An ‘Aussie’ looks at the ‘Balts’ and ‘Reffos’ by John Mannion

The aftermath of WWII in Europe was characterised by devastation and misery, which led to seemingly insoluble problems, one of the most difficult being the Displaced Persons. Millions of people were crowded into the UNRRA camps in Germany, Italy and Austria. There were too many to resettle permanently in Germany, a country in chaos where they had been wronged and lacked means of support. 

Many countries including Australia turned their attention to the Displaced Persons and in 1947 Australia launched the "Australia Scheme" under which, eventually, 180,000 DP's would be accepted to increase the population for national security and economic development. Both sides of Federal Parliament agreed that it was essential to increase the rate of migration as a means of attempting to ensure the security of the country. 

The main hindrance was the shortage of ships, but this was resolved by the International Refugee Organisation, which had ships at its disposal to bring them to Australia. 

Commissioned in 1945 as a US army troop transport, the United States Army Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman was converted to the DP Operations Germany and Austria at the end of 1946. When she sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany on the 30 October 1947, she was on her fifth DP voyage and her first to Australia.

This sketch of the General Stuart Heintzelman was used on one of the newsletters
published on board during the voyage to Australia

She arrived at Fremantle on 28 November 1947. This shipment of 729 men and 114 women from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia heralded the longest phase of planned migration to Australia since the convict days. 

These young and healthy refugees fleeing Communism were all under 40 and had been screened to ensure they were fit and healthy and free of fascist sympathies. They had agreed to be directed to live anywhere and prepared to work at any job in Australia for two years.* 

The majority were destitute and demanded and expected little. They were fleeing destroyed and war-weary countries and had a gutful of Russians, Germans and the European war where they had lived in camps for several years, to a country where the word democracy was more than a word. In return they would help rebuild Australia's resources which were run down and short of manpower after the war, and lay the foundations for future permanent migration. 

Most of the newcomers were to be sent to country areas where they were put to work on farms, mining and quarrying, railway construction and maintenance, road and bridge building and similar major works, along with timber and saw-mill work and food processing.  Termed the “Balts” or “Reffos”, terms not often heard today, they were later known as Calwell’s "New Australians", Eastern European migrants and many other colloquial names. 

On arrival at Fremantle, the Heintzelman passengers were housed in former army camps for several days and then boarded the HMAS Kanimbla, bound for Port Melbourne where they disembarked at East Princes’ Pier on the 8 December 1947. 

This iconic image shows the Kanimbla at berth at Princes' Pier, Port Melbourne, on 8 December 1947, with one of the two trains taking its passengers to their next home, at Bonegilla

Source: National Archives of Australia

Princes’ Pier’s neighbour, Station Pier was to become the gateway to a New World for more than a million newcomers until the last migrant ship, Australis, docked in 1977. Although Princes’ Pier has been dismantled, Station Pier continues as a cruise ship terminal. These days Station Pier also is regarded as a symbol of the mass migration that has transformed Australia, particularly in the post-war period. Internationally, it should rate as highly as New York's Ellis Island. 

The now 839 newcomers on the Kanimbla were first welcomed to Australia by the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, the man who had authorised the program which brought them to Australia.  Then they came down the ship's gangway wearing numbered identification tags and were met by officers of the Department of Immigration. Special trains then took them to Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre in north-eastern Victoria near Albury, NSW. 

The newcomers underwent varying weeks of rest, reception, medical examinations, basic survival-level lessons in English, orientation lectures and job placement. 

Living in a country largely dominated by the eastern states and their capital cities, it was not only Sydney and Melbourne that were influenced by immigration however. South Australia — and we are more than Adelaide — also accepted many Displaced Persons. 

Australians became increasingly aware of the influx of migrants, as did those at Peterborough with migrants numbering 10 per cent of the population of about 4,000 during the ‘60s and '70s. 

To the “outsider” Peterborough was a “railway town” and farmers and graziers generally looked down on "railway people" with suspicion. They even had their own internal Australian Rules Football association — Railways, Towns, Rovers (Catholics) and Terowie — and they played soccer (and so did some of the Aussies) and footy on Sundays! 

But generally the new Australians were accepted “to a man”. Many of them lived and worked in isolated railway settlements along the lines from Port Pirie to Cockburn, Gladstone to Wilmington, and Terowie to Quorn and beyond. 

Port Pirie in the west to Cockburn on the NSW border in the east: by road,
because Google can't find public transport by rail between these two towns;
Gladstone is on the line between Port Pirie and Peterborough,
Wilmington is shown north of Port Pirie, Quorn is north of Wilmington but
Terowie, not shown on this map, is some distance due east of Port Pirie and SSE of Peterborough

Source:  Google Maps © 2024

As time passed however, the Australian people came to realise that these “new Australians” found what they were seeking, the chance to rebuild their lives in their new homeland at a time when Australia was still a colonial country, populated largely by Anglo-Irish migrants. 

Australian society was dominated by “native-born” at the top, with the mentally ill, children (despite the propaganda that babies were the best migrants), Aborigines and migrants generally overlooked. 

A retired Peterborough railway worker once asked me "Where do you reckon Australia would be without the Second World War?" The answer would be very subjective and the man in question did speak with a broad European accent, but there is no doubt that Australia would not be the place it is without the vast number of Europeans who arrived here after WWII. 

For one, we not have the diversity of culture and European family names we now have in our midst, many of which are now accepted “Australian” names, after having married into native-born families. 

The men, women and children identified by these names have several things in common — they came to Australia seeking freedom, and a new start, and they worked for the railways. 

I spoke with one bloke who came from Germany as a four year old, to Peterborough via Bonegilla, Mildura and Woodside camps, with his Polish parents. He doubted if he would or could make the sacrifices his parents made for him and his brother! 

The hundreds of people who contributed to this story did nothing really extraordinary, but they were remarkable people, are proud of their achievements, and deserve to be remembered for making Peterborough and Australia their home, and for their role in the Australian story and our developing culture. 

My interest in post WWII migrants has not waned and I must thank my partner, Helena, for her understanding 20 years ago when I traipsed from one part of the country to the other recording people’s lives. Perhaps it helped that she too is one of those migrants, coming to Australia with her parents and younger brother in 1968 from the Czech Republic. 

In my next blog entries, I will tell you the stories of a couple of the men who I met through the Relaying Our Tracks project. 

* Ann's notes: Arthur Calwell, in a statement to the press and radio, had announced before the arrival of the Heintzelman that all of the Displaced Persons were under 40, but the reality was that 8 were aged 41 to 43. 

Those on the Heintzelman actually had agreed in Germany to one year only of work as directed. The Australian Government changed the requirement to 2 years when it learnt that this was the time expected by Tasmania's Hydro Electric Commission of the former Polish soldiers who had arrived from Britain in October 1947. 

Since this was while the Heintzelman was on the high seas, its passengers were not told about the change until they were in the Bonegilla camp. According to Endrius Jankus, this was not until 20 December and there almost was a riot when the camp Commandant announced the change at an assembly. We have seen already, in relation to Endrius’ story, and will see in some biographies to come that the change continued to prey on the minds of the new arrivals.

Light editing, choice of illustrations and their captions by me.

SOURCE

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12111, Immigration Photographic Archive 1946 - Today, 1946-; 1/1947/3/6, Migrant Arrivals - Displaced Persons from Europe - HMAS Kanimbla arrives at Melbourne with the first group of displaced persons (Dec 1947) from where they will join the train bound for Bonegilla Migrant Camp.  They travelled from Europe to Fremantle on the GENERAL HEINTZELMAN and transhipped to the KANIMBLA. CATEGORY: photograph, FORMAT: b&w negative, TYPE: cellulose acetate, STATUS: preservation material, 1947-1947.

The First Peterborough Balts, by John Mannion

Updated 17 April 2024

I grew up on a farm in what is known as the northern agricultural area of South Australia, at Pekina, 25 miles west of Peterborough, which is one of Australia’s former ‘great’ railway towns.  

The location of Peterborough in relation to Broken Hill is as important as its location
 with respect to South Australia's capital, Adelaide, since Broken Hill ore is shipped through Peterborough to Port Pirie WSW on the coast, where it is smelted
to produce ingots for shipment around the world.

Source:  Peterborough SA Website

Back in the early '60s a trip to Peterborough was a big day out for me. It meant a drive across the Yatina plain on a poorly formed dirt road with mum and my brother in the old Holden. (Dad always seemed to be away shearing!). 

A modern Pekina to Peterborough route, through Ororoo; Yatina is below the estimated travel time which, of course, is based on modern road conditions in a modern car; back in the 1960s though,
the Mannion family did not take these roads but travelled through Yatina to Peterborough

Source:  Imagery ©2024 TerraMetrics, Map data ©2024 Google

As we drove into Peterborough from the west there was a cluster of iron buildings on the left and the railway workshops on the right — the largest in the State rail system outside of Adelaide. 

The Peterborough railway yards are in the foreground of this mid-1950's photo
and the migrant hostel is behind them

Source:  John Mannion collection

A rear view of the migrant hostel, toilet block on the left and
local gardener at work on the right

Source: photographer Heuer, John Mannion collection

The Port Pirie to Peterborough railway, built in the 1880s, was to form the principal east-west transport axis of South Australia’s Upper North region, bringing prosperity to all the towns along the line until the 1970s. 

Back in the ‘60s and '70s, Peterborough was a thriving town of between four and five thousand people. Then after what was proclaimed a progressive move — the national rail track standardisation of the ‘60s — “the railways” moved out leaving hardly any jobs and leaving Peterborough with less than half its population. The 2021 Census counted only 1,428 residents. 

Peterborough at its best:
Judging from the cars, the postcard is from about 1960, and
the bottom left photo gives some idea of the size of the railway yards

Source:  John Mannion collection

Nearly 20 years ago now, I was a part-time project officer at Peterborough for an oral history project entitled Relaying Our Tracks. The aim of the project was two-fold. 

Funded by the Federal Government's Department of Family and Community Services, it was designed to “assimilate” newcomers into the former railway town that seemed to have lost its direction after being abandoned by the State and Commonwealth governments in the rationalisation period from 1978 until 1997. 

The town was being populated by city dwellers from Adelaide and interstate who had no affinity with the area and the project was supposed to help build community spirit. In that regard, as predicted, it was somewhat of a failure. 

However, as an historian, I found it invaluable in recording the oral histories of many older established members and former members of the community and their descendants. The interview process also saw many paper-based items, including old South Australian Railways (SAR) Institute Magazines come out of cupboards, drawers and back sheds. 

One article in particular intrigued me and after reading it I realised that it told a virtually forgotten story of local, state, national and international significance. It was the story of our first Commonwealth Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, and his post-WWII Displaced Persons Scheme. I quote from the article: FLASH BACK in the Railways Institute Magazine, May-June, 1973, ‘Baltic Migrants Arrival at Peterborough, 1948’. 

‘Few people would remember that it is 25 years ago since the first Baltic migrants arrived at Peterborough to be trained for railway work in South Australia, The Balts were the first 'displaced persons' to come to South Australia as migrants and they were accepted almost to a man by the local people because of their youth and their apparent enthusiasm to learn all they could of their new home and join in the activities of their new country. 

‘They were willing employees who were prepared to work long hours and many shifts in order to help them establish themselves financially, but one of their most severe problems was the language barrier. One Fireman could not understand the meaning of the word ‘rest’, and when the crew arrived at its destination to go to barracks, this Fireman would not leave his engine and slept on the footplate. He had been told to work his engine to Wilmington and back, but was not told specifically to go to bed at Wilmington. 

‘With Mr. and Mrs. Allen Ind at the migrant hostel [the cluster of iron buildings I mentioned earlier] established in Peterborough, where these lads were first encamped in tents and later in rooms of more solid construction, it is recalled the young Firemen sitting up late at nights drinking coffee to help keep them awake so that they could pursue their study of the language and the instruction papers necessary to qualify as Firemen and Porters. 

‘Some of the older Enginemen [Australian] found it hard to converse and understand the young migrants and some of the young migrants found it hard to understand just what the Enginemen were thinking, but mostly it was a happy association which extended for many years afterwards and today, we have a lot of those Baltic migrants listed among our senior staff members in the Loco and Traffic Running, and among the Station Masters' ranks. 

‘In the early days most migrants wore gloves on their hands when doing hard and dirty work and the reward for this was apparent when some of them left the Railways and went into other positions, and some into their own businesses. The talented boys were pleased that they had protected their hands and fingers to equip them for delicate work in future life.’ 

Whilst the article did mention that these men were the first 'Displaced Persons' to come to South Australia as migrants, the impact of Arthur Calwell, the first Minister for Immigration in the Australian Government and his post war migration programme did not really register until I started some serious researching. 

Two accompanying photos showed the 17 members of first group of trainee migrant porters and firemen at Peterborough with Lithuanians in the majority — Jonas Bimba, Tadas Bliukys, Jonas Caplikas, Povilas Deimantas, Juozas Donela, Stasys Gricius, Jurgis Guoba, Raimundas Juzulinis, Benediktas Kaminskas and Vladas Simkunas. The photos also include four Latvians (Gunars Brunavs, Nikoljas Dukalskis, Nikoljas Kibilds and Janis Kolesnikovs) and three Estonians (Flaavi Hodunov, Hugo Jakobsen and Artur Klaar).  

While the press initially talked about 18 being selected (for instance in the Times and Northern Advertiser of 27 February 1948), I have noted that it later talked about 17 preparing for their examinations and passing them well (for instance, the Mail, 8 May 1948).

Photos of 17 of the 18 First Transporters to be trained at Peterborough

from the Railway Institute Magazine, May-June 1973

Source:  John Mannion collection

They were among the first European displaced persons to come to Australia, aboard the chartered troop ship, the United States Army Transport, General Stuart Heintzelman. 

In the Friday, 23 January 1948 edition of the South-Eastern Times, a regional South Australian newspaper printed at Millicent, a rather insignificant one column, seven-line article read: 

Source:  Trove

A little over a month later, a similar article appeared in another country newspaper over 400 miles north of Millicent, at Peterborough. It was the Times and Great Northern Advertiser, of Friday, 27 February 1948. 

Source:  Trove

With a name like Mannion, I have no connection at all with European migration, only a tremendous interest in, and respect for those post-war migrants who made South Australia their home. A ‘baby boomer’ born into a relatively insular and conservative Irish Catholic mixed farming district, I had little exposure to the ‘outside’ world. 

However as a kid, I knew that were German, Czech and Dutch workers and their families living at the railway sidings of Eurelia, Orroroo and Black Rock within 25 miles to the north and west of our farm. These families formed part of the railway gangs involved with rail track maintenance work on the Terowie to Quorn narrow-gauge railway.  [Eurelia and Terowie are at the top and bottom respectively of the Google map above.  Black Rock is just SSW of the travel time pop-up on that map.]

I went to school at Orroroo, about 14 miles from home [see map above], with many of these ‘new Australian’ kids but we were not told anything about who they were, why they were here or where they came from. They were generally stuck in the back of the classroom and ignored. With names like Limback, Fejgl, Methurst, Katts, Kampen and Ehlers, they were often derided because of their names, appearance and social status. 

Little did I realise that in my own back yard, long before the term ‘multiculturalism’ was penned, there was an enclave of Europeans numbering up to 500 people living in the area — an extension of Calwell’s initial plan. These were the successors to the first ‘Balts’ of the ‘Fifth Fleet’. 

In the years that followed February 1948, right up until the ‘70s, hundreds more European migrants and their families made the Peterborough Division of the SAR their home. The majority lived at Peterborough, the largest shopping centre and livestock market town in the district. 

Many have described Calwell’s immigration scheme, ‘as one of the best things that ever happened to Australia and also as the greatest humanitarian act that Australia has ever undertaken.’ 

However, the scheme succeeded because we needed them as much as they needed us. In reality it was a calculated plan (in competition with the US, South America and Canada) to draft workers into Australia without upsetting the local domestic labour and housing situation. 

By the late 1920s, most of the Australian railway systems were well established, and during the 1930s little expansion occurred. During WWII, rail maintenance activity was reduced drastically reduced, as the SAR Islington workshops were adapted to heavy engineering war production. 

Combined with the virtual elimination of rolling stock maintenance and only emergency track maintenance, the railways carried greatly increased tonnages and train movements under the pressure of the national war effort with reduced manpower. At the end of the war the entire Australian railway system was in a crisis state in relation to operating capacity and infrastructure condition. 

Many of these ‘Balts’ were skilled men and women but were used as manual labour and literally dumped in outback railway depots and maintenance camps and regarded as foreigners and cheap labour. 

That Railways Institute Magazine article was written in 1973 and even then it questioned how many would remember the Balts. How many would remember in 2005, the time of my project 32 years later? Fortunately quite a few! 

Determined to follow the fate of these ‘Peterborough Balts’ I went through the Adelaide White Pages telephone directory and found several of the names on the two photographs listed. 

After a few phone calls I found two of the men pictured in the photo living in Adelaide, fit and well, and having stayed with ‘the railways’. I had so many questions to ask Flaavi Hodunov, an Estonian who became known as ‘Freddie’ and Povilas, or Paul, Deimantas from Lithuania. 

Where did they come from? What was the voyage over like? What did they find when they got here? What did they do before, during and after their time at Peterborough? 

Surprisingly, with a little encouragement from their wives, they were interested in what I was doing and gave me some basic background over the phone. I later met up with Flaavi, Paul and several other ‘Lithos’, when they told me their stories. 

I am glad of the continued interest in their stories and the opportunity to now have them published again, in blog entries to follow this one, nearly 20 years later.

FOOTNOTE:  Light editing, choice of illustrations and their captions by Ann.

SOURCES

Railways Institute Magazine (1973) 'FLASH BACK ... Baltic Migrants Arrival at Peterborough, 1948, Adelaide, May-June, p 17.

The South Eastern Times (1948) 'The Trains of Tomorrow', Millicent, South Australia, 23 January, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201013863 accessed 12 March 2024.

The Times and Northern Advertiser (1948) 'New Arrivals', Peterborough, South Australia, 27 February, p2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110548140 accessed 12 March 2024.

The Mail (1948) '17 Balts Learn English to be Railway Men' Adelaide, SA, 8 May, p 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55905773 accessed 17 April 2024.

WHAT LED TO THE FIRST DISPLACED PERSONS: A TIMELINE by Ann Tündern-Smith & Department of Information staff

I’m looking through a Department of Information file on correspondence from the Minister for Immigration (and Information, Arthur Calwell) during 1947 and 1948. For anyone who wants to follow up, its NAA: CP815/1, 021.148 (Item number 263676) – there are more details below. What has caught my eye is a timeline of “the Government’s achievements in the migration field in the past three years”. 

I thought it was an excellent summary of the context in which the Displaced Persons (refugees in reality) from the Baltic States were brought to Australia in November 1947. It is part of a draft for a proposed article for the Catholic Weekly to appear under the byline of Minister Calwell. I have highlighted the parts of particular significance to the passengers on the First Transport by using an italic typeface.  Also, I've had to change the layout a little to fit Blogspot's formatting limitations.  [My comments within the timeline are in square brackets.]

1945 July:  Cabinet [actually, Prime Minister Chifley, in establishing his first           Cabinet] appoints the Hon Arthur A Calwell Minister for Immigration. 

August:  Mr Calwell announces the Government’s immigration policy to the House of Representatives. 

September:  Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mr LC Haylen, MHR, begins European tour to investigate emigration possibilities. 

1946 February:  Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Committee’s report published; advocates encouragement of emigration from Europe as well as Britain. 

March:  Mr Calwell announces signing of agreement between United Kingdom and Commonwealth Governments to provide free and assisted passages to Australia for British ex-servicemen and their dependents, and other selected British migrants.

August:  Commonwealth and State Ministers confer in Canberra on nation’s immigration programme. 

December:  Cabinet approves agreement with Netherlands Emigration Foundation to bring Dutch farmers to Australia. 

1947 January        First party of British building tradesmen arrive under special arrangements made with United Kingdom Government. 

February:  Mr Calwell announces formation of Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council to advise on immigration matters. 

March:  United Kingdom and Australian Governments announce that free and assisted passage schemes will come into operation on March 31. 

April:  Announcement of scheme for assisted passages for British ex-service personnel of European descent not eligible on residential grounds for such passages. 

June:  First free and assisted passage migrants arrive from United Kingdom. First child migrants arrive under reopened child migration schemes. Mr Calwell begins world tour to study immigration questions and seek more shipping for migrant carriage.

July:  Agreement signed between International Refugee Organization and Commonwealth Government for migration to Australia of 12,000 selected displaced persons from camps in occupied Europe. 

September:  First party of assisted passage United States ex-servicemen reaches Australia. 

November:  Establishment of Bonegilla, first reception and training centre for education of migrants from displaced persons’ camps in Europe. 

December:  First party of 843 [actually 839, as 4 did not leave the Heintzelman in Fremantle and were returned to Europe on health or security grounds] displaced persons of Baltic origin arrive at Bonegilla from Europe. First “all migrant” ship reaches Australia from Britain. 

1948 February:  Mr Calwell announces that nearly half a million tons of shipping is in sight to bring British migrants to Australia.

March:  Following ratification of peace treaties with Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria and Hungary, Mr Calwell announces modified policy allowing entry of nationals of those countries in certain circumstances. 

April:  First party of Dutch farmers under agreement with Netherlands Emigration Foundation, together with Dutch ex-servicemen, sail from Rotterdam. 

May:  Bathurst reception and training centre for displaced person migrants [sic] opens. 

The minute continues with the prediction that, “These ‘Migration Milestones’ may well become milestones in Australian history." Such foresight! 

While the article was drafted for proposed publication in the national Catholic Weekly, it first appeared as part of a series by Calwell on the resettlement of the Displaced Persons in the Sydney Catholic Weekly of 21 October.  

The series was repeated in the South Australian Catholic weekly, the Southern Cross, with the milestones section being published on 29 October. It then appeared in the Advocate, "a Catholic Review of the Week", with the milestones appearing on 4 November.

It later appeared different form, as part of a 70-page booklet on the progress of migration published in March 1949. The December 1949 election was then looming, an election lost by the Labor Party to Robert Menzies’ Liberal-Country Party coalition. 

A journalist inclined to irony, David McNicoll, included the launch of the booklet in his Town Talk column in the 8 March 1949 issue of the Daily Telegraph. See below.

Source:  Trove 248149510

SOURCES

Advocate (1948) 'Australia's Future', Melbourne, 4 November, p 11, accessed 1 Mar 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172500091.   

Catholic Weekly, 1948, 'Strength Will Come out of Population Melting-Pot', Sydney, 21 October, p 3, accessed 1 Mar 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146660540   

McNicoll, David (1949) 'Town Talk', Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 8 March, p 1, accessed 1 Mar 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248149510.   

National Archives of Australia, Department of Information, Central Office; CP815/1, General correspondence files, two number series, 1938 - 1951; 021.148, Immigration - From Minister [correspondence with Immigration Publicity Officer], 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=263676.

Southern Cross (1948) 'Europe's "D.Ps." and Australia (5) Immigration -- Policy and Progress', Adelaide, 29 October, p 8, accessed 1 Mar 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167722104.

   

Margarita Vrubliauskienė (1911 - ?): Canberra goes on strike over Balt housemaid, by Daina Počius and Ann Tündern-Smith

‘When attractive Balt housemaid Margarita Vrubliauskiene waved a mop at the manageress of the hostel where she is employed, it nearly plunged Canberra into a major upset’.

So began one of many newspaper stories about an altercation which almost brought Canberra to a standstill. Over a three-day period in August 1949, newspapers from Innisfail in North Queensland south to Hobart in Tasmania, through Melbourne and Adelaide to Perth and Geraldton in Western Australia reported the situation. Grafton, Lismore, Wagga Wagga, Broken Hill, and Narrabri worried as Canberra negotiated.

The housemaid was Margarita Sadauskaitė-Vrubliauskienė. She was born in 1911 in St Petersburg. She arrived in Australia aged 36 on the First Transport ship, the General Stuart Heintzelman, on 28 November 1947. She was sent to work at the Mulwala Hostel in Canberra on 22 December. The hostel was run by the Department of the Interior for up to 240 public servants in Canberra.

Margarita Vrubliauskiene's photo from her Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When Margarita was ill in bed, she had refused a request from the new management for her to work. This had led to what the Secretary of the Canberra Branch of the Liquor and Allied Trades Employees' Union called “pin-pricking”. Margarita had interpreted something said as a threat to return her to Germany and understandably became hysterical.

On 10 August, she was given 48 hours’ notice of dismissal for alleged insolence and insubordination. Fifty colleagues walked off the job in support of her. The Department of the Interior sent some staff to help but they could not cope, leaving 202 Mulwala residents to prepare their own dinners and breakfasts.

Margarita had worked at Mulwala for nearly two years with no fault found in her work. The local Conciliation Commissioner said that she could stay at Mulwala until another job was found for her but refused to order her reinstatement. Hearing this decision, the 40 employees of Mulwala Hostel who had walked out stayed out. They were on strike! As the strike continued, the residents had to make their own beds and clean up after themselves …

The Commissioner stated that he thought it was in Margarita’s own best interests that another place of work be found for her. He would not reinstate her because, if he did, “Mulwala might as well be handed over to the staff to run it themselves”. Revolutionary thought!

The strikers comprised 23 Balts and 17 Australians. The Balt strikers probably included Viktoria Berdagans who had been sent from Bonegilla to the Hostel together with Margarita. As well, we know from their Bonegilla cards that Ramona Biemelis and Jevgenija Zagorska had arrived to work there soon after. The 202 residents included 13 First Transport women who had been sent to Canberra to work as typists: Irina Fridenbergs, Elvira Kärmik, Heldi Kull, Valeska Lans, Veronika Ludzitis, Lucia Maksim, Vally Meschin, Aino Meere and her sister Maimu Naar, Elin Põldre, Reina Roosvald, Natasha Shersunova and Juta Usin. This headcount from the Bonegilla card records does conflict with statements elsewhere that 10 of the women in Canberra were working as typists.

On the following day, the strikers decided to join Margarita’s case with that of another migrant employee alleged to have received unsatisfactory treatment. Unless both issues were settled, and the manager with his wife removed from Mulwala within 24 hours, the Mulwala staff would seek the support of the staff of 15 other hostels in Canberra, and 5 hotels. Such a general strike would affect around three thousand residents of these establishments.

What was more, a number of newspapers noted, State Premiers, the Federal Cabinet and members of the Liberal Party, all of whom were due to meet in Canberra the following week, would be preparing their own meals. As the Hobart Mercury headlined on 12 August, ‘Tin-openers may be in demand’.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior, responsible for the hostels, asked the Conciliation Commissioner to order the Mulwala strikers back to work. He refused to do this. However, he told the Union that he would not hear an application to vary the award governing its members’ pay and conditions unless they returned to work on 12 August. The hearing for the award variations had been due to start on 15 August, but the Commissioner proposed not starting for another 3 months.

The Union Secretary told the Commissioner that he had advised the staff against striking but they had been reluctant to return to work. They had asked that their problems be discussed with the Union’s executive. The Secretary advised that the general strike would not be started until NSW State executive had considered the situation.

However, the threat of not hearing the case for the award variations worked. On Friday night, 12 August, the strikers decided to return to work on Saturday morning and abide by the decisions of a special meeting of Union members on Sunday. A deputation of staff from Mulwala and another hostel with some issues, Gorman House, headed by the Union Secretary, had called on the head of the Department of the Interior. He had promised to investigate their complaints if they returned to work. The strikers were concerned that if they stayed out, they would prejudice the claims of their fellow members to early consideration of improved conditions.

The Sunday night meeting of 150 Union members decided unanimously that the Mulwala staff should remain at work and abide by conciliation. This was on the basis that the head of the Department of the Interior would make full in inquiries into the actions of the manager and his wife while at both Gorman House and Mulwala House. The strike was over.

The husband and wife management stayed on. We know that Margarita would have been found a new workplace but do not know where it was. As other women from the First Transport were working at 6 of the 15 hostels, there was plenty of choice. We do know that, later on, she was the manager of the Astor Motel in Albury but had remarried a Pole and so changed her family name. The Astor Motel, by the way, recently has been renovated in such a retro style as to earn a report in the New York Times.

As for the hysteria on misunderstanding that she would be sent back to Germany, Margarita has gone out of her way to ensure that she was on the first ship of displaced persons to Australia. She must have heard that all of its passengers were supposed to be single. She had separated from her husband so that she could claim to be single when interviewed, even though anyone with a knowledge of Lithuanians could tell from her surname ending that it belonged to a married woman. She had placed her daughter (actually, her adopted niece) in a German hospital run by nuns. Clearly, she was very keen to get out of Germany, maybe – like many others – keen to get as far away as possible from Europe and war.

Lioginas, her husband, reached Australia on the Svalbard transport on 29 June 1948. He had been a judge in Lithuania but was sent to the Department of Works in Canberra, perhaps so that he could be near his wife. Her daughter, Henrika, was 18 when she arrived on the 12 February 1948 on the Second Transport, the General Stewart. She was employed at Mulwala Hostel with her stepmother. In September 1948, she married a General Heintzelman passenger, Alfredas Kuljurgies, in Canberra.

Henrika painted landscapes from the area surrounding her home on the road from Wodonga to the Bonegilla camp. One painting is held in a public collection, at the Murray Art Museum, Albury. She died in October 2010. She is remembered by the Henrika Kuljurgies Reserve, on a creek which runs through the new Killara village built across the Murray Valley Highway from where she used to live and into the Kiewa River.

Lioginas, Leo in Australia, died in 1984 in Canberra. If we had Margarita’s later married name, we could tell you more about her life too.

Lionginas Vrubliauskas is on the right of this Canberra photo,
a First Transporter, Birute Gruzas, is in the middle and
a gentleman remembered only by the family name Ceposz is on the left.

Source:  Collection of Birute Gruzas

Note:  We have used the 'Balt' descriptor in this article because this is the word that nearly all the newspaper reporters used.  As a noun to describe a native or inhabitant of the 3 Baltic states, it has been around since at least the late 18th century.  It was quickly applied to the Displaced Persons who arrived on the First Transport, since all of them were from the Baltic states.  The Second Transport, however, brought a greater variety of nationalities, mostly from the Baltic States and Yugoslavia but including 11 Poles, 4 Ukrainians and 2 from Czechoslovakia.  From then on, the variety of source countries grew to include all which now had Communist governments.  'Balt' was becoming inaccurate.

In August 1949, Arthur Calwell, who was Minister for Information as well as Australia's first Minister for Immigration, begged the press to use the term 'New Australian' instead of 'Balt, DP or Displaced Persons'.  However, his request was issued on exactly the day that our strikers walked off the job, so the message had not reached the journalists whose reports we have used.

References

Archives ACT, ‘Find of the month, February 2019, Mulwala House, https://www.archives.act.gov.au/find_of_the_month/2019/february/previous-find-of-the-month-22019, accessed 4 July 2023.

Australian National University Archives, ‘Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia’, https://archivescollection.anu.edu.au/index.php/federated-liquor-and-allied-industries-employees-union-of-australia, accessed 3 July 2023.

Holden, Katrina, ‘The Return Of The Great Australian Motel, with Wi-Fi and a Day Spa’, New York Times Style Magazine: Australia, 23 March 2021, https://taustralia.com.au/the-return-of-the-great-australian-motel-with-wi-fi-and-a-day-spa/#, accessed 4 July 2023.

‘Margarita Vrubliauskiene’, AEF DP Registration Record, Arolsen Archives DocID 69771010, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69771010, accessed 5 July 2023.

Mercury (Hobart), 'Tin-openers may be in demand', 12 August 1949, p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26635831, accessed 4 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; KULJURGIS NEE VRUBLIAUSKAITE, Henrika : Year of Birth - 1929 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL STEWART : Number - W 1974, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203635339, accessed 5 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; VRUBLIAUSKAS, Lionginas : Year of Birth - 1906 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - SVALBARD : Number - V 11912, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203714270, accessed 5 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; VRUBLIAUSKIENE, Margarita : Year of Birth - [UNKNOWN] : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1190; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203714271, accessed 5 July 2023.

 

The Age (Melbourne), 'ACT domestics talk strike', 12 August 1949, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/189454321, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Canberra Times, 'Liquor trade to review strike at Mulwala House', 13 August 1949, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2818471, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Canberra Times, 'Mulwala Hostel Staff to Accept Arbitration', 15 August 1949, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2818666/692528, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Canberra Times, 'No award while Mulwala staff is on strike', 12 August 1949, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2818296, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Canberra Times, 'Week-end penalty rates for nurses at Hospital’, 16 August 1949, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2818809, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), 'Hostel strike over Balt girl', 11 August 1949, p 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248978113, accessed 4 July 2023.

 

The Sunday Times (Perth), ‘Waved mop and started a dust-up’, 14 August 1949, p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59493257, accessed 5 July 2023.

The Sydney Morning Herald, '25 D.P.s on strike in Canberra', 11 August 1949, p 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18125036, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Canberra hostel staff to end strike',13 August 1949, p 10, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27584469, accessed 5 July 2023.

Wikipedia, ‘Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_Liquor_and_Allied_Industries_Employees%27_Union_of_Australia, accessed 3 July 2023.

Bonegilla 1947-1948: Two More Weeks, from January 14 to Australia Day by Endrius "Andrew" Jankus

This is the sixth part of the recollections of Endrius Jankus, a Lithuanian refugee who arrived in Australia on the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman. Endrius became known as Andrew in Australia. He was born in Draverna in the south of Lithuania on 7 July 1929 and died in Hobart, Tasmania, on 23 July 2014. He sent the full memoir to me in 2012.

14th January 1948 

Apparently, yesterday afternoon a group of our fellows went to Albury and were greeted with the word, Fascists. Obviously from some "Red Ragger” Communist. 

Then they went to a dance and returned at 3 am, drunk and loud-mouthing everyone — until it came to fisticuffs in the bus. The driver stopped the bus and called the police. With that calm was restored and everyone returned home happy. I wasn't there and only recorded what I was told by one of the participants. 

Today three groups of workers left the camp for their assigned places. They have scattered us all over Australia. Why? We have a fair idea why that was done. 

It was a cold day and in the evening was a film shown in the Great Hall. 

15 January 1948 

Today 128 people left the camp for work. My friend Peter and 15 others, who had been found to have various health problems and sent to Heidelberg Hospital for treatment, were all assigned to their workplaces and left the Camp. 

It was my turn for duty in the mess hall. The weather returned to its warmer self. 

Apparently, one of our fellows was photographed having a punch-up in Albury and his picture was plastered over the local paper. But they didn't know that he was a trained boxer. 

In the evening we were shown a film about Canberra and Perth.

16 January 1948 

Twelve more people left the camp today. There weren’t many of us left in the hut and we spent an uneventful day trying to work out a system to keep in touch with one another. 

17 January 1948 

It was Saturday. In the morning I read my book. Then I went to collect my five shillings pocket money. With it I bought two airmail letters and had a haircut. 

We were informed that today there would not be any dances as was usual on a Saturday. The reason given was that one of the girls was supposed to have been raped last Saturday. This was never confirmed. 

The other story making the Camp rounds was that one of the newspapers was offering 100 pounds to the first local girl to marry a foreigner. How true this was, we never found out. 

18 January 1948 

A non-eventful day. 

19th January 1948 

More of our fellows left the camp this morning for their work assignments. The Camp is slowly being emptied. 

At 8.30 am all males were asked to assemble in the Big Hall. We were told to go and clean the rooms where our classes had been held. We did that, (then) most went for a swim as it was beginning to get very hot. 

In the afternoon, I was called to the Office to fill in and sign some papers. 

After the evening meal, most of us went for a swim again and return to the barracks late at night to sleep. Unfortunately, that was denied to us at first, as the mosquitoes were very active. I appeared to be the main target and for some time could not sleep. 

20 January 1948 

This morning I was called to work and once again sent to the kitchen to wash the big steel pans. The kitchen staff had improved since my last experience of work there. This time they gave me a steel putty knife and a ball of steel wool. 

I was fairly certain that those pans had never been properly cleaned right from the beginning. I suggested to the cooks that they sandblast the pans. Naturally, they probably did not know what I meant. 

I told them that I was to going to see the Commandant. I did that and explained the situation with the cooks. He finally listened to me about the problem. I promised to go and do any work as long as it wasn’t in the kitchen. 

Therefore, after lunch I was assigned to transferring blankets from one store to another. This took all the afternoon until our evening meal. But it made me happy and no doubt the Commandant too. We never saw eye to eye. 

Some 50 years later after my arrival in this country, a friend of ours who was heavily involved in archival research told me that she found my immigration file and another ASIO file on me. This aroused my curiosity. 

I got on the Internet and found my immigration file but the other file was missing. I contacted the Archives and asked to see my two files. The answer came back that there was only one file. Do they even lie in high places?* 

Since one of my best friends was leaving for a work assignment in Tasmania in the morning, we went to the canteen and each bought a portion of ice-cream. We drank some lemonade as a farewell gesture to the end of our friendship. My assignment was still in the lap of the gods. 

21 January 1948

This morning I bade my friend goodbye as he and several others were being sent to Tasmania for forestry work at Maydena. The day turned out to be one of the very hottest. After breakfast, I went swimming in the Lake. Some of our boys had found some 44-gallon steel drums and had built a raft. They christened it Kanimbla after the dirty, filthy, rusty, old bucket that took us from Fremantle to Melbourne. We used that to float about in the Lake. 

We were happily paddling this raft this morning some hundred yards from the shore, when a sudden strong wind kept driving us further out onto the Lake. Four of us kept paddling this unresponsive raft towards the shore, but the wind was just too strong and kept driving us further onto the Lake. Finally, we decided to abandon our Kanimbla by tying her to a tree poking out of the water and all swam back to the shore. 

 On our return, we were going to have our lunch when I accidentally ran into our Commandant, Major Kershaw. My diary doesn’t mention the subject of our conversation and after almost 65 years my memory has failed me. 

After lunch we returned to the Lake for a swim as the heat stifled us and the wind was as fierce as a fire. I got sunburned that day and was in agony for a number of days afterwards. 

23 January 1948 

This morning I was called to the clothing store and given two pairs of pyjamas, a hat and a pair of braces. As I was still suffering from the sunburn, I didn’t do anything but read my book. Only after tea I ventured for a swim.

On my return to the hut, we found one of our friends had returned for a visit. He was one of the fellows who were sent early to work, in the Kiewa valley. He was happy to dig trenches at the project and earning good money. 

He took me and a few others to the canteen to sample the non-alcoholic drinks. He bought us oranges to celebrate our "reunion". It was midnight before we stopped quizzing him about his work, living conditions and pay. 

24th January 1948 

Found my friend P had returned from Heidelberg Hospital. He was one of those people that were found at the Bonegilla x-rays to have damaged lungs. 

The authorities wondered how he got here without being detected in Germany. Well, it was pretty simple. We knew that he had damaged lungs and would not pass the test. In actual fact, he had been shot in the back from an aircraft and the bullet had scarred his lungs. He arrived here with somebody else’s lungs. 

We worried that all those 12-20 people were going to be deported back to the refugee camps in Germany. Instead, they were assigned to jobs like everyone else. Our praise went to Mr Calwell and Mr Chifley. P praised the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital for terrific kindness, variety of foods and the staff’s expertise. 

25 January 1948 

Today it was my turn to work in the various jobs at the camp but I was still suffering from my sunburn. The chap from our Transport who was in charge of the work group today was a kind fellow and sent me back to the hut to rest. 

He himself ended up being assigned to work in Victoria, in the Kiewa Valley. He married a girl from Albury-Wodonga area. They had two sons who became the local soccer stars. 

26 January 1948 

Today I spent the morning organising my wardrobe and packing it up, not that I had much to pack. 

At lunchtime, our Commandant came to the mess hall and singled out our table as being dirty. He and his offsider wrote down everyone’s names in a little notebook. Our table did not appear as dirty as some of the others. Nevertheless, nothing happened. We expected to be called to his office for a pep talk about hygiene.**

To be continued.

Footnote

* The National Archives of Australia (NAA) online Record Search facility shows that the public now has asked to access 2 files on Endrius, plus 2 other items which are only one page, front and back.  One of the smaller items is his 'Bonegilla card', which I have included in previous blog entries.  The confusion over the one or two files likely arose because his selection papers are held in the NAA's Canberra repository while his citizenship application (which included security vetting by ASIO) is held in the Sydney repository.  Presumably, his enquiry was thought to apply to any Canberra holdings only.

** Note the lack of any mention of Australia Day celebrations, compared with the modern focus on this national day.