Jonas Urbonas (1921-1994): Another Lithuanian Scout Leader in Australia, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

We’ve met Jonas Urbonas several times already, nearly always in connection with scouting activities.

Jonas Urbonas' photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Migrant Experience

This is particularly because of the article he wrote for a Lithuanian-language scouting publication in June 1948, with a title translated into English of, This is How the Meetings were Held: The Third Meeting of the Scouts. We’ve translated the whole of the article already in this blog.

Looking specifically for more material on Jonas, Rasa has found a significant contribution from him to the Lithuanian camp at the first Pan-Pacific Jamboree at Yarra Brae, Victoria. The Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) newspaper reported that, the (Adelaide) Advertiser had noted that a Lithuanian troop was participating, proud to be "New Australians”.

Many of them had already been working in Australia for 12 months. Being devout Catholics, they erected a cross made of eucalyptus branches featuring a figure of Christ in the centre; this figure was carved with a pocket knife by Scout Jonas Urbonas, who worked for the South Australian Railways.

There’s more on the camp in our earlier blog entries on Borisas Dainutis and Bolius Kunciunas.

While the newspapers’ reports show that Jonas had moved to the SAR, he had been one of the 64 or 65 from the First Transport sent to work initially for South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) on 7 or 8 January 1948, who camped at Bedford Park.

His Bonegilla card reports this but also notes, sadly, that the names and addresses of any relatives, particularly outside Lithuania, were “unknown”.

The report of his interview by the Australian selection team in Germany says that he was one of those who had “fled from (the) Russian regime”. At the time of the interview, he was living in a DP camp in Würzberg, presumably the city in northern Bavaria rather than the small village in Hesse.

He had had 5 years of elementary school in Lithuania, plus 5 years study of electrical engineering. This would be why the American Expeditionary Force DP Registration Record stated that his usual occupation was Technician.

The Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration kept one of its useful record cards for his changes of residence and employer – but it is in the one handwriting of someone who did not include dates …

We see the card starting with Jonas living in Wakefield Street, Adelaide, and working for the SAR as a Labourer, then moving to the SAR Hostel at Tailem Bend, next to Lake Alexandrina which forms at the mouth of Australia’s largest river, the Murray.

The following move was to work with the Kelvinator Company, manufacturer of refrigerators, as an electrician. He was back in Adelaide then, living on Melbourne Street in North Adelaide.

The final move recorded was to Eureka Street, in Kelvin Grove, a suburb of Queensland’s capital city, Brisbane. At least the front of the card gives us an idea of the time, since his file was transferred to Immigration’s Brisbane Office on 24 September 1952.

The front of the card also records his release from the “two-year” contract to work where sent on the normal date of 30 September 1949.

The name and number of the file were changed to suit Brisbane’s filing system, so Jonas’ original Application for Registration as an Alien on 1 January 1948, while still in the Bonegilla camp, is there. Also filed is his original Alien Certificate, a passport-like document. It dates the move to Tailem Bend as being notified in March 1949 and the move to Melbourne Street, Adelaide to December 1950. The move to Brisbane was notified on 13 September 1952, while 2 more suburban Brisbane addresses are noted.

The certificate was surrendered when Jonas obtained Australian citizenship, which was on 13 June 1957. He no longer was an “Alien”.

Apart from writing about a gathering on the shore of Lake Hume, where the Bonegilla Camp was located, and that carved figure of Christ at the Pan-Pacific Jamboree, what did Jonas do for Lithuanian scouting in Australia to earn a special mention by Bronius Žalys, writing 49 years later?

The Lithuanian scouts in Queensland had begun to organise in 1949. Alfonsas Alčiauskas in early 1952 founded the co-ed Kęstutis Troop, which later reorganized into the Venta Local District. This was led from 1952 to 1972 by Jonas.

Also in 1952, he became the Assistant Patrol Leader to Rimgaudas Budrys of a Rover Scout unit named after Dr Vincas Kudirka, which had first met on 5 May.

During the next year, he was involved in a motor accident when a car hit the motorcycle on which he was a passenger. Alfonsas Alciauskas (the scout troop founder), 23, single, of Gordon Street, Stone's Corner, was the motorcyclist, who received a lacerated scalp, but Jonas suffered a fractured right arm and an injury to his leg. An ambulance took them to the General Hospital.

The car swerved across the road, mounted the footpath, snapped a wooden awning post, then crashed into a shop window. Despite this, its driver was not hurt.

Luda Popenhagen wrote, in her book on Australian Lithuanians, that more than 400 present in Brisbane in 1950 restructured and became officially the Brisbane Lithuanian Community.  Its office-bearers during its first decade include J. Urbonas and 2 more whom we have come across above, A. Alciauskas and R. Budrys.

There may be more to Jonas’ life, but what is missing is an obituary. Someone who moved from Brisbane to rural Gympie, 150 km north, was removed from those who might be inclined to report to the Lithuanian press. Indeed, he did not even get a notice there when he died on 11 November 1994.

We know his date of death only from a Find A Grave photograph of his grave in the Gympie cemetery. We know from this also that he married to Maria Fredericka, but we do not know anything more about the marriage. For one thing, Queensland’s Births, Deaths and Marriage Registry allows public access to its records only 75 years after the marriage.

Jonas' gravestone in the Gympie cemetery

Source:  Michelle on Find A Grave

We only know Maria's first name from the gravestone, so perhaps the person who added her middle  name to the Find A Grave website was granted access to the cemetery’s records.

That the headstone records Maria’s details also suggests that there was someone to look after this once she had gone, perhaps a child or children. The Find A Grave website for “John” Urbonas also records the names of Jonas' mother and father, hinting even more strongly that someone with a deep knowledge of the family was involved in the burial.

Jonas had been born in Kuršėnai city, Lithuania, on 10 November 1921 to the former Teklė Sutkevičiūtė and to Pranas Urbonas Urbonavičius. The church recorded that the parents were from the Lithuanian nobility.

Urbonavičius is a Polonisation of the original Urbonas, to which our Jonas had reverted by the time he was in Germany.

CITE THIS AS: Jonas Urbonas (1921-1994): Another Lithuanian Scout Leader in Australia, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

SOURCES:

'AEF DP Registration Record, Jonas Urbonas’ Folder DP4339, names from URBANCZYK, Berta to URBANAS, ZENONAS (2), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from U, DocID 69561988, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69561988, accessed 11 October 2026.

Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1949) ‘Naujienos iš Skautų Jamboree’ (‘News from the Scout Jamboree’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 3 January, p 20 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280321548, accessed 11 October 2026.

Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1952) ‘Įsisteigė Vyčių Būrelis’ (‘Knights Group was Established’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 14 July, p 12 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280312509, accessed 11 October 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection ‘Jonas Urbonas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203722171, accessed 11 October 2026.

Brisbane Telegraph (1955) ‘Miscellaneous’ Brisbane, Qld, 11 May, p 39 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/293874825, accessed 11 October 2026.

Cemety, ‘Teklė Urbonavičienė, Born: 1884, Died: 1950’ https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1171380?type=deceased, accessed 10 October 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1957) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 5 December, p 3780 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232987549/25083504, accessed 10 October 2026.

Courier-Mail (1953) ‘Two injured, Collided; Hit Window’ Brisbane, Qld, 29 September, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51081733, accessed 11 October 2026.

Elektroninis Archyvų Informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archives Information System), ‘Kauno dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Viekšniai deanery’, in Lithuanian), Kuršėnai Church Nr 235 of 1921, p 78 https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-viewer/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267315746/280169181/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=78, accessed 10 October 2026.

Find A Grave ‘John Urbonas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169436814/john-urbonas, accessed 11 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 684, URBONAS Jonas DOB 10 November 1921, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118103, accessed 11 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Queensland Branch; BP25/1, Alien registration papers, alphabetical series by country of citizenship, 1939-1966; LITHUANIAN URBONAS J, Urbonas Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - arrived Fremantle on ship General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1954 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5087388, accessed 11 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; URBONAS JONAS, URBONAS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1952; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7171935, accessed 11 October 2026.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; URBONAS JONAS, URBONAS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1058, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203722171, accessed 11 October 2026.

Popenhagen, Luda (2012) Australian Lithuanians Sydney, NSW, UNSW Press p 115.

Wikipedia ‘Würzburg’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%BCrzburg, accessed 11 October 2026.

Žalys, Bronius (1972) ‘Po svetimu dangum, L.S.S. Australijos Rajono Jubiliejiniai 25 – Metis’ (‘Under A Foreign Sky, Lithuanian Scouts Association Australian District 25th Anniversary’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 16 October, p 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1972/1972-10-16-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 11 October 2026.

Žalys, Bronius (1996) ‘Pėdsekys, LSS Australijos rajono 50-mečiui artėjant‘ (‘Pathfinder, As the 50th Anniversary of the [Lithuanian Scouts] Australian District Approaches’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 25 November, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-11-25-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 19 September 2026.

Jonas Urbonas on This is How the Meetings were Held: The Third Meeting of the Scouts, translated by Rasa Ščevinsienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 1 August 2026.

[Ann Tündern-Smith acknowledges much help from Google Translate for her paragraphs.]

We start the meeting late in the evening by a blazing fire, on the shore of the Lake.*

Twelve scouts gather. We begin the meeting with the troop's official announcements. Once these solemn announcements—sad, yet filled with resolve and love for the Fatherland—have been read, Borisas Dainutis reads a report in which he sheds light on the foundations of the Lithuanian nation and our tasks as scouts in distant Australia. The annoying smoke from the fire does not distract our thoughts and we immediately solve a few questions about the future.

Our leader, Borisas, invites us to repeat the scout's motto. After the subdued voices of the repetition, he invites us to tie a second knot in our scarves, as a symbol of our love for our Motherland and a reminder to sacrifice only for it. And this knot will be untied only when, having made the greatest sacrifices for the Motherland, we return to our dear homeland.

Tomorrow the first swallow will fly away from us into an unknown future. It is Brother (Vytas) Kunčiūnas. By the burning bonfire we say goodbye to him and the other brothers who are preparing to leave this emigrant camp.

Jonas Urbonas was already 26 years old when he left Bonegilla 2 days after Vytas

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Brother Kunčiūnas' words, full of deep sincerity, touch the heart of every Scout. He remembers the last moments spent in the Homeland, the separation from his parents, and the tears rolling down his cheeks do not allow him to finish his farewell speech.

Then we all part ways and leave the gardens of the homeland, hoping to return to the homeland again before the storms of war hit. We are tightly bound by our mutual promises, although the weapons of war do not ring and we are not pursued by the occupiers and our goals have already changed, but we are united by common ideas, we dare to meet in camps and at conventions. Although the vast distances and various obstacles separate us, we press on, wishing our brother Vytas good luck and travel to join others at the Pacific Jamboree. After the traditional words are said, we leave the campfire.

I have no doubt that everyone felt our family togetherness this evening. They felt the bond that binds us tightly with mutual promises. Although only a few meetings have passed by this bonfire, they will become symbolic. These three bonfires will smoulder in us and remind us of the great promise: to God, to the Homeland and to our Neighbour. So, to work, brothers, we are still laden with the tasks of the Homeland.

Let us be prepared!

J. Urbonas, 6 January 1948, Bonegilla

* Ann has evidence from elsewhere that the locals really were very worried about whether the Baltic newcomers would understand how dangerous fire was in their new environment, as reported by Jonas Motiejūnas in the previous entry. Presumably, the fire on the shore of Lake Hume did not get out of control, but we still have to hope that the Scouts, being prepared, had lots of buckets on hand.

SOURCE: Urbonas, Jonas (1948) ‘3. Taip vykdavo sueigos: Trečioji vyčių sueiga’ Skautu aidas (Scouting Echo) Augustdorf bei Detmold, Germany, 15 June, pp 29-30 https://www.spauda2.org/skautu_aidas/archive/1948/1948-Nr05-06-SKAUTU-AIDAS.pdf, accessed 24 July 2026.

Jonas Motiejūnas on How the Lithuanian Scouts in Australia Started, with Ann Tündern-Smith (with much help from Google Translate and Gemini.ai)

Updated 1 August 2026.

Back in August last year, we looked at the life of Jonas Motiejūnas, who had been made leader of the Lithuanian men on the First Transport in the Diepholz camp where all had been gathered to await their departure to Australia one week later.

Jonas Motiejunas' ID photograph from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

We have also looked at how Borisas Dainutis, chosen by the Lithuanian scouts' organisation in Germany to lead the scouts going to Australia, devoted himself to a campaign of having them recognised as a discrete unit within the Australian scouting movement.  That was in July last year.

Photograph of Borisas Dainutis attached to his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Now these two themes come together, in an article written by Jonas for a scouting publication in Germany detailing how the scouts organised themselves while on the General Heintzelman and in their first days in Australia.  It is in English below, with lots of help from Google Translate and Gemini.ai.

The first meeting of the Lithuanian Scouts going to Australia took place on 9 November 1947, on board our ship, General Stuart Heinzelman, passing through the Suez Canal. The scout authorised to take care of the Lithuanian scouts travelling to Australia, Assistant Section Leader Borisas Dainutis, took over the duties of the leader, choosing Assistant Section Leader Algirdas Liubinskas as his deputy.

Algirdas Liubinskas (left) and Borisas Dainutis at the First Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree,
Yarra Brae, Victoria 1948-49

Source:  Weekly Times, Melbourne, 5 January 1949

Here, the idea of dividing the scouts into groups was introduced. It also was decided to strictly monitor the behaviour of the scouts and, if necessary, to immediately remove them from scouting, because our task as the first Lithuanian scouts is to represent our homeland and its culture in the best possible way.

On the evening of 10 November, the next meeting took place on the deck of the ship.  After reading the orders to the group, its leader reminded everyone in warm words of the tasks of the Lithuanian scouts in Australia.  He highlighting the consequences of good behaviour and scouting for our nation and for the future of the country.  

Scout and folk songs echoed on the ship and the waves of the Red Sea, uniting the scouts of the new company in close friendship. It was proposed to think about the name of the group and prepare for a bonfire.

On the evening of November 14, on the deck, while the ship was sailing in the Arabian Sea, there was a joint meeting of the younger scouts and senior scouts. In the official proceedings, order No. 3 was followed by a rendition of the anthem, "Lithuanians we were born".

The leader read a long essay by Lord Baden-Powell about the tasks and duties of a Venturer Scout.  At intervals, there was singing.  On this occasion, the leader once again urged us, in sharp words, to think carefully about remaining in the ranks of the scouts, because the tasks were great and the duties heavy.  Participation in the national dance group was clarified and it was asked to prepare performances for the next meeting.  Finally, the Vyčiai song (the anthem for the Rover Scouts) was performed.

On 15 November, the management met, with the participation of the Girl Scouts' leader, Konstancija Brundzaitė.

The leaders of the groups were ordered to collect personal information and scouting knowledge from the scouts, to repeat all scout knowledge in the groups and to prepare for a joint public bonfire with the Latvians and Estonians. 

After discussion, it was agreed that the Vyčiai (Rover) badge must be worn below the Union badge near the left pocket. The name of the society should express our irrepressible desire to return to the homeland. The meeting was concluded with a minute of silence, remembering our native land and our Vyčiai duties to it.

In the evening of 19 November, a joint meeting of Venturer and Rover scouts was held. Many did not participate.  The songs intended to be sung at the joint bonfire were rehearsed.

The long-awaited joint Lithuanian-Latvian-Estonian bonfire was held on the upper deck of the ship  on 22 November at 7 pm.  All free seats were occupied by passengers interested in the bonfire. The IRO representative, Lithuanian Captain Žibās, and the ship's commander with his team watched the performances from the bridge. 

The countless Estonians performed especially beautifully.  The Lithuanians were weak, especially in singing, although two-thirds of the participants were from our country.  Not enough effort and practice!

I cannot discuss the bonfire program in more detail, because the wind caught hold of my sheet of notes, lifted it to the top of the mast and blew it into the ocean. 

The bonfire was led by Lithuanians, Assistant Section Leader Algirdas Liubinskas and Senior Sea Scout Patrol Leader Aleksandras Gabecas.

In  Fremantle, on 30 November, in order to get acquainted with the newly arrived scouts, the Australian Sea Scouts’ District Commissioner, Brother Jack, arrived at the Swanbourne camp.  There, some of our men had spent a few days of rest after a 10,231 nautical mile (18,948 kilometre) journey.  He invited several senior scouts to go and see the Sea Scout headquarters.  It was agreed immediately to hold a joint bonfire in the evening.

The Australians liked our program at the previous evening's bonfire so much that they invited us to repeat it during the scout hour on radio on the evening of 1 December. The hastily gathered Lithuanians and Estonians went by train to the radio station.  Balanda Dulaityte (already Mrs Liubinskienė, although this was not known to the authorities) explained our origin and arrival in English .

The sailors' march was sung, and Juozas Songaila played a medley of national melodies (on his piano accordion). The Estonians sang several songs. Everywhere we were shown great sincerity.

None of these three Skaudu Aidas articles mention the arrival in Melbourne
but Gabecas' article includes this photograph of Australian Girl Guides
waiting to greet the Lithuanian scouts;
there's at least one equally interesting element in the upper right,
which looks like a young lady in a very short skirt for the times and white boots

Source:  Skaudu Aidas

In the Bonegilla camp, on 18 December, a Chief Scout representative from Melbourne, another scouting official and a Girl Scout leader came to visit. Having greeted the scouts of all three nationalities who had gathered together with kind words, he was pleased that Australia had received many new scout leaders, whom it lacked. A few songs were sung in the visitors' honour.

Later on 18 December, scouts of the city of Albury visited. Unfortunately, due to the long drought, the danger of bush fires was so great that we had to be content with a kerosene lamp.

Here I should note that in Australia, bushfires are quite frequent and cause very great losses, as entire grain farms, sheep and cattle herds burn, and it is very difficult to fight the fire when everything is completely dry. 

Again, there was a singing session.  Aleksandras Gabecas performed excellently with a string of bottles tied to a pole and filled with water.  The Australian leaders were presented with our scouting publications, and they rewarded us with fruit.

On 4 January 1948, there was another meeting, during which a tracking exercise was conducted.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  This story ends abruptly, perhaps due to a decision by the editor of the publication in which it appeared, Skautų Aidas or Scouting Echo, published during 1923-2023 and, in 1947, being edited in a DP camp in Augustdorf bei Detmold, Germany.  I thought it might be because the next item, by Jonas Urbonas, might continue the story without a break.  It does not.  Instead, it is about a campfire on 6 January when the Scouts farewelled their "first swallow", Vytas Kunciunas, who was off to Pyramid Hill.

We've already used some of that article in a biography of Vytas in this blog, when we found it reprinted in Mūsų Pastogė some 50 years later.

What is missing from this sequence is the drowning of Aleksandras Vasiliauskas on 4 January 1948 and his funeral, in which the scouts played a leading role, on 5 January.

NOTE:  This is the second item in a series written by Lithuanian Scouts who resettled in Australia.  We have not translated the first item, as it is about the voyage to Australia on a later Transport.  The second item, on a campfire at Bonegilla in early January was written by Jonas Urbonas and the third, from Aleksandras Gabecas, is about moving to his first job in Tasmania (at Rosebery, about which Jonas Mockūnas has written already.)

CITE THIS AS:  Motiejūnas, Jonas (1948) (How the Lithuanian Scouts in Australia Started) Translation and comments from Ann Tündern-Smith with Google Translate and Gemini.au.

SOURCE:  Skautų Aidas (Scouting Echo) (1948) 'Įspūdžiai Is Kelionės Australijon, 2. Jau Laive' ('Impressions From a Trip to Australia, 2. Already on Board', in Lithuanian) Augustdorf bei Detmold, Germany, 15 June, p 29 https://www.spauda2.org/skautu_aidas/archive/1948/1948-Nr05-06-SKAUTU-AIDAS.pdf, accessed 17 July 2026.

Bolius (Balys) (1924-2011) and Vytautas (Vytas) (1926-1993) Kunčiūnas: Lithuanian brothers or half-brothers? By Rasa Ščevinskiene and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 30 April 2026.

Same father, different mothers?

Bolius and Vytautas Kunčiūnas have one record each in the Arolsen Archives.  It shows them as having the same father, Stasys Kunčiūnas and coming from the same place, Raseiniai in Lithuania.  This could either have been a small town with a population of 5270 in the 1923 Census, nearly half of whom were Jewish, or the larger county, part of Samogitia.

The difference is that Bolius’ mother is recorded as Konstancija Bendikaite while Vytas’ mother is said to be Konstancija Šilaikaite.  The two American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) DP Registration Records were signed off with the same signature on the same date (13.10.45) and at the same place, Assembly Center No. 24.

Is it possible that there is a spelling mistake with one of the mother’s surnames?  Rasa says yes, it is possible.  Ann says that the same official filling out both forms on the day, in the same place, makes it unlikely.

Also unlikely is that two successive wives might be called Konstancija, but Ann suggests that this might be one of the reasons why Stays Kunčiūnas , if a widower with a baby son, might have started talking with the second Konstancija.  By the way, there are no online records of a Konstancija Kunčiūnas dying or being buried.

Both young men are recorded as Roman Catholic on the General Stuart Heintzelman passenger list, so there was no possibility of Stasys and Konstancija Bendikaite divorcing in the 1920s, between the birth of Bolius, on 24 April 1924, and Vytas, on 12 September 1926.  Should they have separated, the baby Bolius surely would gone with his mother, so what then were the chances of the two reaching Germany together or both applying for and being selected for the same ship to Australia?

Vytautas Kunčiūnas in Australia

Someone made sure that Vytas travelled under a false name though, because he became Vytas Kuniciunas on the Heintzelman passenger list and in subsequent documents on arrival in Australia.

Vytautas Kunciunas photograph from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When he left the Bonegilla camp for the Pyramid Hill Quarries on 7 January 1948, the same hand which wrote his destination in flowing script also wrote “unknown” in the space for his next of kin.  Whoever typed out Bolius’ Bonegilla card has recorded “brother, Vitas Kunciunas” in that next of kin space.  Ann notes that “brother” is still shorthand when the accurate relationship is “half-brother” (and also in the case of step-brother).

The person completing Vytas’ card probably had forgotten to ask him.

The evening befoore Vytas’ departure from Bonegilla for Pyramid Hill on 7 January 1948 was memorable enough for Jonas Urbonas to record it in his diary for 6 January.  The entry was republished in the Mūsų Pastogė edition of 5 August 1996, in preparation for the 50th anniversary of Lithuanian scouting in Australia.  The translation of Jonas’ entry reads as follow:

“Tomorrow the first swallow will fly away from us into an unknown future.  It is Brother Kunčiūnas.  By the burning bonfire we say goodbye to him and the other brothers who are preparing to leave this emigrant camp.  Brother Kunčiūnas' words, full of deep sincerity, touch the heart of every Scout.  He remembers the last moments spent in the Homeland, the separation from his parents, and the tears rolling down his cheeks did not allow him to finish his farewell speech.

“Then we all parted ways and left the gardens of the homeland, hoping to return to the homeland again before the storms of war hit.  We are tightly bound by our mutual promises, although the weapons of war do not ring and we are not pursued by the occupiers and our goals have already changed, but we are united by common ideas, we dare to meet in camps and at conventions.  Although the vast distances and various obstacles separate us, we press on, wishing our brother Vytas good luck and a joint flight to the Pacific Jamboree.  After the traditional words are said, we leave the campfire."

Vytautas While in Germany

As for other members of the family, an April 1946 notice in the post-War, Lithuanian language newspaper, Žiburiai (Lights), had Vytas looking for his sister, Aldona Kunčiūnaitė, and brothers Jonas and Algirdas Kunčiūnas.

Vytas was living at 6a Altenberg Strasse, Borghorst, Wesphalia. Vytas added Münster to this address, but this bombed city was close to uninhabitable at the time. Perhaps he was trying to give readers a better idea of where he was than using only the name of the much smaller Borghorst, which also offered support to DPs.

The address also shows that Vytas had found private accommodation rather than living in a DP camp.

Bolius in Germany

A mid-1947 issue of another Lithuanian-language newspaper, Lietuvių žodis (Lithuanian Word) reported on a basketball competition organised by the Reppner YMCA.  B Kunčiunas played on the winning team.  As Repner is some 200 Km from Münster, it is unlikely that Bolius was travelling that distance in the conditions of post-War Germany to play basketball.

It is worth noting that Camp 24, where both Bolius and Vytas were registered in 1945, was a Repner camp for Baltic refugees.  It looks like Vytas moved out of the camp and to Borghorst for whatever reason.

On the other hand, it looks like the brothers were communicating with each other in order for both to be interviewed for the first refugee ship to Australia.  And Vytas wasn’t looking for Bolius as well in that Žiburiai notice because he knew where Bolius was.

Bolius Kunčiūnas in Australia

While Vytas was one of the 7 sent to the Pyramid Hill granite quarry, Bolius was one of 2 sent to the sawmill at Togganoggera in New South Wales.  We recently posted what we know of the other man sent to Togganoggera, Mečys Laurinavičius.   Mečys moved to the NSW capital city, Sydney, but Bolius moved instead to Victoria’s capital, Melbourne – perhaps because his brother headed there when his time at Pyramid Hill was over.

Bolius Kunciunas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Bolius’ occupation on the AEF DP Registration Recorded was stated to be student. Student of what, you may well ask.  It looks like architecture, because that is where he finished up in Australia.

Presumably he continued his studies when possible while he worked in jobs as relevant as possible.  We draw this conclusion from Bolius being added to the Register of Architects in Victoria in 1964, his 17th year in Australia.  This length of time suggests that he may have had something of a struggle to obtain his registration, as did a fellow architect from the First Transport, Ernst Kesa.  Kesa, however, had qualified as an architect in Europe and was able to work in the field before registration because his qualification also encompassed engineering.

Moving as far away from Melbourne as Darwin in order to do related work shows how keen Bolius was.  We know about his time in Darwin from social notes, Diana’s Diary, in a Darwin newspaper, the Northern Standard.  In March 1953, “Diana” recorded Bolius Kunciunas among the staff of the Drawing Office of the Department of Works who met at a Darwin hotel to farewell one of their number leaving on a holiday.

The online Dictionary of Unsung Architects, in its entry on D Graeme Lumsden, mentions Bolius Kunciunas as an architect “known to have passed through the office over the years“.  Since we cannot find Bolius’ work as an architect mentioned anywhere else on the Web, we could say that there was even less singing about it than about Graeme Lumsden’s work.  Lumsden was based in Melbourne, so Bolius must have left Darwin.

Bolius, also known as Balys to Lithuanians and Bill to Australians, was in Melbourne in 1955.  We know this because that is when he married another Lithuanian, Gražina Natalija, whose family name formerly was Bitė.  He was living in the Melbourne suburb of North Coburg when he became an Australian citizen on 2 May 1957.   Gražina had to wait one month more for citizenship, until 11 June 1957.

Bolius’ electoral roll records from 1963 to 1980 have been digitised by Ancestry.  On 8 March 1963, he and Gražina still were living in North Coburg but, by 19 April, they had moved to from their inner city home to the outer suburb of Nunawading.  On both occasions, his stated occupation was draftsman.  This continued into the 1980 entry, despite his registration as a qualified architect in 1964.

What is different about the 1980 entry is that it includes two more members of the Kunciunas family, male and female, both students but clearly having reached the age of 18. This means that Bolius and Gražina had their two children 18 years before the unrecorded date on which the 1980 roll was made up, that is, in 1958 or earlier.

The Melbourne Immigration Museum has a public artwork that pays tribute to 7000 people who have made the journey to Victoria.  Located in the northern garden of the Museum, its original artwork was designed by a Melbourne-based artist, Evangelos Sakaris, and launched in 1998.  Gina Batsakis led the design for the following stages of the project, which concluded in 2002.  Immigrants were invited to immortalise their own and family names there on payment of $100 for each name.  Bolius and Gražina (nee Bitė) Kunčiūnas and family were among the names so immortalised.

Morta Prasmutiene, widow of First Transporter Karolis Prašmutas, centre,
in the Immigration Museum's Tribute Garden

Source:  Birutė Prašmutaitė in Mūsų Pastogė

Bolius died on 19 September 2011, aged 87, and was cremated in Springvale Botanical Cemetery.  When Gražina died on 1 June 2019, she was cremated there too.  The Cemeteries Trust notes that, in both instances, the cremated remains were collected. They would have no memorial gravestones.

Vytas in Melbourne

Vytas may well have settled in Melbourne before his older brother.  For instance, he married there 2 years before Bolius, in 1953.  His bride was the former Ina Irena Špokevičiūtė.

He and Ina already had become such a part of Melbourne’s Lithuanian community that their marriage was reported in the Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) national, Lithuanian-language newspaper, on 2 September 1953.  Rasa’s translation of the correspondent’s report follows.

“A few weeks ago, the local Lithuanian community was expanded by another Lithuanian family, created by two regular local Lithuanian folk dancers and members of the Aidas choir, Vytautas Kunčiūnas and Ina Špokevičiūtė.

“V. Kunčiūnas has been diligently representing the Lithuanian name in Australia since his performances on the first transport ship.  In addition to folk dances and Lithuanian songs, he is also hardworking in the scout organisation.

“The young Kunčiūnas couple settled in the beautiful Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, in their own brick house, which they purchased with the joint efforts of the young woman's mother and two brothers.  Good luck to the young couple in continuing to represent the Lithuanian name.”

Vytautas and Ina were naturalised together on 23 January 1958.

Vytas’ and Ina’s electoral roll entries record that they were still at the Ivanhoe address in 1958, when he had “nil” occupation but Ina was working as a nurse.  By 1968 he was living without Ina in Armadale, a suburb about 12 Km south of Ivanhoe, and working as a draftsman.  He most likely got the idea for that career from his brother, Bolius.

The next electoral roll entry, for 1968, has him at the same Armadale address, still working as a draftsman, but this time sharing his flat with Genovaite Kunciunas.  The details for their 1972 entry are the same, while no later rolls for Vytas and wife have been digitised with indexing.   While we have the marriage details for Vytas and Ina, his marriage to Genovaite was too recent for the details to be public yet.

The next news we have of Vytautas is not good.  Tėviškės Aidai reported on 20 July 1993 that he was seriously ill, being treated in the intensive care unit of the Alfred Hospital.  He received Sacraments of the Sick on 11 July.

Vytautas had died before the news of his illness was published.  He passed on 12 July, aged only 66.  The 27 July issue of Tėviškės Aidai reported that the Rosary was said at the Tobin Chapel in Malvern.  The funeral Mass was celebrated by priest Pranas Dauknys at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, West Melbourne, the Lithuanian community’s church, on 15 July.  Vytautas was buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.  His wife Genovaitė, family and relatives were said to have remained in deep sorrow.

Genovaitė was buried with Vytautas 20 years after his death

Source:  Mary on Find A Grave

Vytautas and Ina probably had been able to divorce under Australian law, much more liberal than that of Lithuania in the 1920s.  The Ryerson Index records that Ina Kunciunas, still using her married name, died when living at Safety Beach, on the Mornington Peninsula south of the main Melbourne conurbation.   As Ryerson is recording a probate notice published on 2 November 2005 in the Melbourne Age, we don’t know her date of death but can assume that it was earlier in 2005.

Vytautas had moved from the brick home in Ivanhoe and the flat in Armadale to the inner south of Melbourne, the suburb of Elsternwick, before his death.

Vytautas and Bolius Both Scouts

Mūsų Pastogė noted above that Vytas had been “hardworking in the scout organisation”. In fact, both brothers were scouts.  A history of Lithuanian scouting in Australia was published in November 1996 in Mūsų Pastogė, in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of its foundation on the First Transport sailing to Australia.  It reported that the 46 boy scouts and 7 girl scouts on board were divided into 6 troops, with both Balys and Vytas in Troop 3.

Bolius was able to participate in the historic first gathering of Lithuanian scouts at the first Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree on the Yarra Brae property in Wonga Park, Victoria, organised by Borisas Dainutis.  He was recorded there in a photograph of some attending published by Tėviškės Aidai in its preparation for the celebration of 50 years of Australian Lithuanian scouting.

Tėviškės Aidai published this photograph from the First Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree 47 years later, with a caption which reads, translated, "Lithuanian Scout camp at the Pan-Pacific Jamboree near Melbourne, 23.1.49.  From left: Gabrielius Žemkalnis, Vytautas Neverauskas, Viktoras Kučinskas, Benediktas Kaminskas, an Australian priest in a scout uniform, the Bishop of Melbourne,
Dr. J. Simonds; behind the Bishop from the left, Balys Kunčiūnas, behind the Bishop from the right in the back, unidentified, next to the Bishop with a smile, Borisas Dainutis, and at the back right, unidentified.  Next year, 1997, will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the
Lithuanian Scout Union in Australia.

Source:  Tėviškės Aidai 

We do not know if Vytas was able to attend also, as promised by Jonas Urbonas in January 1948.  The Melbourne Age of 27 December reported that Borisas with 29 other scouts had moved in already on Christmas Day.  Vytas may have been among the 22 not included in the photograph above.

SOURCES

Age (1948) ‘Canvas Tent City Rises at Wonga Park’ Melbourne, 27 December, p 4 https://www.newspapers.com/image/124518561/, accessed 15 June 2025.

'AEF DP Registration Record' [Bolius KUNCIUNAS], Folder DP2214, names from KUNCAR, Jan to KÜHNE, Horst (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from KR /, DocID: 67916900 (Bolius KUNCIÚNAS), https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67916900, accessed 29 March 2026.

'AEF DP Registration Record' [Vytautas KUNCIUNAS], Folder DP2214, names from KUNCAR, Jan to KÜHNE, Horst (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from KR /, DocID: 67916901 (Vytautas KUNCIUNAS) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67916901, accessed 29 March 2026.

Ancestry.com ‘All Census & Voter Lists results for Bolius Kunciunas’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/35/?name=Bolius_Kunciunas+&birth=_victoria-australia_30099&location=5027&priority=australian, accessed 6 April 2026.

Ancestry.com ‘All Census & Voter Lists results for Vytautas Kunciunas’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/35/?name=Vytautas_Kunciunas+&birth=_victoria-australia_30099&location=5027&priority=australian, accessed 6 April 2026.

Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria [1953 marriage of Vytautas Stasys Kunciunas and Ina Irena nee Spokevicius] https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/efamily-history/69c720acba4add19229d3dfe/results?q=efamily, viewed 28 March 2026.

Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria [1955 marriage of Balys Kunciunas and Grazina Natalija nee Bite] https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/efamily-history/69c720acba4add19229d3dfe/results?q=efamily, viewed 28 March 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Bolius Kunciunas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203635508, accessed 28 March 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Vytas Kuniciunas’ (sic) https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203635549, accessed 28 March 2026.

Built Heritage Pty Ltd, ‘Dictionary of Unsung Architects, D Graeme Lumsden (1915-1995)’ https://www.builtheritage.com.au/dua_lumsden.html, accessed 28 March 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1957) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ [Bolius Kunciunas], Canberra, ACT, 3 October, page 2976 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232986663/25082694, viewed 28 March 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ [Grazina Kunciunas], Canberra, ACT, 8 May, p 1438, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240891979/25976026, viewed 28 March 2026.

Find A Grave, 'Vytautas Kunciunas' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/215665500/vytautas-kunciunas#view-photo=338878801, accessed 30 April 2026.

Immigration Museum, ‘Tribute Garden’ https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/tribute-garden/, accessed 28 March 2026.

Lietuvių žodis (Lithuanian Word) (1947) ‘Sportas’ (‘Sport’, in Lithuanian) Detmold, Germany, 31 July, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_lietuviu_zodis/archive/1947-07-31-LIETUVIU-ZODIS.pdf, accessed 28 March 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1953) ‘Nauja šeima‘ (‘New Family’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 2 September, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259363045, accessed 6 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1996) ‘Pėdsekys: LSS Australijos rajono 50-mečiui artėjant‘ (‘Footprint: As the 50th anniversary of the LSS Australian District approaches’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 18 November, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-11-18-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 6 April 2026.

My Tributes, ‘Funeral Notice for Kunciunas, Bolius’ [Publication: Herald Sun; Date Listed: 22/9/2011] https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/funeral-notices/kunciunas-bolius/3385212/, accessed 6 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KUNCIUNAS BOLIUS, KUNCIUNAS, Bolius : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 557, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203635508, accessed 6 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KUNICIUNAS (sic) VYTAS, KUNICIUNAS (sic), Vytas : Year of Birth - 1926 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 556, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203635549, accessed 6 April 2026.

Northern Standard (1953) 'Diana's Diary' Darwin, NT, 12 March, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49484566, viewed 28 March 2026.

Prašmutaitė, Birute (2001) ‘Melbourne Imigracijos Muziejus’ (Melbourne Immigration Museum’ in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 29 January, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2001/2001-01-29-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 28 March 2026.

Ryerson [Ina Kunciunas] https://ryersonindex.org/search.php, accessed 6 April 2026.

Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, ‘Bolius Kunciunas, Springvale Botanical Cemetery’ https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search/detail?id=f4310462-509a-ef11-8a6a-6045bdc2c606, accessed 6 April 2026.

Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, ‘Grazina Natalija Kunciunas, Springvale Botanical Cemetery’ https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search/detail?id=156f3df1-559a-ef11-8a6a-002248957765, accessed 6 April 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1993) 'Iš mūsų parapijų, Melbournas' ('From our Parishes, Melbourne', in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 20 July, p 7 http://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1993/1993-07-20-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 8 April 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1993) 'Iš mūsų parapijų, Melbournas' ('From our Parishes, Melbourne', in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 20 July, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1993/1993-07-27-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 8 April 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1996) ‘Rajono Vadija (‘District Governor’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 6 August, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1996/1996-nr30-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 29 March 2026.

Victoria, Government Gazette (1965) ‘Architects Act, The Architects Registration Board of Victoria, Additions To The Register Made During the Year Ended 31st December, 1964’ [1896, Kunciunas, Bolius] Melbourne, Vic, 3 March, p 468 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1965/V/general/14.pdf, accessed 6 April 2026.

Žiburiai (Lights) (1946) ‘Paieškojimai’ (‘Searches’, in Lithuanian), Augsburg, Germany, 27 April, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-04-27-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 6 April 2026.

The Kildišas Brothers, Jonas and Adolfas, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 29 June 2026.

The Kildišas family came from Joniškis, a town and a surrounding municipality of the same name in northern Lithuania. Of the four children in the family, two came to Australia, a married older brother with a 2-year-old child went to America with his family in 1949 and a sister stayed with her parents in Lithuania.

Jonas Kildišas (1921-1964)

Jonas died too early, aged only 42, and 2 months after becoming an Australia citizen

Born on 11 August 1921 in Joniškis, he attended a trade school in Klaipėda.  According to the report of his selection interview for resettlement in Australia, this was after 6 years of primary school.  He was at the trade school for 4 years, learning to be a motor mechanic.  He also had worked as a farmer for 3 years, possibly after his arrival in Germany in May 1942.

At the time of his application for resettlement, he had been working as a mechanic and living at the 82 DPAC Voerde.  DPAC stands for Displaced Persons Assembly Centre — a DP camp — and Voerde was a town on the Rhine River, so in the far west of central Germany.   

Jonas Kildišas photo from his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The languages in which he said he was fluent were Lithuanian and Polish, although he must have picked up some German and English since leaving Lithuania.

From the Bonegilla camp, he was one the many men sent to Victoria’s Goulburn Valley to pick fruit. In his case, he was working for Messrs Turnbull Brothers of Ardmona.  He was one of those who gave up early, returning to Bonegilla on 23 February after little more than 3 weeks away.

He probably was unwell, because he spent the period from 27 February to 5 March 1948 in the Albury District Hospital.

Jonas Kildišas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

With another Lithuanian, Mecislovas Tutlys, he was sent to Dookie Agricultural College, near the Goulbourn Valley, on 24 June.  His Bonegilla card does not record that he was working in the Bonegilla camp from early March until then but, presumably, he was not left to his own devices after weekday English language classes.

At Dookie, they were joined by Borisas Dainutis in mid-July.   We’ve already described how hard Borisas worked to set up Lithuanian scouting in Australia.  Vytautas Sakalauskas arrived in early September and a fifth Lithuanian man, Jonas Asmonas, came three weeks later.

Jonas later worked in an electric motor workshop, married Eleonora Grabytė and settled in Melbourne.

One morning after breakfast, he thought about going for a walk, but while pulling on his jacket, he felt faint. His wife called the doctor, who diagnosed a heart attack and immediately sent him to the hospital. The attack passed, and he feel quite well. After a couple of weeks, one morning it got worse, and Jonas called a priest. Another attack had started.

Jonas died of heart disease in Prince Henry’s Hospital on 26 June 1964. He is buried in in Fawkner Cemetery.

He left his wife Eleonora and a 4-year-old son, Victor. Victor completed a Bachelor of Applied Science in metallurgy at the University of Melbourne in 1980. Now retired, he describes himself as a “self-taught, high-level, improvisatory pianist and chess player”. He is an internationally known chess player with a FIDE ranking.

Adolfas Kildišas (1924-2021)

Adolfas was born nearly 3 years after Jonas, on 8 June 1924.  The report of his selection interview for resettlement in Australia says that he had 6 years of primary school and one and a half years in a trade school, training to be a mechanic.  That training may well have been interrupted by the Russian invasion in June 1940.

The period of time in which he had worked as a motor mechanic was 4 years, so either included some time in Nazi Germany or perhaps back home, in Lithuania.  He also had worked on a farm in Germany for 8 months.  

The application form gave Lithuanian as the only language in which he was fluent, although he must have picked up some German and English after his arrival in Germany in July 1944.

Like his brother, Jonas, Adolfas  was living at the 82 DPAC Voerde,  a Displaced Persons camp in a town on the Rhine in western Germany.   Clearly, they had been able to track each other down.

From the Bonegilla camp, he was sent to work for the South Australian Salt Company, at 191A Victoria Square West, Adelaide, along with 8 others, in January 1948.

Adolfas Kildišas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Since South Australia has a number of places where salt has been mined historically, including places where salt production continues, we do not know where this group of 9 worked.

A likely place is Deep Creek, on the edge of suburban Adelaide, only 12 Km north of Victoria Square. Another possibility is that he was one of a party of an intended 10 about which the Adelaide Advertiser wrote on 10 January 1948. If they came by train to Adelaide, they would have to take another train back to Murray Bridge, where they were due at the nearby Mulgundawa salt works.

His Adelaide Alien Registration card has Langhorne Creek written on the back without any further information. Langhorne Creek is about 60 Km southeast of Adelaide, near Lake Alexandrina, and is best known now as the third largest wine producing region in South Australia. It is also near the Mulgundawa salt works.

However, the company working at Mulgundawa usually traded under the name of Mulgundawa Salt or Australian Saltworks, not South Australian Salt Company.

Adolfas later worked in the remote outback town of Woomera in South Australia.

He was released from his contract with the Australian Government, along with most of the others from the First Transport, on 30 September 1949.

The Alien Registration card records that he left for Melbourne in mid-1950, residing there for many years. He was a generous donor to the Melbourne Lithuanian Catholic Parish.  We don't know his occupation there but have to hope that it was something he enjoyed, perhaps work as a mechanic.

Later he returned to Adelaide where he passed away on 21 July 2021, aged 97, meaning that he lived for 55 years longer than his brother. His remains were cremated at Centennial Park Crematorium.

Four Lithuanians from the First Transport living in South Australia attended the commemoration of 70 years since the Heintzelman arrived at Adelaide's Lithuanian House on 28 November 2017
L to R:  Aleksas Saulius, Algis Pranckunas, Adolfas Kildišas and Juozas Donela

Photographer:  Daina Pocius

SOURCES

Advertiser (1948) ‘First Party Of Balts Here’ Adelaide, 10 January, p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43751686, accessed 19 January 2026.

Australian Salt Works, ‘Operations’ https://www.australiansaltworks.com.au/operations-development, accessed 19 January 2026.

Centennial Park Memorial Search, ‘Kildisas’ https://centennialpark.org/memorial-search/?firstname=&surname=Kildisas, accessed 18 January 2026.

‘Correspondence and nominal roles, done at Bremen-Grohn: transport by ship (USS GENERAL MUIR); transit countries and final destinations: USA’ DocID: 81660950, 3.1.3 Emigrations, ITS/Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81660950, accessed 18 January 2026.

International Chess Federation 'Victor Kildisas' https://ratings.fide.com/profile/3203352/statistics, accessed 19 January 2026.

Linked In 'Victor Kildisas' https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-kildisas-85013a149/?originalSubdomain=au, accessed 19 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 475, KILDISAS [KILDISIS] Adolfas DOB 8 June 1924, 1947-1947; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005735, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; KILDISAS Jonas DOB 11 August 1921, 1947-1947; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005736, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1948-1976; KILDISAS Adolfas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1950; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9183330, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2572, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KILDISIS (sic) ADOLFAS, KILDISIS, Adolfas : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 851, 1947-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203625915, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2572, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KILDISAS JONAS, KILDISAS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 852, 1947-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203625914, accessed 18 January 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1964) ‘A†A Jonas Kildišas’ (‘In Memoriam, Jonas Kildisas’ in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 30 June, p 4, https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1964/1964-nr25-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 18 January 2026.

Wikipedia 'Voerde' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voerde, accessed 19 January 2026.