could not stop applauding.”

That mention of promotion to Scoutmaster provides an opportunity to mention that Aleksas was singled out during the 50th anniversary of arrival, along with First Transporters Algirdas Liubinskas and Jonas Urbonas, as those who helped Borisas Dainutis start and organise Lithuanian scouting in Australia.

Back to music. The photograph below appeared on the front page of Mūsų Pastogė issue of 20 June 1988. Kanklės is the Lithuanian version of the zither, a family of wooden stringed instruments, mostly without a neck to stretch the strings, which are plucked by the fingers or a plectrum. The Latvian version is the kokle while Estonia has the kannel and Finland the kantele. The zither is not confined to the Baltic, however, as variations are wide spread across Europe and Asia.

Aleksas Gabas is the man in the front right of this 1988 photograph
of a group of Melbourne kanklės players which had just given its debut performance

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

An earlier photograph in the Lithuanian Central State Archives, taken in 1980, shows 4 of the 6 above in their earlier ensemble, called Kankles.

Aleksas is on the right of this photograph of the Kankles ensemble in 1980:
second from left is Stasys Eimutis, who made their instruments

Source:  E-kinas

A larger group, based on the same players was photographed in 1998.

The Kankles ensemble in 1998 with two singers as well as instrumentalists;
Stasys Eimutis is on the far left, front row, while
Aleksas is third from right, back row

Source:  E-kinas

Mūsų Pastogė started to prepare for the 50th anniversary of the First Transport’s arrival one year earlier, publishing photographs and articles sent to it by Aleksas Gabecas-Gabas. We have used some of those already both here and elsewhere to describe life for Aleksas and the other EZ Rosebery employees in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Given that Aleksas was already in his 70s by the time of the 50th anniversary, 28 November 1997, his public life became quiet. He lived a truly long life, dying on 7 August 2013, when he was 90 years old, some weeks short of his 91st birthday. His remains were cremated in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery and the ashes returned to the family. This may be a case of the ashes then being scattered, in Australia or Lithuania.

The variety in his life seems to parallel the many names available to him.  While his baptismal names were Aleksandras Mykolas, he was known normally as Aleksas.  In Australia, he registered himself on the electoral role as Alexander Mykolas, and was known to have been called by the Alex short form.  Also for the electoral roll, Gabecas became Gabas and he was often known by the Australian Lithuanians as Gabecas-Gabas or plain Gabas.

Doubtless it was his basic interest in the work he was trained to do plus his many outside interests that contributed to that long life.

SOURCES

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