Hugo Jakobsen (1919-2010): Leader and Teacher by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 16 December 2024

Hugo Jakobsen obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Diploma of Education soon after coming to Australia as a refugee on the First Transport in 1947. First, he had to serve out two years of labouring with the South Australian Railways.

He also had married an Australian, Denise Gum, within three years of arrival. What a quick start to a new life!

Wait, there’s more! He also is credited with being the person who suggested to the Department of Immigration that it should publish a newsletter for new arrivals. He offered to produce it himself. The first issue of the New Australian, produced instead by the Federal Department of Information (of which Arthur Calwell was also Minister) appeared in January 1949. It continued until December 1953, when it was merged with a similar publication with a broader audience, the Good Neighbour.

Hugo as the source of the New Australian idea is acknowledge in a memorandum
to the Minister for Information, Arthur Calwell (also Minister for Immigration)

Source:  NAA, CP815/1, 021.148

He had been born in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn on 3 October 1919, and his sister Anu was born five years later. They were the only children of the Prefect of Police for the Virumaa and Järvemaa provinces of Estonia, who was based in the Virumaa town of Rakvere. They moved upon their father’s retirement in 1934 to the town of Keila, much closer to the capital city of Estonia.

The family started both of the children at school when they were only six years old, although normally Estonian children in the 1920s and 1930s did not start until they were eight. In Rakvere, Hugo attended the Ühis Gümnaasium (the Co-educational High School). After the family moved to Keila, Hugo completed his secondary education at Estonia’s most prestigious school, the Gustav Adolf Gümnaasium in Tallinn.

He was always top of his class, except for one term in which a new arrival, a girl what is more, obtained better scores. He used to create crosswords for the school newspaper. He regarded crossword creation and solving as “mental gymnastics”.

Due to the early start at school, he was too young to undertake the compulsory national service with the military when he completed high school. He attended Tartu University first, completing two and a half years of an arts degree.

The Tartu University’s Album Academicum Universitatis Tartuensis has him enrolled as a student of filos (Philosophy, but maybe the same as an Australian Arts degree) for the years 1937 to 1939. Keeping in mind that the Estonian educational year is from September to June, with summer holidays in July and August, these were the two years and more of his three-year degree.

He was doing his national service when the Soviets invaded Estonia in June 1940. He found that he was now in the Soviet Army. The German military drove the Soviets out at the end of June 1941. Under the Malenkov-Ribbentrop pact, the Germans had evacuated persons in Estonia with German family connections already in 1939. They organised an additional evacuation to the fatherland in 1941. After his experience of the Soviet Army, Hugo was glad to make use of the opportunity to get further away.

The only digitised Arolsen Archives document relating to Hugo’s time in Germany shows that he was living in Schloss Werneck, the Werneck Castle in 1941. Werneck is a market town in Bavaria, in the south of Germany. His occupation is again given as 'Stud.phil.' or student of philosophy (maybe Arts in Australia).

Hugo’s father escaped deportation to Siberia in June 1941, when many thousands of others on Communist hit-lists were herded into cattle trucks in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Having previously held such a high position with the Estonian Government, it was very likely that he would have been on the next train out if the Germans had not arrived first. He died before the Soviets returned in September 1944.

His family realised that they also would have been targeted, so mother and daughter left when warned.

In western Germany, they got word that Hugo was being held in a prisoner of war camp for Latvian generals. Knowing that a big mistake must have occurred, twenty-year-old Anu travelled by herself to this camp, and begged for her brother’s release. He was being held because a Jewish person in the French Zone had claimed that a person with a very similar name had been involved in the torture of Jews.

Anu’s story must have corroborated the one which Hugo was trying to offer, as she was told that he would be released the next day without being asked for further evidence or papers. He was released as promised, from cramped confinement in a space resembling a cage, and spent a short time with his mother and sister in the Augsberg camp for Estonians. Then he found work with an American army unit.

It must have been through this unit that he found out about the Australian team which was in western Germany, recruiting workers.

He was one of the English speakers among the 62 sent from Bonegilla to work for the South Australian Railways (SAR), initially at Wolseley, but then moved to a camp of their own at Bangham.

Hugo Jakobsen’s 1947 ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source: NAA: A2572, JAKOBSEN HUGO

When a journalist from the Border Chronicle reported on them on 15 January 1948, he said of Hugo, “University student for two years in Estonia, and for a further period in Munich, 28-year-old Hugo Jakobsen anticipated with enthusiasm the time when he could resume his broken studies. He had trained as a teacher of German and English in his country, and had studied German, English, philosophy and pedagogics (art of teaching) to fit him for his profession.

“He, too, hoped their period of prescribed labour would not be increased beyond the promised period of one year. In 1944 he had been forced to work in Germany as a farm labourer and waiter. His first impression of the Bangham camp was that they had been ‘buried alive with little opportunity to increase their knowledge of Australia and its language.’”

Hugo and Latvian Nick Kibilds were 2 of 17 men transferred from Bangham to Peterborough, selected because the SAR thought that they had the capacity to be trained as cleaners and porters rather than utilised as unskilled labour. Since these two were fluent in English already, they acted as interpreters for the first two weeks of the course. After that, the other wrote their notes as the words sounded, in phonetic English. They also had teachers from Peterborough running English language classes three times a week.

Flaavi Hodunov (L) with Hugo Jakobsen (R)
possibly at Peterborough, South Australia

Source:  Tatyana Tamm

They also did practical work, with the Adelaide Mail reporting on 8 May 1948 that, “Everyone co-operated, because the Balts were so keen to learn”. They did their exams in English and all obtained good passes, to the delight of their instructors.

While there, Hugo organised a concert for the local residents which featured other Displaced Persons working there. The concert, held on 24 June 1948, was reported the next day by the local Times and Northern Advertiser newspaper.

The local Secretary of the concert’s beneficiary, the Railway Institute, introduced Hugo to the audience. He was described by the newspaper as “an (arts) student from (Estonia) who speaks six languages and acted as announcer”. By June, refugees from later ships had reached Peterborough, so none of the Latvian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian performers were from the First Transport.

After the concert, a Baltic Boys’ Jazz Dance Band, consisting of Hugo on piano with an accordionist and a trumpeter, played music to which all present could dance.

Hugo met Denise at a dance in Adelaide, after the SAR realised that his proficiency in three languages (or was it six?) could be put to better use there than in Peterborough. Denise may well have been an intellectual equal in addition to being a good dance partner. While the public knows nothing about her as an individual after their engagement announcement in the Adelaide Advertiser on 3 October 1949 and marriage on 4 March 1950, pieces of her earlier life made the newspapers.

Before World War II, young Denise was having her creative writing published in the Adelaide Mail. Her poems and a couple of stories appear 6 times between February 1938 and January 1940. She sent in drawings too but was not successful in having them published. In January 1940, having completed seventh grade, she was the top student of the 3 completing their primary education at the Gumville School in the Karte district on the border with Victoria. In a bigger field at the Adelaide High School next year, she won an Adelaide Circulating Library Prize – perhaps for her writing again.

Even before his engagement and marriage, Hugo had returned to study, this time at the University of Adelaide. What he told a fellow student of life at his previous university, in Munich, was so interesting that it was reported to all in the student newspaper, On Dit.

Source: On Dit 4 July 1949

To fund his studies and married life, Hugo moved from the SAR to commerce, selling membership of Adelaide’s Mutual Hospital Association to new arrivals. Mutual Hospital provided both health and life insurance.

He took the oath of allegiance and became an Australian citizen on 15 April 1953.

'Thrilled to become Australians' read the headline, while the caption started, 'Mr Hugo Jakobsen (left), 34, of Warradale Park and Mr Jonas Jakaitis, 33, of Woodville, examining their naturalisation papers at a reception given by the Good Neighbour Council yesterday to mark the naturalisation of 13 New Australians.  Mr Jakobsen is from Estonia and Mr Jakaitis is from Lithuania.' 
Jakaitis has arrived also on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman.

Source: The Advertiser, Adelaide, 16 April 1953

His graduation with a degree in German and history plus a Diploma of Education was reported in the Adelaide Advertiser of 16 March 1954. He had been fortunate enough to have 3 of his previous subjects recognised as equivalent by the University of Adelaide, shortening his course significantly.

Source: The Advertiser, Adelaide, 16 March 1954

By then, Hugo and Denise had two daughters, born in April 1951 and October 1952. Their only son was born in February 1963.

The Advertiser article noted also that he recently had been appointed the manager of retail books at Rigby Ltd. Rigby’s was a part of Adelaide’s and Australia’s history, having once being the largest publisher in Australia. The company was started with a bookshop on Hindley Street, Adelaide, in 1859 by William Charles Rigby. Being appointed to managed the bookshop 95 years later would have indicated Hugo’s prominence in Adelaide’s commercial world.

Hugo had a letter published in the Adelaide Advertiser on 1 January 1954. The Advertiser headed it, “Speech Rights of Migrants, Right to own language”. Hugo wrote, “'Unity' (30/12/53) need not be unduly alarmed about so much 'foreign gabble' in Australia, as it is only a temporary inconvenience he has to put up with.

“When the children of the migrants now attending Australian schools have grown up and start to dominate the scene, they will push the older generation still clinging to their mother tongue into the background.

“His concern, therefore, revealing a spirit more Nazi like than even Hitler's, is entirely uncalled for. It smells of ignorance, immaturity, and intolerance.

“He does not realise that this is a free country where everybody is entitled to live his own private life in pursuit of his individual happiness within the limit of the law without any nosey interference from outsiders.

“Migrants learn, and have learned, English with much better results without legal compulsion because they realise the tremendous advantages which the knowledge of English gives them.”

Being told in public to speak to each other in English was a harassment with which many post-War migrants were greeted. Hugo provided a most sensible answer, perhaps too logical for the “talk Australian” locals.

Hugo did not forged a career with Rigby’s, returning instead to his love of teaching. A daughter remembers that his first appointment was to Elizabeth High School.

Elizabeth was established in 1955 in Adelaide’s north as a home for the workers which South Australia needed for its industrialisation under the Playford Government. Teaching here was a challenge for Hugo, not only because few students were academic achievers but also because of the distance to travel each way when his home was in Warradale, some 40 Km away in Adelaide’s south.

He also taught at LeFevre High, Croydon High and Mitchell Park Boys Technical High School. Towards the end of his career he trained as a teacher librarian and worked at Seacombe High School. He was much happier doing that.

I was taken by Denise to meet Hugo some 50 years later, on 2 January 2004. He was too ill to be interviewed, she had said and, indeed, his dementia made him barely aware of his nursing home surroundings. He seemed not aware that he had visitors, not even his own wife.

But Hugo was tough, lasting more than another 6 years until 8 October 2010. He was 91 years old.

I was shocked to find that Denise had died even as I started to prepare this tribute. She died on 10 January 2024, aged 96, after a short illness.

Footnote

While sorting through his mother's papers after her death, Hugo and Denise's son came across an article in English by his father on how Estonians celebrate Christmas.  No it's posted online at https://www.thevarnishedculture.com/christmas-in-estonia/.

Sources

Arolsen Archives (1941) ‘Name list of resettlers from Estonia and Latvia, who lived in Schloß Werneck in the year 1941’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70553643 accessed 24 October 2024.

Australia, Department of Immigration (1949-53) The New Australian.

Frey, Anne (2024) Personal communication, 26 September.

Jakobsen, Denise and Anu (2004) Personal communications, Adelaide, 2 January.

Jakobsen, Peter (2024) Personal communications, 22 February, 25 September and 25 October.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Information, Central Office; CP815/1 General correspondence files, two number series, 1944 –1950; 021.148, Immigration - From Minister [correspondence with Immigration Publicity Officer], 1947 – 1948, p20-21 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=263676 accessed 26 October 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; Jakobsen, Hugo : Year of Birth – 1919 : Nationality – ESTONIAN : Travelled per – GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 931, 1947 – 1956, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620853, accessed 22 February 2024. 

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per Genera; JAKOBSEN Hugo DOB 3 October 1919, 1947 – 1947, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005793, accessed 22 February 2024. 

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series 1923 – 1971; JAKOBSEN Hugo - Nationality: Estonian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947 – 1953, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4077744, accessed 22 February 2024. 

On Dit (1949) ‘Student Body With No Apathy’, Adelaide, Adelaide University Students’ Representative Council, 4 July, p 3, https://connect.adelaide.edu.au/nodes/view/2087?type=all&lsk=13deab63089f66f25769c519cb7d1780, accessed 23 October 2024.

Rahvusarhiiv Album Academicum Universitatis Tartuensis  https://www.ra.ee/apps/andmed/index.php/matrikkel/view?id=16119&_xr=eNpLtDK0qs60MrBOtDKGMIqtDI2slIpSC0tTi0v0ExNLS5SAYhZWSgWpRal5mbmZUG5WYnZ%252BUnFqHohraKVUCKUNlaxrawGJmhp5 accessed 26 October 2024.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe: Displaced Persons and the North Camp Sale, Victoria, Little Chicken Publishing, pp 141-142.

The Advertiser (1953) 'Thrilled to become Australians' Adelaide p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48284822 accessed 26 October 2024.

The Advertiser (1954) ‘Letters to The Editor’ Adelaide 1 January p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47581070 accessed 28 December 2023.

The Border Chronicle (1948) ’62 Balts at Bangham’ Bordertown, South Australia, 15 January p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212918125 accessed 28 December 2023.

The Mail (1948) ’17 Balts Learn English to be Railwaymen’ Adelaide, South Australia, 8 May p 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55905773 accessed 29 December 2023.

Times and Northern Advertiser (1948) ‘A Musical Treat’ Peterborough, South Australia, 25 June p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110548699 accessed 9 January 2024.

Wikipedia, ‘Education in South Australia’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_South_Australia#Early_childhood_education accessed 17 January 2024. 

Wikipedia, 'Elizabeth, South Australia' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth,_South_Australia accessed 26 October 2024.

 Wikipedia, ‘Rigby Ltd’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigby_Ltd#Rigby_Ltd accessed 21 January 2004.

Artur Klaar (1919-1970): Economics student, accountant, Estonian

Updated 18 July 2024

We've met Artur Klaar already as the fellow Estonian who befriended Flaavi Hodunov in Peterborough.  It's possible that they had become friends at Bangham, at Bonegilla, on the First Transport or even earlier, when they discovered that they had both attended the same public primary school in Narva, Estonia.

Artur was also the best man at Flaavi's wedding on 26 December 1949 and the godfather to Flaavi's first-born daughter in 1951.

Artur Klaar (left) with Flaavi Hodunov on Flaavi's wedding day;
the blue eyes are authentic, according to their Bonegilla cards, but whoever hand-coloured the photo used their imagination for the auburn hair as people of Estonian descent are much more likely to have dark brown or blond hair or sometimes Viking red if they have Swedish blood

The best man and the bridesmaid before the wedding of Flaavi and Walya:
Artur Klaar with G Linke, probably Gladys

Source for both:  Collection of Tatyana Tamm

Born on 1 June 1919, Artur was nearly 8 years older than Flaavi so probably would have been in high school already as Flaavi started primary school. It was not just the same school premises and maybe teachers that they had in common, though.

They both would have remembered many other parts of the small but significant town of Narva. Perhaps the older Artur would have been able to explain things about it that the younger Flaavi had not understood.

Artur Klaar (left) with Walya and Flaavi Hodunov, probably in Peterborough

Source:  Collection of Tatyana Tamm

Their paths had separated after the primary school. Flaavi probably did not start school until the late summer of 1935, as Estonian children still don’t start until after they have turned 7. If he finished primary school at the start of the 1941 summer, this would have been the time when the Soviets retreated ahead of a German advance into Estonia.

We know from Flaavi’s daughter, Tatyana, that Flaavi’s parents sent him to Germany as the Soviet forces invaded again in September 1944, since he had been working with German mechanics.

After finishing primary school around 1932, Artur finished high school around 1938 before becoming a bookkeeper in a bank while enrolled in an economics course at the University of Tartu.

All young Estonian men during the first period of independence (1918-40) were required to do many months of military training after they finished their schooling. Artur had not only completed this but completed an officer’s training course at the military academy. At the end of this, he was promoted to the most junior officer rank, of ensign.

Artur had completed only 1½ years of his economics course when WWII disrupted it. At this point in his story, it is relevant to consider what preceded WWII and the first independence period in Estonian history.

The first known foreign occupiers of Estonia were the Danes, who maybe arrived during the 12th century. The King of Denmark sold the Duchy of Estonia to German crusaders, the Teutonic Order, 1346. While these German occupied themselves with christianising the Estonians, they probably were amongst those who took the opportunity to settle on land which seemed theirs for the taking.

The Swedes came next, ruling over Estonia from 1561 until forced out by a Russian invasion in the early 18th century. During the Swedish period, some Swedes also bought land in Estonia, giving the country a mixture of German and Swedish nobility. The Russian occupation of Estonian was formalised in 1721. In order to keep the nobility on side, the Russians initially gave them more power over the Estonian peasants, who were living on the less salubrious parts of the noble estates.

The Russians had occupied Estonia for more than 200 years when the October Revolution gave the locals a longed-for opportunity to claim their freedom. This became official with a proclamation of independence on 24 February 1918. The Russians, now the Soviet Union, invaded again in August 1940, claiming all the Baltic States as theirs under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler broke this Pact, having decided that Germans needed Lebensraum in the Soviet Union too. German rule returned to Estonia in June 1941, but was under threat again in the summer of 1944.

This history indicates that the Estonians’ lived experience of the German nobility and the Nazis, and Tsarist and Communist Russia meant that, of the two evils, they certainly preferred the Germans. Thus joining the German Army to fight the return of the Russians was not supporting the Nazi regime but opposing the Russians. Many of the Baltic men who came to Australia on what I have called the Fifth Fleet were among those who fought against the Russians, and Artur Klaar was one.

He fought in two major battles, those of Narva and Vaivara, the latter known as the Sinimäed (or Blue Hills) and remembered by Estonians today as a battle in which the Soviet forces were defeated. He was promoted to the rank of junior lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross for his bravery. I know that he was not the only First Transport passenger who had an Iron Cross in his luggage.

The Allies in occupied Germany decided to overlook this form of co-operation with the former Nazi regime. It often happened in circumstances where the young Baltic men had no other option, and sorting out volunteers from conscripts was not worth the effort. As time as proven, the Allies were more interested in removing Communists from the ranks of those migrating to third countries than looking into the details of apparent co-operation with the Nazis.

The report for his September 1947 interview by the Australian selection team in Buchholz refugee camp records that Artur’s knowledge of English then was slight. However, I happen to know from my own mother’s life and a good friend who was studying economics at Tartu University at the same time as her, that a knowledge of English was something of a prerequisite. I imagine that many texts were available in English only, plus English was available as a high school subject.

The report also said that Artur had 6 years experience as an accountant in a bank.  I think this is a bit of an exaggeration.  Six years from the end of high school in the summer of 1938 takes us to the summer of 1944, when the Russians/Soviets were invading again and Artur was fighting the battles of Narva and Vaivara, possibly from February.  There was also the greater part of a year spent around 1939 in compulsory military training.

Only four months later after his arrival in Australia, Artur was sent from Bangham to Peterborough because of his good language skills. That tends to support the idea that he knew some English before starting at Tartu University. His studies there, Edna Davis’ shipboard classes and classes at the Bonegilla camp all would have helped Artur hone his skills.

From Peterborough, Artur was sent to Adelaide to work in the South Australian Railways (SAR) offices. He remained with the SAR for the rest of his life.

In Adelaide, he met and married another Estonian, Silvia Tulina, on 21 June 1951. Silvia had studied medicine for 6 years at the University of Tartu between 1936 and 1942. In Germany from September-October 1944, she had made her way to Göttingen to complete her medical qualifications before travelling to Australia in 1950.

In Australia, Silvia found along with other doctors with European qualifications, that she could not practice medicine here, not without doing the whole course again.

There were so many such instances of this that Egon Kunz, himself with a doctorate from Hungary in Hungarian language, literature and social history plus an Australian doctorate in demography, wrote a book about it. Intruders: Refugee Doctors in Australia was published in 1975.

The situation for those with medical degrees from outside English-speaking nations has changed little since. It can be compared with the struggle which Vytautas Stasiukynas had to obtain employment related to his veterinary science qualifications.

Silvia Klaar was more fortunate than most. At the time she reported her change of name by marriage to the Department of Immigration, Adelaide, for its Aliens Registration records in July 1951, she advised that she was now employed as an assistant pathologist at the University of Adelaide. She was employed in similar non-clinical fields for the rest of her working life.

Artur died way too early, on 6 November 1970, of a heart attack when aged only 51. He would have been employed still by the SAR when this happened.

Silvia told me that Artur was a smoker who could not give up the habit. He also had developed high cholesterol in the days before heart by-pass operations were performed in Australia.

He merited an obituary in the Australian-Estonian newspaper, Meie Kodu, on 3 December 1970. It’s in the Estonian language, of course, but Google Translate now can be a useful starting point for any of us.

The obituary’s author, Richard Ollino, noted that Artur had enrolled again in Economics at the University of Göttigen in Germany, but abandoned this course due to his selection for resettlement in Australia.

Artur then matriculated to the University of Adelaide, but again abandoned the course when bad health interceded. Silvia said that he had passed two Adelaide University subjects at this point. Richard also wrote mysteriously of “a duty, and obligation”, which blocked Artur’s return to study.  Maybe it was his marriage, into which Silvia brought a young daughter.  In any case, three times interrupted might have left him feeling that it was not meant to be.

Richard Ollino’s obituary describes how Artur was able to contribute greatly to the Estonian community in Adelaide. In translation, it reads in part, “The problems of preserving the Estonian spirit abroad were close to his heart. He devoted his strength and energy to Estonian social activities in Adelaide in various fields.

“He was a board member of the Adelaide Estonian Society for a long time, a board member of the Adelaide branch of the Fighters' Association, and a member of the Adelaide Congregation Council of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was always ready to help where a helping hand was needed.

“However, the Estonian community in Adelaide remembers Arthur Klaar most of all for the fact that he, as a founding member of the Estonian House, laid the foundation for our Adelaide Estonian home, in which our national activities now take place.”

This sort of community activity is at least as important volunteering to support the wider community through organisations which might benefit more of those in need, whether it's the Good Neighbour Council and Red Cross like Edvins Baulis, the local hospital or the lost dogs home.  It stabilises a new community in its unfamiliar surrounds and is likely to stop those on the periphery from drifting further away into problems in a foreign language, a foreign society. 

Artur Klaar is at the rear left of this 25 January 1953 photograph
of the elected members of the committee of the Estonian community in Adelaide

Source:  Siska

Despite not completing a degree, Artur continued his membership of Fraternitas Estica, a Latin name meaning 'the Estonian fraternity'. Fraternities for men and sororities for women were a serious, lifelong commitment in Estonia’s one pre-War university and for Estonians in exile.

The fraternity certainly honoured Artur’s life, with its death notices appearing in what might have been all the Estonian community newspapers in the English-speaking world: Vaba Eesti Sõna (Free Estonian Word, America), Vaba Eestlane (Free Estonian, Canada) and Meie Kodu (Our Home, Australia) advised their readers of Artur’s passing.

Sources

Klaar, Silvia (2011) Personal communication.

Korp! Fraternitas Estica (nd) ‘Coetus 1957/1958 [1957/1958 Group]’ https://www.cfe.ee/album-esticum?show=1957#A778 accessed 23 March 2024.

Kunz, Egon (1975). Intruders: Refugee Doctors in Australia. Canberra, Australian National University Press, digital copy now available from https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/114807, accessed 16 May 2024.

Ollino, Richard (1970) 'Artur Klaar, In Memoriam' Meie Kodu, Sydney 30 December, p2 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1970/12/03/ accessed 17 May 2024.

Persian, Jayne (1918) ‘Egon Frank Kunz: Displaced Person’ https://australia-explained.com.au/history-shorts/egon-frank-kunz-displaced-person/ accessed 23 March 2024.

Pocius, Daina et al (2023) 'Vytautas Stasiukynas (1920 –?): The Vet Who Found Happiness in South America' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2024/01/vytautas-stasiukynas-veterinarian-Colombia.html accessed 17 May 2024.

Siska. Voldemar (nd) ‘Eesti ühiskond Lõuna-Austraalias’ [‘The Estonian community in South Australia’] https://www.folklore.ee/rl/fo/austraalia/rmt/EAI/siska.htm accessed 23 March 2024.

Tündern-Smith, Ann (2022) 'The only Australian aboard our Heintzelman voyage, Edna Davis (1906-1985)' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2022/12/edna-davis-only-australian.html accessed 17 May 2024.

Urmenyhazi, Attila (2008) 'Kunz, Egon Francis (Frank) (1922–1997)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/kunz-egon-francis-frank-14133/text25143, accessed 16 May 2024.

More about Flaavi Hodunov (1927-2023): SAR Train Driver by Tatyana Tamm

Flaavi Hodunov was born in Estonia in 1927. He was passenger 201 on the General Stuart Heintzelman, the first ship to bring displaced persons (DPs) to Australia to start a new life after the traumas of WWII. He had just turned 20 years of age when he boarded the ship in Bremerhaven and sailed to Australia.

We have learned something about Flaavi and his wife, Wasylisa, from John Mannion's post about his interview of them.

At the end of the war, Flaavi was unable to return to his homeland due to Russia’s occupation of Estonia. He had worked for the Germans while they occupied Estonia. He was fourteen when Germany invaded, and he began working for Germans mechanics. This would not have been viewed favourably by the Russians, so his parents encouraged him to leave. Sadly, he never saw his family again. At the end of WWII, he applied to Canada and Australia with the latter accepting his application first.

Flaavi's photo taken for an official document
(hence the rivet on the left and partial stamp on the right)
taken in Barmstedt, Germany in the 1940s

While travelling to Australia he began learning the English language. Flaavi was keen to succeed in his new home and took to his studies eagerly. He arrived at Bonegilla, the camp where the DPs were housed until they were assigned work. Flaavi only spent 47 days at the camp, with English classes on most days, before he was sent to work for the South Australian Railways (SAR). He was sent to Bangham along with sixty-one other displaced Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians.

The Bangham camp was situated on the south-east railway line between Custon and Frances. The camp was situated approximately 14.5 kms south of Custon. The countryside was scrub and sand, a far different environment from their homeland of forests and greenery.

This environment was not conducive to the men learning English and they reverted to German as this was a common language amongst them.

During a short stay at Bangham, 17 men were identified as being suitable candidates to attend the new railway school in Peterborough, South Australia, because of their good English. Ten were Lithuanian, four were Latvian and three were Estonian. Peterborough is 248 kms north of Adelaide and 506 kms away from the Bangham camp. Flaavi, despite his short time learning English, was one of those chosen.

Baltic men at Peterborough, 1948:
Flaavi is the shortest man (at 5' 6" or 168 cm), fourth from the right —
Double-click on this or any image below to view a large version

When the men arrived, they were housed in Nissan Huts and worked hard. Flaavi started off first in the cleaning shed then worked his way to a fireman. He would work all day and then at night he would survive on coffee and study hard at English so he could take the requisite tests to become a fireman. He gained his fireman's ticket in December 1949.

Flaavi thrived in the country and enjoyed his time in Peterborough. He celebrated his 21st birthday in 1948 at the Railway Institute Hall.

During those early months in Peterborough, Flaavi was writing back to Europe to a girl he had met in a Stuttgart Displaced Persons camp. She was a Ukrainian DP named Wasylisa Proszko. She had been with her family at the camp, so could not be resettled immediately as Australia was only taking single people with families to follow later. The Proszko family did not arrive in Australia until 1949. In Flaavi’s letters he wrote of life in Australia, wanting Wasylisa to convince her father to come to this land of plenty.

Flaavi made friends with the two other Estonians at Peterborough, Artur Klaar and Hugo Jakobsen. Flaavi and Artur, with the help of the Lutheran Church, moved from the Nissan huts to board with the Linke family on their farm west of Peterborough.

Artur Klaar and Flaavi Hodunov relaxing at the Linke home, 1948

Artur Klaar (left) with Walya and Flaavi in Peterborough, 1949

Once the Proszko family had been accepted by the Australian government for resettlement, they were sent to Bonegilla too. Flaavi with the help of the Lutheran community secured work for Wasylisa on a farm owned by Tom and Margaret Casey in September 1949.  (See the official evidence of that here.)

There were restrictions placed on all DPs by the Australian Government of the day. They had to work where sent for 2 years. They had to apply to get married and they had to wait 5 years before becoming an Australian citizen.

Flaavi and Wasylisa married on 26 December 1949 in the Lutheran Church in Peterborough, once permission had been granted. Wasylisa could no longer work once she was married, so she stayed home. Unfortunately, Flaavi’s work in the railways meant that he was away from home a lot leaving his young wife alone.

The wedding party (from left) with members of the Linke family on the verandah, then Mary Proszko (Wasylisa's middle sister), Dominika Proszko (their mother), Wasylisa, Artur Klaar, Raya Proszko (Wasylisa's younger sister) in front of Artur, the bridesmaid (probably from the Linke family), a Linke family member, another Linke family member and, on the right, Flaavi Hodunov.

When Wasylisa’s mother became ill in Adelaide the following year, she relocated to take care of her mother. She refused to go back to Peterborough as she hated the loneliness and isolation of the town. Flaavi had to apply for a transfer to Adelaide through the railways, which was not easy, but in 1950 he secured work at the Mile End yards and their life together in Adelaide began.

Flaavi was determined to succeed. He continued his studies and in 1952 he became the second New Australian to gain his Engine Driver ticket. The Adelaide News ran a story to say that he was the first New Australian, as repeated by John Mannion in one of his entries in this blog. The same story then appeared in at least 5 regional South and Western Australian newspapers as well as the Department of Immigration’s magazine, the New Australian.

The story was picked up from the New Australian to be repeated by the Adelaide Advertiser's columnist, who signed himself Wm Waymouth. The SAR contacted that paper to say that the first migrant engine driver was Andrij Wyshnja, a Ukrainian who had qualified one year before Flaavi. Waymouth ran an apology on the following day, but it was not picked up by the other press which had repeated the story.

Not the first DP engine driver for SAR

Becoming a train driver was a major achievement for a man who had only 6 years of formal schooling. This was not the only achievement that Flaavi was to have in those early years in Australia.

Once he and his wife were settled, living with her mother and father, they had their first daughter Irene, born in 1951. Flaavi obtained a block of land in Brooklyn Park and began building his home mostly by himself. He would work long hours to earn the money needed to build the house and then spend all his spare time working on his home. It took him about three years to do it. The family moved into their home in 1955.

An Adelaide newspaper article about Flaavi, his family and the new home:
it's repetition of the error about Flaavi being the first 'new Australian in SA to hold a rating', 
suggests it is from the News rather than the Advertiser and the date is likely to be 1955

Their daughter, Irene, was four at the time. The following year they had their second daughter, Tatyana, and then 18 months later their third daughter, Lena. Their family was complete and life for Flaavi Hodunov flourished in his adopted home.

Flaavi enjoyed working in the railways. Although released from his contract with the Federal Government, he remained employed by the SAR for 37 years before he retired at the age of fifty-eight due to industrial hearing loss.

Flaavi lived in his own home until June 2023, when frailty caused him to be placed into a nursing home until his passing.

In the end Australia was more his home than his native home of Estonia. He arrived on 28 November 1947 and just one day before the 76 anniversary, on 27 November 2023 he passed away. He never returned to the country in where he was born.

Note:  All images are from the collection of the author, Tatyana Tamm, Flaavi's middle daughter.

References

New Australian, ‘First new Australian train driver’ Canberra, August 1952 p 4.

News, ‘New Australian Drives Loco’ Adelaide, 21 June 1952, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130274483 accessed 24 April 2024. 

Waymouth, William (1952) ‘Good Morning! Good as new’, Advertiser, Adelaide, 11 September, p2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47408025 accessed 26 April 2024. 

Waymouth, William (1952) ‘Good Morning!’, Advertiser, Adelaide, 11 September, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47416433 accessed 26 April 2024.

Miervaldis Indriksons (1918-1948): Fatal Workplace Accident by Ann Tündern-Smith

We have learned already that Miervaldis Indriksons was killed by a workplace accident at Naracoorte, South Australia, while working as directed for the South Australian Railways (SAR).

Miervaldis Indriksons, ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source: NAA: A2571, INDRIKSONS, MIERVALDIS

He was using a front end loader to fill in a dam at the railway station. The machine toppled over the edge of the dam and rolled several times. As the Border Chronicle put it, “capsized and somersaulted”. Miervaldis tried to jump clear, but caught his foot in the steering wheel. He was dragged into the dam and his back was broken.

Another newspaper report (in the Adelaide Advertiser) of the accident says that he was thrown clear, but then the machine rolled onto him.

He was taken to the local hospital but died less two hours after the accident, half an hour after reaching the hospital, from his internal injuries, on 15 September 1948. The report of the Australian interviewing panel in Germany has added to it, ‘Deceased, 11.30 am, 15/9/48’ – although the person who added the exact time did so more than 8 years later.

The coroner had decided that an inquest was unnecessary, perhaps because the cause of death was so obvious, no matter what the discrepancies in the details. These days, one is much more likely to be held in order to work out ways of such a horrible accident happening again. How about installing roll cages on all SAR earthmoving equipment or, better still, enclosed drivers’ cabins?

Miervaldis might have been driving a machine like this 1956 Ford tractor
with front-end loader attachment and no protection for the driver

Source:  Tays Auctions

Lutheran Pastor K Hartmann of Bordertown conducted the funeral the next day. The SAR arranged transport to allow his fellow countrymen to attend. The funeral also was attended by the Engineer in Charge of the broadening, EL Walpole, the man who was to speak to the Mount Gambier Rotary Club eight days later on what the broadening project involved (see previous entry).

His fellow countrymen must have been the ones who told the Border Chronicle reporter that Miervaldis had been the only surviving member of a family of eight, his parents, brothers, sisters and wife all having been killed during the War. There was believed to be a small son still alive in Europe.

Miervaldis had been born in Helsinki, Finland, on 16 January 1918. Finland had been part of Tsarist Russia, along with his family’s Latvian homeland, until declaring independence on 6 December 1917. Russia’s new Bolshevik Government recognised that independence on 31 December, only 16 days before Miervaldis was born into a time of great change.

His parents were the former Lavize Balodis and Mikelis Indreksons.

By the time he found himself in the American Zone of Germany after World War II, he was admitting to being married, with two dependents. At the time of being interviewed for possible resettlement in Australia, he was in a camp for Latvians in Lübeck, northern Germany.

His usual occupation was šoferis or chauffeur/driver and mehāniķis or mechanic. His level of education, according to the report of the Australian interviewing panel, was 6 years of elementary school. That interviewing panel recorded that he had 3 years of experience as a mechanic in Latvia.

His Bonegilla card has ‘None’ typed into the Next of Kin space: presumably the marriage had broken down since declared on 3 April 1946.

Sources

Naming the 62 Balts to Bangham (1948-49) by Ann Tündern-Smith

The 62 Baltic refugees sent to Bangham via Wolseley in South Australia from the First Transport via Bonegilla were named on a 'Schedule' prepared by the Commonweatlth Employment Service and placed on their file 21 in the series MT29/1. You can click here to see the original forms.

I thank Jonas Mockunas for digging deeply into his pocket to pay to have this large file digitised.

I've added links to the names of those men who have been mentioned or discussed in previous blog entries and will update the links as more biographies get written.

THE DISPLACED PERSONS OR BALTS PICTURED

Most of the original 62 men from the Heintzelman to Bangham are likely to be in this photo

Collection of Tatyana Tamm

THE DISPLACED PERSONS NAMED

Lithuanians

• Bataitis, Viktoras
• Bielkis, Vladas
• Bimba, Jonas
• Blasevicius, Juozas
• Bliukys, Tadas
• Brazauskas, Antanas
• Budrionis, Antanas
• Bukucinskas, Kazys
• Bulke, Petras
• Caplikas, Jonas
• Dailyde or Dailide, Vladas
• Daulenskis, Kleopoas
• Deimantas, Povilas
• Donela, Juozas
• Draugelis, Jonas
• Duoba, Pranas
• Dziaugys, Jonas
• Fedaravicius, Jonas
• Grabauskas, Jurgis
• Guoba, Jurgis
• Guscia, Stepos
• Gustainis, Vytautas
• Jakaitis, Jonas
• Jakstas, Fridrikas
• Jakubauskas, Jonas
• Janonis, Zenonas
• Jarusevicius, Jonas
• Jasinskas, Vaclovas
• Jasulevicius, Justinas
• Juzulenas, Raimondas/Raimundas
• Kalikas, Domas
• Kaminskas, Benediktas
• Kanisauskas, Antanas
• Knystaustas, Antanas
• Paisiunas, Leonas
• Sinkunas, Vladas

Latvians

• Berzkalns, Zanis
• Broders, Girts
• Brunavs, Gunars
• Dukalskis, Nikolajs
• Enkuzis, Roberts
• Gilucs, Francis
• Burdikovs or Budrikovs, Ojars
• Graudins, Modris
• Iljicevs, Alfreds
• Indriksons, Miervaldis
• Irbe, Gordijs-Edgars
• Janitens, Alfons
• Jakobsons, Gunars
• Jurgensons, Voldemars
• Kaulins, Egons
• Kibilds, Nikoljs
• Kirpiconoks, Aleksandrs
• Kiselis, Janis
• Kocins, Richards
• Kolesnikovs, Janis

Estonians

• Hodunov, Flaavi
• Jakobsen, Hugo
• Kang, Eduard
• Klaar, Artur

SOURCE

National Archives of Australia, Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1947 - 1950; 21, Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia - [Schedule no SA1 to SA31], 1948 - 1950; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 9 July 2024.

Balts at Bangham (1948-49) Part 2, by Ann Tündern-Smith

We previously have looked at the work which the 62 men sent to Bangham, South Australia, for the State’s Railways (SAR) Commission were expected to do. We’ve noted also that, maybe one month arrival their arrival, 17 or 18 were sent via Adelaide to Peterborough, to train as porters and cleaners.

BANGHAM CAMP CONDITIONS

How the men had been living was described in a May 1948 report from the Commissioner for Railways, who wrote, “In the camp at Bangham, the men are living under AWU [Australian Workers Union] conditions, and the camps have to be reasonably mobile, while at the same time conforming to the conditions under the award or agreement covering AWU workers.

The Bangham tent camp is at the rear of the shelter shed;
in the foreground, it appears that the broad gauge line has been laid while the narrow gauge remains in place, with some spare rails to the left of the line;
Question:  how did the photographer get this perspective in 1948-49 without a drone?

Photograph courtesy of Tatyana Tamm

“It is not, therefore, practicable to establish more buildings at Bangham, even if we could get the material.

"The camp, consists of tents, mess rooms, ablution, and sanitary facilities, but there is no recreation hall.

“Whatever additional amenities are provided will have to be general to all AWU camps, if demanded, or we shall be accused of giving amenities to Balts which we could not give to Australians. The men in this camp work a five-day week and are at liberty to be away from the camp from 4.30 p.m. Friday until 7.30 a.m. Monday.

"It is the intention, as soon as possible, to provide a large camp at Narracoorte [sic] where men from Bangham and other isolated camps in the South-East can spend the week-end."

The Commissioner for Railways was replying to representations from the Hon LH Densley, Member of the Legislative Council, who also was a member of the Tatiata District Council.  The Commissioner’s reply was published in the Narracoorte Herald of 17 May and the Border Watch of 20 May.

While Mr Densley’s letter has not been published, the nature of the commissioner’s reply and Mr Densley’s dual memberships suggest that he certainly was a civic-minded individual.

Sanitary facilities at the camp could be condemned by the local medical officer as inadequate, the Tatiata Council’s Health Officer, Dr KD Krantz, commented on the reply.

In moving that Cr Densley be thanked for his representations in the matter, another Councillor said that an inspection of the camp could be made by the Health Inspector, and if sanitary conditions were found to be inadequate, a report could be submitted to Council.

The local Health Inspector carried out this instruction and reported back to the Council that, “Sanitary arrangements consist of a series of movable cubicles over pits on a sandy rise. Cubicles are moved on to fresh pits and old ones filled in at frequent intervals. However, washup water and some kitchen refuse was being deposited in a shallow hole near the kitchen. I instructed the camp attendant to provide refuse buckets and have the material buried each day.

“I do not consider that these men are being subjected to any undue hardships in regard to camping conditions as the amenities provided for them are equal to those provided for local men under similar conditions." This report appeared in Bordertown’s Border Chronicle of 17 June 1948.

Did the men feel that the conditions were only a slight improvement on those endured when drafted into the German Army, as many of them had been? At least there were not bombs and bullets flying around, but see below.

It wasn’t only moving the rails from the train which had brought them to the Wolseley railway yards (as discussed in the previous blog entry) which was dangerous. Even travelling to work might have more than normal dangers.

On 2 September 1948, a ganger probably had had his life saved by former medical students after a motor trolley carrying the men had stopped suddenly. The ganger was thrown heavily to the ground when a bar came lose, creating an obstruction which led to the sudden stop. After being treated on the scene, the ganger was admitted to hospital with several head injuries as well as a broken leg and ribs, according to Border Chronicle.

At this time, we do not know if this incident involved anyone from the First Transport. Tragically, a workplace accident did lead to the death of one of the First Transporters later that month.

Miervaldis Indriksons' ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA

Miervaldis Indriksons, then aged only 30, was driving a front end loader to fill in a railway dam at Narracoorte. The machine toppled and Indriksons tried to jump clear, but caught his foot in the steering wheel. He was taken to the local hospital but died two hours later from his internal injuries, on 15 September 1948.

Lutheran Pastor K Hartman of Bordertown conducted the funeral the next day. The railways arranged transport to allow his fellow countrymen to attend. The funeral also was attended by the Engineer in Charge of the broadening, EL Walpole, the man who was to speak to the Mount Gambier Rotary Club eight days later on what the broadening project involved (see previous entry).

His fellow countrymen must have been the ones who told the Border Chronicle reporter that Miervaldis had been the only surviving member of a family of eight killed during the War. There was believed to be a small son still alive in Europe.

Pastor Hartman had been keeping an eye on the Bangham men since he first visited on 14 January. He discovered that none of the 20 Protestants had a copy of the Bible in English. The next day, the Border Chronicle published his letter appealing for financial help to purchase bibles for the men, with a parallel version in their mother tongue if possible.

There were other incidents among the Bangham men involving the First Transporters. One was Petras Bulke, a Lithuanian who had to be admitted to hospital in March 1948 after accidentally swallowing some kerosene. As the Border Chronicle reported at the time, “Mr Bulke was performing a trick which involved its use”.

It looks like problems getting Petras Bulke to medical assistance had been included in Mr Densley’s letter, since the Railway Commissioner’s reply included, "The Engineer-in-Charge of the work has the responsibility for seeing that sick or injured men are conveyed to the nearest doctor, and, so far as I am aware, his duties in this respect are not neglected even when the injuries are the result of brawls after working hours.

"The particular case referred to by Dr. Krantz was of an unusual character, and the delay in conveying the men (sic) to Bordertown was due to prompt advice not being given to the Engineer at Wolseley. We do not of course, keep ambulance vehicles at each camp, but first aid out fits, and employees qualified in first aid are available at all camps."

Dr Krantz further commented to the Tatiata Council that the delay in the case of kerosene poisoning was due to lack of telephone communication. Sometimes vehicles were not available and bad roads were also an obstacle. The lack of telephones in the Bangham area made the news also in August, when a public meeting in Bordertown agreed to petition the Post-Master General to provide telephone services from Bordertown to the area.

The Railway Commissioner had mentioned brawls after hours. This was not the only public mention of violent behaviour among young men traumatised by being caught up in World War II, mostly most unwillingly.

The Border Chronicle of 29 April 1948 reported that Aleksandrs Kirpiconoks, along with a later Latvian arrival, both probably without legal representation, had pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest at Wolseley one Saturday earlier in that month. They were each fined £1 with 7/6 costs on the first charge and £2 plus 10/6 interpreter’s fee on the second charge.

A schedule from the Commonwealth Employment Service tells us that the men had been promised a weekly income of £5/19/6. This was a bit more than the basic wage at the time, reported in the Mount Gambier Border Watch as being £5/8/- in Adelaide from the beginning of the first pay period in February. This probably was a gross salary, with Pay As You Go tax yet to be deducted. As well, Railways might have been deducting more to cover the cost of the food for the men, and maybe even the cost of employing the “camp attendant”. The total of £3/17/6 to be paid by Kirpiconoks and his friend may well have swallowed up one week’s wages for both.

Also during April 1948, police were called to sort out a “disturbance” among some of the Baltic men on a freight train on which they were travelling back to the Bangham camp. Several windows were broken. The railway authorities would not allow the train to depart until the melee was sorted out. The result was two of the First Transporters, Antanas Brazauskas and Antanas Budrionis appearing before two Justices of the Peace on charges of wilful damage, for breaking the railway windows, and offensive behaviour. Again prrobably without legal representation, both pleaded guilty and were each fined £1 with 17/6 costs on the first count and £1 with 10/6 interpreter’s fee on the second. The total this time was £3/8/-, still a sobering amount of their weekly income.

In all fairness, I must point out that 9 other miscreants appeared before the Wolseley Court during the month covered by this report. Most cases involved drinking, fighting or “disorderly behaviour”. I have not found more reports of the Bangham camp residents appearing before the courts.

Another untoward incident in January 1949 involved one of the men already mentioned, Antanas Brazauskas. He was attacked in his tent by a fellow Lithuanian who he had regarded as a friend. The attacker found a rifle in Brazauskas’ tent and fired it about twenty times, it was alleged, piercing holes in the tent fabric.

Despite injuries, Brazauskas was able to stagger to the tent of two others who took him to a third tent, where he was “carefully guarded”. One of the men in the third tent, Feliksas Subacius, also was from the First Transport. The men tried to get police help, but had to wait for a day until a policeman from Wolseley arrived.

The men prepared a report to the Regional Director of Employment, Adelaide, claiming that this was not the first time that the attacker had moved against other men. “In the meantime”, they reported, “we approached our superiors and told them that our lives were endangered through the presence of the offender, and that either he or we would have to leave the camp”. The railway authorities had not removed the attacker or informed the men of their intentions by the time they had stipulated, so they had gone to Adelaide to lodge their complaint.

They had asked the Chief Engineer’s Department to give them employment somewhere else in the SAR. The men had been transferred to Terowie, more than 500 Km from Bangham and less than 25 Km from Peterborough.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

“These Baltic immigrants are, generally, reasonably well educated, and a proportion of them have a smattering of English. The latter are selected for transfer to other centres where English is taught, and they are trained for railway traffic duties. The others gradually acquire a knowledge of English from daily contact with Australian workmen.

“It is not practicable for the Railways Commissioner to supply transport to enable a Bordertown school teacher to visit the Bangham camp at nights (as) suggested nor is it practicable to provide additional amenities in these camps for the reasons given. It is considered, however, that the camp at Narracoorte, when constructed will provide relaxation at weekends.”

Relaxation at weekends probably was not what the Hon LH Densley MLC was seeking for the men in his letter referenced above, but it was the conclusion reached by the Railways Commissioner in the reply presented to the Tatiana District Council in May 1948.

Elsewhere I have read that the SAR was employing English-speaking migrants from a variety of places in the United Kingdom, leading the Baltic employees to wonder which English they were supposed to be acquiring by daily contact.

Three months later, another letter, this time to the Adelaide Advertiser from a church minister based in Bordertown, appealed for English language classes for the group at Bangham. He wrote that “constant association with these men has revealed that they have definite potentialities of becoming some of our finest Australian citizens. But, how can these potentialities develop into realities if they are debarred reasonable opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the language of the country?

“Most of these men began their work with the railways with a knowledge of English which barely exceeded ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Repeated representations have been made to responsible authorities about the camp at Bangham, with the reply that it is ‘impracticable’ to make arrangements for an English teacher to visit it.”

As noted already, the 17 or 18 men speakers of good or excellent English had left in February, while Girts Broders, the original leader appointed by the Employment authorities in Bonegilla, probably had gone too. We have to hope that there were good English speakers among the later groups or the men were somehow picking up enough English to survive from their Australian colleagues.

English lessons finally arrived at the camp in December 1948, after a petition from the SAR at Bangham. The 40 students were supplied with free notebooks and a textbook called, “English for Newcomers to Australia” when they attended their first Friday night class on 10 December. But then their lessons came to an abrupt end, as their new teacher was leaving the district. The plan, thank goodness, was to obtain the services of another teacher in the new year.

It would be good to report that this plan was actioned, but I can find no further mention of English classes for the Bangham men in the South Australian newspapers digitised by Trove, at least until the men probably had left by the end of October 1949.

Indeed, the only 1949 report is the shoot up of Antanas Brazauskas’ tent in January and its consequences. Either the Bangham camp had settled down, or the local press reporters and their editors had lost interest.

Sources

Border Chronicle (1948) 'Balt Swallows Kerosene' Bordertown, SA 25 March p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212918840 accessed 29 December 2023.

Border Chronicle (1948) 'English Classes for Balts' Bordertown, SA 16 December p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212921875 accessed 29 December 2023

Border Chronicle (1948) 'Petition for Telephonic Service to Bangham Area' Bordertown, SA 19 August p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212920470 accessed 20 April 2024.

Border Chronicle (1948) 'Sanitary conditions at Wolseley Railway Station "A Menace"' Bordertown, SA 17 June p 1

Border Chronicle (1949) 'Balts Leave Bangham Camp After Disturbance' Bordertown, SA 10 February p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212922409 accessed 15 April 2024.

Border Watch (1948) 'Basic Wage Increase' Mount Gambier, SA 20 January p 12 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78592298 accessed 20 Apr 2024.

Chronicle (1948) 'Labour Shortage Delays New Gauge' Adelaide, SA 21 October p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93211360 accessed 15 April 2024.

Hartman, K (1948) ‘Bibles for Immigrants’, Border Chronicle, Bordertown, SA, 15 January, p 7, https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212918131, accessed 16 April 2024.

Hartman, KE (1948) 'Tuition for Balts' Advertiser Adelaide 28 August 1948 p 2 194808  https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43780741 accessed 29 December 2023.

Narracoorte Herald (1949) ‘Balts Leave Bangham Camp After Disturbance: Lithuanian attacked and injured’ Narracoorte, SA 14  February p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147143280 accessed 15 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules; 21 (1947 – 1950), Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia – [Schedule no SA1 to SA31], 1948 – 1950, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 7 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947–1956; INDRIKSONS, Miervaldis : Year of Birth - 1918 : Nationality - LATVIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 761, 1947–1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203644069 accessed 15 May 2024.

Wikipedia, 'Les Densley' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Densley accessed 15 April 2024.