PYRAMID HILL, 1.2.48, Sun
With our drinking we’ve become good friends with the Australians — today they invited us to go for a drive. We drove ten miles past Cohuna, then reached a large tree-lined river. We swam, fooled around, and spent a truly wonderful day; returning home only at ten at night.
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| A swimming party, possibly at the Murray River or a tributary, like Gunbower Creek: guessing that the tall man at the back is Lembit Koplus while the 4 standing on the right (none wearing swimming costumes) are possibly other Balts Source: Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis |
If you think about it, there is nothing much here in Australia, even the pencils come from England. Car tyres might be made in Australia, but the cars themselves come from America or Canada. The countryside here is monotonous — only yellow grass, hard red earth and a bush here and there. Most unpleasant of all is the heat and bright sun, which rarely disappears behind clouds. Even the night air is so hot that you have to toss around in bed for a long time without sleep and soak the blankets in sweat.
Here people put a shovel in your hand, make you break rocks, and can still ask you “How do you like Australia?” What is there here, that you can like? The sunshine? But despite all this, Australia is a true Happy Isle, with good and kind people. Why does it always seem to me, that the grass is always greener on the other side? Why is it that the drums of war in Europe have left such deep wounds in me that beginning a peaceful life is almost impossible! When will I finally have some peace from this longing for distant places and new experiences?
PYRAMID HILL, 10.2.48, Tues
Another difficult day — all sorts of men were barging around today. First of all the boss arrived, and after he left the head of the employment ministry visited us. He watched us working for a short while, then asked us if we are happy with the boss and our working conditions, and if we had any complaints. What is there to complain about? About the job? But you have to work wherever you are! About the sun? That won’t make it any cooler! We had no complaints. He gave us his address and left with the boss who had just returned. In the afternoon I went to work near the compressor — another change of job. That doesn’t matter, though it shook my hands a lot and the sound was deafening. The boss said he would let the work be done on piecework but the big question is, whether we would accept his conditions.
PYRAMID HILL, 14.2.48, Sat
I’ve hoped for rain for a long time, and finally it’s here — this afternoon it began raining in earnest. The day was pleasant, but unlucky for me — driving into town this morning I didn’t notice the sharp turn across the bridge and as the car turned sharply I felt myself start to fly. I could no longer hold onto Edgars’ shoulders, and didn’t dare to hold onto the rail, for both of my legs were already out of the car and I could have fallen under the wheels.*
I tried to save the situation somehow by leaping as far as I could out of the car and in this way avoid the wheels. I hit the road first with my shoulder, then with my head; I turned a half somersault and lay still. My friends rushed over immediately, took off their jackets and lifted me on top of them, where I remained for about five minutes. I lay there with stars spinning in front of my eyes, feeling terrible. I recovered a little, then climbed back into the car and they drove me to the doctor.
I started feeling a lot better while we waited and almost felt I didn’t need to see him after all. He didn’t do anything much, either, except ask me to lift my arms and legs, examine my head and put a plaster on the scrape. Then we went to Naschke’s** place and I rested on the bed. Everyone came to see me in turn, to see if I was feeling better; even the foreman came to visit me and Mary brought me some coffee and cake, but just then I couldn’t eat a thing. After about an hour I got up, and we drove home. I don’t feel any particular pain, it’s just that my head aches, and it feels as if every part of my body is broken.
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| Cafe businesses including Naschke's were on the site of what is now the Lions Park in Pyramid Hill; the building they were in, at 9 Kelly Street, was demolished in the 1960s and replaced by the Park in the 1970s, but the remaining buildings show what could have been the style of Naschke's Source: Google Street View |
PYRAMID HILL, 13.3.48, Sat
It’s Saturday again, and once more I drove into town to do some shopping. While I was there I also went to the dentist about my aching tooth, but he was booked out, and told me to go to the hospital at eleven on Monday. I finished the shopping and returned home around one. The Australian, Kevin, and the friend of his who became legless at our house that time, were there. They had lunch with us and all the while egged us on to go to the dance. Finally Vik and I gave in, and lifted our bicycles and ourselves into the vehicle.
Because it was our first time at a dance in Australia, we went into the pub first and fortified ourselves with beer for one and a half hours, until the pub closed. Outside on the street we were discussing what to do next, when suddenly some ridiculous communist latched onto us and began spouting about exploitation and who knows what else. We didn’t want to talk to him and turned our backs, but he forced himself into our company and shoved one of our new friends. There was nothing to do but shove him back, and this started a brawl that lasted several minutes, the result of which was that the communist left with a large bump on his head and a split, bleeding ear.
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| "The pub" was the Victoria Hotel, run by members of the Kelly family from 1907 to 1951: after the original building burnt down in 1926, this one was erected in 1928 |
The rest of us were all right, and we went to Naschke’s for dinner. After that we went to Kevin’s house, where I collected my wine bottle and the others collected theirs, then we headed off to the dance hall. We fortified ourselves again on the way, and only got to the hall just as the dancing was beginning. All the dances are quite different to what I’m used to, but I made an attempt anyway, and it turned out fairly well. The dance came to an end, and with that ended also this pleasantly spent day. We found our bicycles and rode home. B y Wednesday I’ll have to learn these Australian dances somehow, then it will be more fun.
PYRAMID HILL, 15.3.48, Mon
Today I only worked until ten, then went into town to have my decayed tooth extracted. In the hospital I was shown to a bed, half covered with a white blanket, with a white napkin resting on my chest, and the dentist got to work. First of all he poured a numbing liquid on my gums and allowed it five minutes to work, then he got to work with the pliers and began marvelling at how strong my tooth is. The pain became unbearable, even the dentist could see that, and again he tried to numb the tooth and gave me five minutes peace.
But this time he had little result and the pain was even worse. Then he prepared some anaesthetic and jabbed a big needle in my vein, asking me to count. Gradually everything went misty, my pain disappeared and on the count of seventeen I sank into unconsciousness. When I woke again the tooth was out and the clock showed two-thirty, so I’d spent three whole hours in a narcotic sleep. My head was dull, my vision foggy and my legs staggered when I come out of the hospital. Overall it felt as if I’d drunk a large amount of alcohol.
I visited Naschke, where instantly all the women gathered around and as usual we started to joke around. Finally he even began to teach me how to dance and so we occupied an hour or so. My head cleared a little, and I realised that it was time to go back. Slowly I staggered back to the quarry and saw that I’d arrived just in time to go home. Today I only worked a few hours, but all my bones were weary. When I got home I swallowed a few tablets and went to bed straight away.
PYRAMID HILL, 16.3.48, Tues
I slept until midday, but even so my head is dull, and my bones still weary. The place my tooth was, is burning all the time. I sat at the table to update my diary — finally my Bonegilla writing job is over, and I’ll have more time to do other things. This evening, when we’d all returned from work, a familiar car pulled up outside the house and into the room came the boss. He’s brought a rifle for me, now I’ll be able to shoot those damned sparrows.
PYRAMID HILL, 17.3.48, Wed
As soon as I got home from work I started getting ready for the dance. Vik and I went into town an hour or so early and for something to do, explored the city streets. We saw a lot of women, almost all in long dresses down to the ground, so I started worrying that it would be very easy to tread on these skirts if you didn’t know how to dance very well.
We went to Naschke’s and joked around with the women. Finally we even went into another room and began learning Australian dances to piano music. While I was doing this, the heel of my shoe came off and I began to hit it on again. A fter many tries I succeeded and we went to the hall, where dancing was already in full swing. Of course, I couldn’t resist and I danced many times with the Australians in their long dresses so unfamiliar to me. My mended heel held very well and didn’t break again until right at the end, around two in the morning. That was no great problem now — I simply put it into my pocket and we left.
I didn’t fall into bed until three, but the day was well spent, and tomorrow’s early rising for work wouldn’t present any great difficulty. I wonder why my gum, where the tooth was extracted, still aches so much after all this time?
PYRAMID HILL, 21.3.48, Sun
I don’t know what’s happening with my tooth, it’s still unbearably painful, even though it’s been a whole week since my “operation”. Finally I took two mirrors and had a look at it. In the gap in my gum I saw something white and thought it must be pus, but when I poked it with a match, it turned out to be bone. And why wouldn’t my tooth still ache, when the dentist has only removed half of it, and now the remaining half is grieving for the missing half? So the dentist has left two roots behind and in the hole itself two moving fragments of bone, very painful. I’ll have to go back to the dentist on Monday, so he can finish his “operation”.
After lunch we went swimming and on the way back rode into town. There we saw almost no one, for it’s Sunday. It’s a very strange custom — as soon as Sunday arrives, everywhere it’s peaceful and quiet, and the streets are empty. We quickly tired of such boredom, sat back on our bicycles and rode home. My tooth aches and it’s very unpleasant thinking that tomorrow I’ll have to let the dentist mess around with it again. But what else can I do, it’s better to bear a short intense pain, than suffer all the time.
PYRAMID HILL, 22.3.48, Mon
After lunch I went straight to the dentist. He lay me down in bed and poked around the remaining tooth root a little, but that was all, and asked me to come back after the holiday, when the root will have loosened up more. Spitting out and swearing to myself I returned to the quarries. The tooth root has been poked around and is very painful, but this “dentist” hasn’t given me any medicine for it.
PYRAMID HILL, 25.3.48, Thurs
Today a surprise awaited me at work, sprung on me by Reinis in the form of a blue envelope sent from Germany. With it I found two other letters with Russian postmarks and stamps, and suddenly something inexpressible seized my whole body. Who knows, perhaps it was happiness, which washed my body in strange excitement, and made these callused hands tremble? Both letters were addressed to Alt-Garge, and were from Ausma.
Like a dense black cloud I was overtaken with memories of the long-ago happy days in my homeland, which Destiny allowed me to spend with Ausma, that lovely northern girl. Although I only met her twice, many years ago, I have pleasant memories of her. The letters contain only a small fairytale about us both, but they gave me much joy and warmed my soul. As soon as I came home I took my pen in hand to reply to my lass from home. What will she say, when she discovers I’ve reached such a distant foreign world?
FOOTNOTES
* "Edgar's shoulders" belonged to fellow Latvian, Edgars Osis.
** "Bill Naschke was the owner of a cafe selling ice cream, sweets, soft drinks in the town of Pyramid Hill, and also provided some meals," wrote Ern Ferris, then Secretary of the Pyramid Hill and District Historical Society, in June 1999 to Monika. Ern wrote that he was born in Pyramid Hill in 1923, so could remember the arrival of the Baltic quarry workers.
SOURCE
Melbourne Playgrounds, Pyramid Hill Historicaal Plaquest Walk, https://www.melbourneplaygrounds.com.au/pyramid-hill-historical-plaques-walk, accessed 23 February 2026.
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