Antanas Staugaitis (1927-2003): Lithuanian DP Taxi Driver by Daina Pocius with Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Like the ill-fated Ksaveras Antanaitis, Antanas Staugaitis was one of the Lithuanian Displaced Persons or DPs selected in Germany to travel to Australia on the first voyage after World War II, on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman. Like Ksaveras, he then was chosen to be in the first group of men sent by the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) to work outside the Bonegilla camp.

Their destination was Bedford Park, South Australia, where they lived in a tent city while building a 20-kilometre pipeline from Happy Valley Reservoir, to their south, into Adelaide to their north. Their employer was the South Australian Government’s Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) Department. Antanas later worked for the E&WS at Port Lincoln also.

Antanas Staugaitis, ID photo 
from his migration application

Source:  NAA

Everyone on the First Transport had been told in Bonegilla that the Australian Government had changed their agreement to work, where required, for one year to a two-year agreement. Maybe E&WS hadn’t got that message, because the Adelaide Mail of 29 January 1949 reported that the DPs or Balts, as they were known also, were being permitted to transfer to other employers. If that was with the assistance of the CES to another task where there was a shortage of workers, however, it was all above board.

We know from his application for Australian citizenship that Antanas left 6 weeks after the Mail report to work with the South Australian Railways. This was initially with other Balts and Aussies at Peterborough for 6 months, then in Adelaide.

From an alien registration index card held by the National Archives in Adelaide, we find that Antanas was released officially from his “two years” contract with the Australian Government on 3 October 1949. That’s about two months short, if the contract is regarded as terminating on the anniversary of arrival in Australia, 28 November 1949.

The Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, announced the early release in Canberra on 5 September 1949, according to Australian newspapers of the following date. The contracts were supposed to end on 30 September, not 3 October. The early release was due to “the outstanding contribution they have made to Australia’s labour starved economy”.

Antanas completed an Adelaide mechanic’s course in 1953. He continued to work on the railways until 1956, rising to the rank of fireman. Then he purchased a taxi license and worked as a taxi driver until retirement in 1992.

He renounced any previous allegiances and became an Australian citizen on 12 October 1956. His address at the time was on South Terrace, the edge of Adelaide’s Central Business District. Those who certified in November 1955 for his citizenship application that he was of ‘good repute’ were Railways trainers and a station master equivalent.

He loved nature and would travel to the outback, to the Northern Territory with his good friends. He was known as a smart man with a conscience. For instance, in January 1950, the infant Mūsų Pastogė Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, about to celebrate its first birthday, reported that he had donated two shillings to support it. (The Reserve Bank’s pre-decimal currency inflation calculator advises that this is now the equivalent of a bit more than $6.)

Antanas was born 27 August 1927, in Šliziai, Šakiai region, into a farming family. The Germans took him from his family and friends to work in Germany, in 1942 when he was still only 14 years old. They sentenced him to two years hard labour, claiming that they had found him carrying arms. At least the hard labour was in agriculture, so probably he got fed enough to continue working.

After the war he was in a DP camp in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, and later in the nearby Gross Hessepe municipality, where he attended the technical school to study the motor mechanic’s trade. He did not get to finish this course as his selection to resettle in Australia on the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, intervened.

He did not marry and had no family in Australia. He died at his home in Mile End, also inner Adelaide, on 20 March 2003, aged 75.

SOURCES

Encyclopaedia of Australian Science and Innovation, ‘Corporate Body South Australian Engineering and Water Supply Department’ https://www.eoas.info/biogs/A001434b.htm accessed 23 May 2024.

Hammerton, Marianne (1986) Water South Australia: a History of the Engineering and Water Supply Department (Netley, SA: Wakefield Press) 331 pp.

Mail (1949) 'Balts Leave Govt. Jobs' (Adelaide, SA) 29 January,  p 29 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55924132 accessed 23 May 2024.

Mercury (1949) 'Migrants' Contract Time Cut', (Hobart, Tas) 6 September, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26661508 accessed 24 May 2024.

Morning Bulletin (1949) 'Contract Terms of Migrants Cut', (Rockhampton, Qld), 6 September, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56918854 accessed 24 May 2024.

Mūsų Pastogė (1950) ‘Mūsų Pastogės Rėmėjai’ 25 January, p 4, in https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1950/1950-01-25-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 23 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-2001; 1956/45135, Application for Naturalisation - STAUGAITIS Antanas born 27 August 1927, 1955-1956, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8374445 accessed 24 May 2024.

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; 292, STAUGAITIS Antanas DOB 27 August 1927, 1947-1947, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118002 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-1971; STAUGAITIS Antanas born 1927 Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 Nov 1947, 1947-1956; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30038183 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; STAUGAITIS Antanas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived: Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9222371 accessed 24 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; STAUGAITIS, Antanas : Year of Birth - 1925 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 688, 1947-48, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203905745 accessed 24 May 2024.

Papers held in the Lithuanian Archives in Australia, https://www.australianlithuanians.org/uncategorized/adel-arkhives/ accessed 25 May 2024.

Places in Germany, City Oldenburg in Oldenburg, https://www.places-in-germany.com/22143-city-oldenburg-in-oldenburg.html accessed 23 May 2024.

Places in Germany, Municipality Groß Hesepe https://www.places-in-germany.com/111536-municipality-gross-hesepe.html accessed 23 May 2024 accessed 23 May 2024.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator, https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html accessed 23 May 2024.

Ksaveras Antanaitis (1911-1948), An Earlier Work-related Death, by Rasa Ščevinskienė

Even before Miervaldis Indriksons was killed by a workplace accident in South Australia (see previous entry) another First Transport man had died there when being driven home from his work.

Ksaveras Antanaitis was born in 4 February 1911, in the village of Dabitai, in the Sakiai district of Lithuania. Like many Lithuanians, he left his homeland during the Second World War.  Ksaveras is the equivalent of Xavier in English or Spanish.

From an Arolsen Archives document, we know that Ksaveras lived in Rotenburg in the British zone of Occupied Germany. He was married in Lithuania but his wife stayed there.

He left Bremerhaven for Australia with 842 other Baltic refugees on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947 and 28 November he arrived to Australia.

Ksaveras Antanaitis' ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup

Ksaveras Antanaitis’ first job in Australia was with Engineering & Water Supply, Adelaide, SA. He was one of a group of 65 who left the Bonegilla camp on 7 January 1948 for Adelaide. The average age of the men was 24 and the wage they were offered was £5.12.6 per week. This was the first group of men sent by the Commonwealth Employment Service to work outside the camp.

A 2006 brochure, "SA water – celebrating 150 years", recorded their arrival as the major event of 1948. ‘An influx of migrant labour (particularly from Baltic states) brings a partial solution to chronic labour shortages’, it said.

‘“At last — freedom!” That was the first reaction of 65 Balts when they reached their new home in Bedford Park, Adelaide, yesterday’, the Mail newspaper wrote on 10 January 1948. Their first job was to be a new water main from the Happy Valley Reservoir into Adelaide, about 20 Km north.

The Mail of 14 February wrote, ‘Sixty-five eager young Baltic migrants camped in a paddock at Bedford Park are waiting for responsible authorities to teach them’.

The Mail of 21 February reported that, ‘While nothing was done officially this week to help the Balts, private citizens called on the strangers in their Bedford Park camp, invited them to their homes, offered to help teach them English’.

Ksaveras Antanaitis had started a new life in Australia, but an accident happened. In the Advertiser newspaper of 30 June 1948, we can read the sad notice: “A Balt labourer, K. S. Antanaitis, employed at the Engineering and Water Supply Department's Camp at Bedford Park, was fatally injured when he fell from a truck on Marion Road, Marion, yesterday afternoon. He was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a civil ambulance and was dead on arrival.”

The report to the City Coroner by a police sergeant adds the detail that the rear wheel of the truck had passed over Ksaveras after he fell. The accident happened at about 4.40 pm so, quite likely, he was travelling back to the Bedford Park camp after a day’s tiring work.  It's like that there were other passengers so, all involved, down to the police and ambulance men, would have had another trauma added to their Second World War experiences.

There was an obituary in the Lithuanian-language newspaper Mintis, published in the US Zone of Occupied Germany on 2 August 1948. Translated, it reads, “In Adelaide (Australia) on June 29, Ksaveras Antanaitis, who came from the Rotenberg camp on the First Transport and was from Sakiai district, was killed in an accident in the workplace. He was buried on 1 July in Adelaide Cemetery with all the Balts in Adelaide and a large number of Australians. 

"The belongings left by the deceased were taken by the police for protection. Relatives are asked to contact the Australian Lithuanian Society, 5 Hampden Street, Hurlstone Park, Sidney (sic), NSW, Australia, for inheritance and compensation matters, which is informed about the event and will be able to help with the inheritance issue.”

Ksaveras Antanaitis was buried in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide. His exact burial place in cemetery is Road 3, Path 21, Aspect W, Site Number 22.

Sources:

Adelaide Cemeteries, Record Search https://aca.sa.gov.au/aca-records/accessed 24 April 2024.

Advertiser (1948) ‘Balt Killed In Fall From Truck’ Adelaide, SA, 30 June https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/43772724 accessed 22 April 2024.

Ancestry ‘Ksaveras Antanaitis in the South Australia, Australia, Supreme Court Criminal Records, 1837-1918; Reports to the Police Coroner, 1842-1961’ https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62316/images/62316_b1111323-00096?treeid=&personid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=oIs490&_phstart=successSource&pId=16360 accessed 23 April 2024. [May require free Ancestry guest account to access.]

Arolsen Archives, Doc ID: 2735688 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/66434156?s=ksaveras%20antanaitis&t=2735688&p=0 accessed 22 April 2024.

Australian Cemeteries Index  https://austcemindex.com/?family_name=Antanaitis accessed 24 April 2024.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, 'Ksaveras Antanaitis', https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203674046 accessed 24 April 2024.

Government of South Australia, SA Water (2006) 'SA water – celebrating 150 years' https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/34412631/150-years-commemorative-book-sa-water accessed 22 April 2024.

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, 'USAT General Stuart Heintzelman', https://immigrantships.net/v10/1900v10/generalstuartheintzelman19471128_01.html accessed 29 April 2024.

Mail (1948) ‘Balts feel free after prison camp horrors’ Adelaide, SA, 10 January https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55903813 accessed 22 April 2024.

Mail (1948) ‘English Classes For Balts Arranged’ Adelaide, SA, 21 February, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55905295 accessed 22 April 2024.

Mail (1948) (1948) ‘No English Lessons For Eager Young Balts’ Adelaide, SA, 14 February https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55909057 accessed 22 April 2024.

Mintis [The Thought] (1948) ‘Tragiskai zuvo K. Antanaitis [K. Antanaitis died tragically, in Lithuanian]’, Memmingen, US Zone Germany, 2 August, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_mintis_memmingen_vasaitis/archive/1948-08-02-MINTIS-MEMMINGEN-VASAITIS.pdf accessed 22 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules (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] [page 106] (1948-1950) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 24 April 2024.