Jonas Bimba (1926-2011), Long Life Despite Scares, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Jonas Bimba was one of the 62 men from the First Transport sent to the sand and scrub at Bangham, near Wolseley in South Australia, to serve out their work contract with the Australian Government by widening a rural railway track.

He was born on 31 October 1926, in a village with his family name, Bimbos, in the Panemunėlis Eldership* of the Rokiškis Municipality. His family were farmers. Jonas had at least one younger brother.

As the second Russian occupation approached Jonas, together with an uncle from Klaipėda, took a ship to Germany.

While in Berlin he was intercepted by a German patrol and taken into the Army. For a time, he looked after the troop’s horses in Hanover.

As the front approached, and the German Army retreated, Jonas simply took off his uniform and joined other refugees. He lived in several displaced persons camps.

His uncle had relatives in America and was able to emigrate to the United States. Jonas’ request to go there was rejected.

In his American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP Registration, he said that he had an uncle in the United States. That uncle might have been a brother to the uncle who went to Germany with him, so a close enough relative for the Americans. Mere uncle for Jonas could have been too distant in American eyes. Jonas ended up in Australia on the First Transport.

Jonas in Germany, photo from his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When interviewed by Australia’s selection team, he advised that he had completed 6 years of primary education plus 2 years at a trade school learning to be an electrician. That ship to Germany with his uncle had become “forcibly evacuated by (the) Germans”.

In Germany, he had been a “lumber worker” for half a year and a labourer for a full year. He had worked as an electrician in Lithuania for only half a year.

None of those occupations approximate the šaltkalvis recorded on the AEF form. That word translated directly into English as “whitesmith”.

In case you, like us, have never come across the opposite of blacksmith before, it further translates into someone who works with metals which are not iron or steel, like tin or pewter, silver or lead. It applies also to tradesmen plating iron with tin, including for the drainage elements on the outside of buildings. The copper used by electricians does not get a mention though.

Either Jonas was versatile in his training and experience or a mistake had been made.

He was described as being fluent in Russian as well as Lithuanian, while his English and German skills both were fair.

He nearly missed out on Australia too, because of high blood pressure, but was declared fit in the end.

This photo of Jonas probably was taken in December 1947,
in the Bonegilla camp

Source:  National Archives of Australia

After the Bangham days were over, he lived in Adelaide for a while, Brisbane and Melbourne, but finally settled in Sydney.  Jonas married a Lithuanian, Margarita Blažytė, and had a family.

He became an Australian citizen on 11 March 1958, when he was living at 18 Fisher Street in the Sydney suburb of Petersham.

He did not participate in most Lithuanian activities, but all the time was a supporter and a regular visitor to Sydney Lithuanian Club. There was one group, however, in which he was particularly active, according to a series of reports in the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper during 1987 to 1995: the Darius and Girėnas shooters association.

In 1982, KPB in the Tėviškės Aidai newspaper reported that Jonas had been attacked and robbed at a Sydney railway station. His leg was broken in the attack and $350 was stolen before the robbers fled. Mūsų Pastogė reported that he had been admitted to Marrickville Hospital as a result of the attack.

Despite this vicious event, he was one of the survivors who attended a dinner to celebrate 50 years since the arrival of the First Transport in 1997 in Sydney – or, as they put it, 50 years since the start of the Lithuanian community. Any member of the Bauzė family or Jonas Mockūnas in his early Lithuanians blog can tell you that there were Lithuanians in Sydney before December 1947, but perhaps they were too few and isolated to form a community.

Jonas Bimba in later life
Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 26 January 2011

The funeral of the Jonas Bimba took place on 14 January 2011 at Rookwood Cemetery. This was more than 84 years after his birth, so that high blood pressure did not matter in the long run. It was nearly 30 years after the violent robbery which, if anything, might have had the effect of shortening an even longer life.

He was cremated and his ashes were to be transferred to Lithuania. As we write, their placement has not made it onto Lithuania’s Website for the deceased, Cemety.lt. It is possible that they were scattered.

FOOTNOTE: * An eldership is the smallest Lithuanian local administrative unit, part of a municipality, equivalent to a ward in the United States or parts of Australia.

CITE THIS AS: Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/jonas-bimba-1926-2011-long-life-despite-scares.html.

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record, ‘Jonas Bimba’, in Folder DP0362, names from BIMANIS, ELZA to BINDELS, Jan (1), 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps; ITS/Arolsen Archives, DocID: 66606458, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66606458, accessed 3 October 2025.

KPB (1982) ‘Iš Mūsų Parapijų, Sydnėjus’ (‘From our Parishes, Sydney’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland), Melbourne, 10 July, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1982/1982-07-10-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 3 October 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1982) ‘Informacija, Pastaruoju Metu Sydnejuje’ (‘Information, Recent Times in Sydney’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 14 June, p 12 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1982/1982-06-14-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 3 October 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (2011) ‘A A Jonas Bimba’ (‘In Memoriam Jonas Bimba’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 26 January, P ?

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; 40, BIMBA Jonas DOB 31 October 1926 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005478, accessed 3 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; BIMBA JONAS, BIMBA Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Unknown per Unknown, 1951-1951, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7187427, accessed 4 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956: BIMBA JONAS, BIMBA, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1926 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 440 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203666752, accessed 4 October 2025.

Žalys, B (1997) Sydnėjus atšventė atvykimo 5O – mėtį (‘Sydney Celebrated 50 years since the Arrival’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 1 December, p 3 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-12-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 4 October 2025.

Bronius Šaparas (1909-1970), Airman Grounded, by Rasa Ščevinskienė with Ann Tündern-Smith

Bronius Šaparas was a pilot in independent Lithuania between the World Wars, a senior non-commissioned Air Force officer who trained also as a radio telegraphy operator.  He was sufficiently important to have his later civilian work noted also.

An example is these paragraphs from ‘Lėktuvai Percival Q6’ (‘Percival Q6 Aeroplanes’) by Saulius Štulas and Jonas Monkevičius, translated from Lithuanian by Rasa.

Civil aviation, Lithuania

“When purchasing the planes, it was planned to connect Kaunas and Klaipėda, adding Palanga during the summer season, but in the spring of 1939, when the Germans occupied the Klaipėda region, only Palanga remained.

Wikipedia articles say that 2 of the 27 Percival Petrel Q6s ever built were sold to 
Lithuanian Air Lines, which operated during 1938-40, one plane named Stepas Darius
and the other, Stays Girėnas, both here
with possibly the terminal of the Air Lines' Kaunas hub behind them

Source:  Lietuvos Aviacijos Istoria 1919-1940 m.

“A small station with two rooms was built at the Palanga airfield — for radio equipment and for the crews to spend the night.  A radio operator, V. Jackūnas, was assigned to service the station, who maintained contact with the flying plane and sold tickets to those returning to Kaunas.  The price of a one-way ticket was 38 litas - similar to the price of a second-class train ticket.  The plane took off from Kaunas at about 3-4 pm, and flew back to Kaunas at 8 am the next day.

“Over the three months of the 1939 flying season, planes on the Kaunas-Palanga-Kaunas route made 218 flights, flew 48,200 km, transported 784 passengers, 3,546 kg of luggage, and 3,476 kg of mail.  After the season ended in Palanga, the Air Traffic Inspectorate agreed with Latvia to start communication between Kaunas and Riga.  In Riga, radio operator Šaparas, who spoke Latvian, was appointed to receive planes and handle other matters.  Planes flew to Riga daily, carrying passengers, if any, and mail.”

S (Simas?) Mockūnas wrote separately in his memoir (again translated by Rasa) that, “... In Riga, a radio operator named Šaparas, who spoke Latvian, was assigned to receive our planes and handle other matters.  We flew every day, transporting passengers and mail if we found any ...”

One of the Percival Q6s went to Australia, sold to the Civil Aviation Board in May 1938

Source:  Airways Museum

Bronius' youth

An obituarist has written that Bronius was born on 26 January 1909, in Riga, where his parents lived at the time.  However, anywhere that Bronius himself nominated his birthplace, he gave it as the Lithuanian town of Skapiškis, in Rokiškis county.

It could be that the family moved to Riga in his infancy, given that both were part of Tsarist Russia at the time.  The obituarist advised that the family fled the chaos of World War I from Riga to St Petersburg, where Bronius finished elementary school. After the War had passed, they settled in or returned to Skapiškis, where Bronius continued his education until he was drafted into the Lithuanian Army.

Bronius dreamed not only of flying around the world, but also into space.  The dream came partly true, as he reached the rank of pilot non-commissioned officer while in the Army.  After completing his military service, he joined civil aviation and also studied Social and Political Science at the Vytautas the Great University, Kaunas.

Young adult Bronius

Bronius married Genovaitė Kazlauskaitė on 10 October 1936 in the church in Kudirkos Naumiestis.  He was still a non-commissioned pilot in the Air Force, living in Kaunas. His mother, maiden name Ona Vaiciekauskaitė, had died while his father, Antanas Šaparas, had moved to Brazil.  He was already 27 years old, but his bride was only 16.  Their daughter, Jūratė Regina, born on 27 October 1937 in Kaunas.

The next public record is from a 1942 census and shows Bronius Šaparas living with his wife Genovaitė and daughter Jūratė Regina on Vytautas Street in Prienai, a rural municipality just south of Kaunas.  The census shows that Bronius had finished high school and now worked as a supplier at the Sudavija brewery.

In the later 1944 summer, as the battle front moved past Prienai, the Sudavija brewery was blown up during a German air raid.  It would have been time for this family to retreat westwards, to Germany.

Bronius in Germany

An Arolsen Archives digitised record shows that the date they left was 10 August 1944. The document also shows that they had lived in Kaunas until the end of 1940, before moving to Prienai. In Germany, they lived in the Dillingen Displaced Persons camp. Of the two towns called Dillingen in Germany, it is more likely that they were in Dillingen an der Donau, or somewhere in the surrounding Dillingen district in Bavaria, in the far south of Germany.

Another Arolsen Archives document describes Bronius as a radio-telegraphist, who knew the Lithuanian, German, Russian and Polish languages. Given that apparently he lived in Riga until he was 5 or older and worked there as an adult, we think that someone forgot to include the Latvian language, which S Mockūnas said that Bronius spoke.

By October 1947, Bronius was being interviewed for possible resettlement in Australia. He made the grade and was one of 439 Lithuanians boarded onto the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman. This ship left Bremerhaven for Fremantle, Western Australia, on 30 October 1947.

Bronius Saparas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup

On the passenger list, under marital status, it looks like an S and a D have been overtyped against Bronius’ name. That is to say, it was assumed he was single, like nearly all the passengers, until someone pointed out that in fact he was divorced. The divorce is confirmed by the marriage of Genovaitė Sapariene to Vytautas Musinskas, on 14 August 1948, again recorded on a document digitised by the Arolsen Archives. Genovaitė and her daughter, Jūratė Regina, later emigrated to the USA. There Jūratė Regina married a Mr Bagdonas.

Bronius starts life in Australia

Like one-quarter of the Heintzelman men, Bronius’ first job in Australia was picking fruit. In his case, he worked for VR McNab of Ardmona for two months, returning to the Bonegilla Centre on 1 April 1948. Within the week, he was one of a group of 4 men sent to provide labour to the Concord Hospital in Sydney. At that time it was known as the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, and operated by the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, which is to say that it was for military service personnel who were injured or sick.

Bronius marries again

In 1949, Bronius Šaparas and Sofija Butkeviciutė were married by priest Petras Butkus. There was a separate marriage at the Registry on 14 January, a Friday.

Sofija had also been born in 1909, some eight months after her husband. The Lithuanian spelling of her first name is Zofija, but she must have changed the initial letter in Australia to make it easier for those in her workplace, for a start.

A Mūsų Pastogė obituarist was to write some 52 years after the marriage that she was a “Lithuanian woman of very strong character”. The Tėviškės aidai obituarist said, when her husband died, that she was a “a hardworking and healthy-minded woman”. She gave her occupation as dressmaker. In Lithuania, her last job was in a grocery shop. She had arrived in Australia on the Second Transport, the USAT General MB Stewart, on 12 February 1948.

Zofija Butkeviciute, in early 1948, from her Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When Sofija sponsored a cousin who also was a refugee in Germany, in May 1948, she had given her occupation as domestic staff member at the Concord Hospital. They both gave their usual place of residence on the marriage certificate as the Repatriation Hospital, Concord, although their paths may have crossed already at the Bonegilla camp before Bronius went fruit-picking. Their daughter Karmen (or Carmen to the Aussies) was born in February 1950.

Bronius in the community

Lithuanians living in the western Sydney suburb of Wentworthville and its surrounds met to establish a new Eldership of the Australian Lithuanian Community 23 August 1953. The meeting was chaired by J. Gardis and its secretary was Bronius. After brief discussions it was decided to temporarily establish the Eldership, and the following year to transform it into a District. Bronius and J. Gardis were elected as the 2 deputy Elders at this meeting.

Bronius’ next milestone was naturalisation, alongside Sofija, on 10 June 1958.

The house in which the Šaparas family was living at the time Bronius and Sofija applied for naturalisation:  49 Ringrose Avenue, in a suburb then called Wentworth, now Greystanes

Source:  Google Street View

Bronius and Sofija make a living

Like Juozas Šuopys, the Šarapas family got into Sydney real estate. Unlike Juozas Šuopys, the Šarapas family turned at least one large residence into a boarding house, where food as well as lodgings were available for singles. Boarding houses were used by couples too, until they had saved enough for a deposit on their own home.

Both Bronius and Sofija renovated the houses that they bought, before Sofija organised the residents’ meals and anything else with which she could help, including the laundry.

Bronius' ill-health

It was in October 1968 that Bronius experienced his second heart attack. He was admitted to hospital for surgery. Pulmonary thrombosis – blood clots on the lungs – were identified also. Around the same time, Sofija received serious head and arm injuries in a traffic accident.

After she began to recover, she tripped in the yard of one of the houses, fell and broke her other arm. Their daughter was at home, probably because it was summer school holidays in Australia, so she nursed both the parents. The family was able to continue to look after their tenants fully despite these accidents.

One year later, in October 1969, Bronius was reported to be in hospital again but in improving health.

Bronius dies

His heart gave out finally on 2 May 1970, during another hospital visit. This was at the time when Karmen was in her last year of secondary education in a Catholic girls' high school and preparing for her final exams.

On May 5, Father Petras Butkus, the priest who had married Bronius and Sofija, assisted by priest Martūzas, conducted Bronius' funeral service at the Lidcombe Catholic Church. Father Petras’ sermon for the large crowd gathered described Bronius’ life and his value to the Lithuanian community and to the church.

Bronius' photo from his Tėviškės Aidai obituary

Source:  Tėviškės Aidai

The coffin was escorted to Rookwood Cemetery. After prayers, Stasys Pačėsa delivered a farewell speech on behalf of the local Ramovė ex-servicemen’s group, while Major Garolis’ farewell came from all Lithuanian pilots.

Sofija dies

Thirty-one years later, in November 2001, Sofija joined her husband in the same Rookwood plot. Sofija was from Samogitia, which is Žemaitija to Lithuanians. Writing about the 3 Smilgevičius First Transport refugees from Samogitia, Daina Pocius told us that a Žemaitis trait is stubbornness: they never give up when in trouble and stubbornly pursue a goal. That sounds like Sofija’s focus on running her boarding house or houses.

Sofija Šaparienė in later life

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Indeed, writing (in Lithuanian) in Mūsų Pastogė in 1976, Vladas Miniotas said, “It is not for nothing that Samogitians were revered in Lithuania for their stubbornness, diversity of opinions and hospitality. Such Samogitians have remained in exile even today. And as an example, I can present Mrs. Sofija Šaparienė, who lives in Sydney.

“Poor Zosiu [familiar version of Zofija] did not give up [after the death of Bronius], even though with tearful eyes she was trying to finalise her business interests and move on to rest, creating … a more comfortable nest for a single life. Which she managed to do, buying beautiful houses in the Burwood area, near the railway station and right next to the shops.”

Vladas was writing after Sofija had hosted what he called "a feast” for her friends and new neighbours after her successful downsizing. During this occasion, all stood for a minute of silence in memory of Bronius.

Either Vladas or the newspaper headed his report “Žemaitė Nepražus”, meaning in English, “A/The Samogitian woman will not die”, an apt tribute to Sofija. Rasa adds that the Samogitian stereotype includes calm, reservation, yet stubbornness and “a determined person who stands by their word”.

Their headstones

In her obituary, Sofija was described as a comedian who enjoyed fishing. The Lithuanian text on Sofija’s headstone means in English, “Where the land is green and the cuckoo alights, there is my dear native Lithuania” and she is honoured by her daughter and granddaughter.

Wife and daughter were able to honour Bronius on his headstone, where the text means, “You flew over your native land, but a foreign land shelters you for eternal rest”.

The Saparas headstones in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney

Source:  Milly McCarthy on Find A Grave

CITE THIS AS Ščevinskienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann  (2025) 'Bronius Šaparas (1909-1970), Airman Grounded' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/bronius-saparas-1909-1970-airman-grounded.html.html

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record, ‘Bronius Saparas’, in Folder DP3545, names from SHAPAR, FEDOR to SAPINZAN, Adolf (1), 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 68944276, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68944276, accessed 2 October.

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AVK (2001) ‘A†A Sofija Šaparienė’ (‘In Memoriam, Sofija Saparas’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), 26 November, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2001/2001-11-26-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 October.

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Wikipedia, ‘Repatriation Department’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_Department, accessed 28 September 2025.

Ona Matulionytė Miniotienė (1898-1992): Long-lived torture survivor, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Ona Matulionytė was a fully trained nurse with something like 18 years of experience when she came to Australia on the First Transport in November 1947. As she had managed to reduce her age to get on the ship and out of Germany, she possibly was the oldest passenger. Even claiming to be born in 1907 rather than 9 years earlier made her the oldest Lithuanian woman on the voyage. The story of how she got to this point is difficult reading.

When the Soviet military still controlled Lithuania in 1941, Ona was arrested by the NKVD, interrogated, and sent to the Kaunas Hard Labor Prison. After the Germans invaded from 22 June 1941, Ona was released. When the Soviet forces approached for the second time, at the end of the 1944, she knew that she had to flee westwards.

Ona Matulionyte's photo from her Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup

Ona’s recollection of her arrest by NKVD in the Kaunas Military Hospital on 5 May 1941 and subsequent interrogation is translated here.

Arrest

“The arrest procedure was as follows: on 5 May 1941, at 2 pm, a medical orderly came to inform me that the chief of doctors of the hospital was calling me. When I went, he announced that a catastrophe had occurred and that I would have to go for an operation.

“He did not say how or where. He also did not tell me what instruments to take. When I asked, he replied that I would find everything there. Then I got changed and, together with the chief surgeon of the hospital's surgical department and the hospital commissar Levgeyev, we drove to Vileišis Square in Kaunas.

“Another car was waiting for us there. The commissar got out and talked to them, and when he returned, he told us that there had been a second catastrophe, so we would give the nurse to them, and they would drive on. The second car, having picked me up, took me to the NKVD, where I was immediately interrogated.

Torture

“During the same interrogation, I was tortured. The interrogation lasted from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. the next day. They wanted to know where the secret radio transmitter was, which Gestapo chief I was recruited to spy for, when, where and how much I received for it, and how many times I had been to Germany.

“I was interrogated 4 times in one month. The last interrogation took place on 6 June. They always interrogated at night. They interrogated me twice in the NKVD palace and twice in prison. While being transported, I was accompanied by 3-4 Russians. There were 5 people interrogating me: 2 Russians, 2 Jews and one Lithuanian.

“The interrogation procedure was as follows: when I answered that I knew nothing in reply to all the questions, a Russian hit me in the temple and someone else hit me in the back of the head. After severe blows, I fell and lost consciousness. When I came to my senses, I felt pain all over my body.

“When they saw that I had moved, they poured water on me and started beating me again with a rubber baton. While I was being beaten like this, I lost consciousness again.

“After that, they took me to the next room, opened the door and windows to create a draft, and made me sit there. They put iron shackles on me and did not allow me to close my eyes or move. When it got cold, I asked my two guards to close the door or window. They replied that they had no right to do this, but they could ask the officer on duty.

“The officer on duty came. When I asked him for closed windows or the door, he smiled ironically and sat me down with a chair in the doorway, where there was an extremely strong draft. I sat like that for 29 hours.

“I was only allowed to eat for the first time four days after my arrest. After that, threatening to shoot me, they took me to prison. In prison, they threw me into solitary confinement, where I spent 5 days.

“From solitary confinement, I was transferred to a sick cell. They brought medicine after two days only, and the doctor after 5 days.

“During the interrogation, they cursed me with the most disgusting words to which no intelligent person should listen.”

Ona's early life

Ona had been born on 21 December 1898 in the village of Antakalniai, in the Utena district of Lithuania. Her parents were Mykolas Matulionis and Ona Matulionienė, whose maiden name was Žvironaitė. Ona was born the third child in a family of 7 children. While their parents were farmers, the children pursued education and became prominent in pre-War Lithuania.

Ona studied at the Kaunas School of Nursing during 1924-26, then worked as a nurse in the operating theatre at the Kaunas Military Hospital until 1943 – apart from the NKVD interrogation and imprisonment with hard labour, from 5 May to 22 June or some days later in 1941.

During 1943 to 1944, Ona worked as a sister at the Kaunas Polyclinic. After moving herself away from the returning Soviets, Ona of course continued nursing in Germany, working eventually in the Hanau DP camp hospital.

Escape to Australia

Her papers must have been falsified to give on the birth year of 1907 and an age of 39 at the time of interview with the Australian team. Soviet forces were not that far away from Hanau at the time, occupying about 40 per cent of the former Germany. The thought of these neighbours must have spurred Ona on to move on as soon as she could. On 28 November 1947, she arrived in Australia on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman.

Bonegilla Camp

One of the early visitors to the newly arrived Lithuanians in the Bonegilla camp was Antanas Bauže, chairman of the Australian Lithuanian Community with his wife, Ona, and T Kuodis . In the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper 30 years later, Ona Baužiene recalled how she was taken care of during the visit by her name fellow, Ona Matulionytė.

Nursing in Melbourne

From the Bonegilla camp, Ona was the only Lithuanian in a group of 6 women sent to work in the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg in Melbourne. Helgi Nirk, whose life has been recorded already by this blog, was another of the 6. At the time, the Hospital was operated by the Australian Government’s Repatriation Department, supporting former military personnel.

The Melbourne Herald newspaper of 5 January 1948 reported that they had begun training as nurses. Helgi’s previous relevant experience was as a student of agricultural science who had her own farm, so her experience at the Austin is no guide to Ona’s. Let us hope that her previous nursing enable Ona to speed through what the Austin was offering.

(The Herald journalist thought that “medical terms may be a tough obstacle in initial lectures”. In fact, they would have been the easiest part of the language challenge, as they are very similar from one European language to another.)

Source:  Collection of Helgi Nirk, now in Estonian Archives in Australia

We know nothing more of Ona’s nursing career at this stage but, thanks to the Lithuanian language press in Australia and America, we do know more about her personal life.

Ona's sister arrives

On 15 March 1948, her sister, now Valerija Kuncaitienė, had arrived in Australia with her husband, Justus, and 2 sons, Vytautas and Jaunutis. The port of arrival of their ship, the Wooster Victory, was Sydney, but they moved to Melbourne when they could – probably because Valerija’s sister had settled there already.

Ona joined Melbourne’s Lithuanian Women's Social Welfare Society in 1952, and became a board member. With Valerija, she was one of the most active members of this Society. Forty years later, at her funeral, a then member of the board was to say that the 1950s were a hard time for the group, as there was no Lithuanian House until 1965. Meetings were held all over the city, but Ona did not avoid difficulties and never complained.

We have a Melbourne address for her from when she became an Australian citizen, on 27 January 1959, living in South Oakleigh. Her address was at least an hour’s walk from the nearest railway station. A bus to that station plus the train to a Melbourne landmark, Flinders Street Railway Station still takes nearly one hour. It is 20 minutes at least by tram from the Station to the Lithuanian Club in North Melbourne, plus there’s a walk from the train platform to the tram stop.

Unless Ona had the resourcefulness and money to get herself driver’s training, a licence to drive and a car, she could have felt quite isolated in South Oakleigh. The alternative would be having a Lithuanian with a car and similar interests living nearby.  Might this have been members of the Landsbergis family?

Ona Matulionytė (standing, third from left) with architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis 
(fourth from left) and his son and daughter with their families, in Melbourne, 1959

Source:  Elektroninio archyvo informacinė Sistema

An American visit

From the New York-based newspaper Tėvynė, we know that Ona Matulionytė and her sister Valerija spent the northern summer of 1966 travelling around America and Canada. The newspaper guessed that they would have met with their brothers there, Balys and Pranas. Tėvynė was pleased that the visitors had made a point of visiting its premises.

Marriage

Later, Ona married Canberra resident Vladas Miniotas after his wife, Adele, had died in 1967. While living alone, Vladas had met Ona, proposed to her and married her in 1969. Ona was about 71 years old when she agreed to this major change in her life! It seems that they moved back to his former home town, Sydney, another major change. Vladas, born in 1902, had been a police chief in Lithuania.

During her Sydney years, Ona continued her participation in local Lithuanian life. She always conscientiously attended and supported all events in the community and supported youth, scouts, a folk dance group, and the Daina choir financially.

Deaths

After 15 years of marriage, in 1984 Ona’s husband died. Four years after that, and at the advanced age of 90, Ona’s health started to fail. She was invited to live with her sister’s older son, Vytautas Kuncaitis, back in Melbourne. He and his family cared for her until her lack of health meant a nursing home. There she died on 21 August 1992.

The grave of Vladas Miniotas in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney

Source:  Billion Graves

The funeral mass for Ona was on 25 August in St John’s Church, East Melbourne, adopted by the Lithuanians as their own, followed by cremation in Melbourne’s Fawkner Cemetery.  Her ashes were collected, presumably for scattering somewhere else, so she does not have a burial place or plaque.

Conclusion

Surviving the NKVD torture and going on to live 93 years altogether indicate one tough woman. On the other hand, her nursing training and experience also would have taught her healthy living after her WWII experiences.

Ona's brothers

Two of her brothers, Balys and Pranas, were especially well known.

Balys was a medical doctor and a director of the Birštonas Resort. The year that Balys turned 22 was the year in which the Russian Revolution occurred. He had been studying at Petrograd Military Medical Academy. He traveled around Russia, organizing Lithuanian schools and shelters, and represented the People's Party in a Russian Lithuanian parliament in Petrograd.

During 1927–1938, he was the chief physician of the Kaunas Military Hospital and the head of its Physiotherapy Department established through his efforts. In 1938 until 1940, as a colonel of the military medical service, he was a consultant to the Kaunas Military Hospital. He was particularly interested in balneology, the study of the medical use of natural springs, such as that found at Birštonas. He too was arrested and imprisoned by the Communists during 1940-41.

In 1941, he became the director of the Kaunas Tuberculosis Hospital, and also headed the Physiotherapy Department of the Vytautas the Great University Clinics. In 1941–44, he was the governor of the Main Health Board.

He is on record together with the priest Simonas Morkūnas, after a massacre of some 50 Kaunas Jews, of having appealed to Archbishop Juozapas Skvirckas on behalf the Jews of Kaunas on 28 June 1941. He interceded to save about 500 nursing nuns, Sisters of Mercy who had trained his own sister, and about 30 doctors from being sent to the War’s eastern front. He also prevented the murder of patients in the Kalvarija and Vilnius psychiatric hospitals.

Pranas Matulionis was the youngest of the seven, born in August 1909, so 14 years younger Balys. He was only 30 years old when Lithuania found itself being traded between the Soviet Union and Germany, so had not had the same amount of time as his oldest brother to excel.

After graduating from a military school in his home province, he started to study medicine in the Lithuanian University but, one year later, transferred to the humanities. One year later again, in November 1930, he joined the Lithuanian Army, attending the Military Academy. On graduation, he was given the rank of Second Lieutenant and became a platoon commander in the 7th Infantry Regiment.

In November 1936, he transferred to military aviation and was promoted to Lieutenant. Two years later, he became head of the Military Aviation Commandant's economic unit.

It may well have been his involvement in aviation which had him in the public eye. Lithuania is the country which still honours the failed 1933 attempt of pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas to reach Kaunas from New York, non-stop, just as Australia honours the efforts of early pilots to fly across wide oceans to this country, and Amelia Earhart who failed. Pranas moved to military aviation only 3 years after Darius' and Girėnas' mission.

Pranas was fortunate to miss out on the fate of many Lithuanian officers during the Soviet occupation.  The Germans appointed him mayor of the city of Alytus.  His view that the German mobilisation of Lithuanian men in 1943 was illegal led to his arrest for sabotage, however. Balys was able to have him released from prison after several months and placed in a health facility.

Both Balys and Pranas feared the Soviet return and left for Germany in 1944, then emigrated to the USA.

SOURCES

Australian Cemetery Index, ‘Inscription 10423466 - Vladas Miniotas’, https://austcemindex.com/inscription?id=10423466, accessed 17 September 2025.

Baužienė, Ona (1977) ‘Pirmąjį transportą prisimenant‘ (‘Remembering the first transport’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 19 December, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1977/1977-12-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

Billion Graves, ‘Vladas Miniotas’ https://billiongraves.com/grave/Vladas-Miniotas/36564419, accessed 18 September 2025.

Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Ona MATULIONYTE’, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203611715, accessed 17 September 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 11 June, p2055 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240999179/25981104, accessed 17 September 2025.

Dirva (Soil) (1974) [Three death notices for Balys Matulionis 1895.05.21-1974.12.01, in Lithuanian] Cleveland, OH, 4 December, pp 7-8 https://spauda.org/dirva/archive/n1974/1974-12-04-DIRVA.pdf

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Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, 'Deceased Search', https://www.gmct.com.au/deceased and 'Ona Miniotas' https://www.gmct.com.au/deceased/1829650, accessed 18 September 2025.

Liulevičius, Vincas ‘A. A. Pr Matulionis’ (‘RIP Pranas Matulionis’, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend), Chicago, IL, 13 June, p 6 https://www.draugas.org/archive/1987_reg/1987-06-13-DRAUGAS.pdf, accessed 17 September 2025.

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