Vaclavs Kozlovskis sets off to work, from 3 January 1948, translated by Monika Kozlovskis with Janis Sakurovs

BONEGILLA, 3.1.48, Sat. A man from the employment department spoke to us in the big hall about our work, and answered questions. It turns out that we’ve been a little deceived - in Germany we were told that we would have to work for one year in a place nominated by the government, and suddenly this one year has doubled.

He pointed out that we signed an agreement specifying we would work in such a job for “at least one year”, and that by Australian law that means two years. If that’s so, that means that “at least one” can become even ten years; they’re simply having us on.

When this was revealed, the entire hall erupted in whistles and uproar, and the speaker hurried to clarify that after the first year we could change our workplaces with the permission of the employment ministry, but he didn’t say if we would be able to get this permission.*

Everyone was very upset and promised to stop work after one year. I intend to do so as well; I won’t let them lead me up the garden path. If I’ve signed up for one year, then I will work for only one, and that’s that!

This afternoon a notice was put up in the employment office, notifying the first work nominations, and my name was amongst them as well. It goes as follows:

1. Anglo Nestles Milk Co, Maffra, Victoria - 10,

2. CJ Row Webb & Anderson, Victoria - 10,

3. Moe Brown Coal, State Electricity Comm. Yallourn, Victoria

4. Masonite Co, NSW - 25

5. State Saw Mills, Perth, West Australia - 10

6. Pyramid Hill Quarries, Victoria - 7

7. South Australian Salt Ltd, Victoria - 10

8. Cheetham Salt Works, Victoria - 10

9. Flax Production Committee, Melbourne - 20

10. Ocean Salt Pty Ltd, South Australia - 6

11. State electricity trust Kiewa, Victoria - 25

12. Dept of Woods and Forests South Australia - 33

13. Miller’s Timber and Trading coy. Ltd. Perth - 10

14. Brunning Bros Perth - 10

15. Australian News Print ltd. Tasmania - 12

16. South Australian Railways South Australia - 65

17. Engineering and Water Supply South Australia - 65

18. Electrolytic zinc Co Tasmania - 12

19. Various Employers, not yet determined, NSW - 105

Vaclavs added this newspaper clipping to his diary

Source:  The Argus, Melbourne, 5 January 1948, p 3

The remainder, who haven’t been allocated to a group, will go to pick fruit, and won’t be placed in a permanent job for four to six weeks. My name was amongst the seven going to the rock quarry.

I don’t know what sort of job awaits me there, but I have peace of mind - I’ll be free at last from the crowd; we are three Latvians, 3 Lithuanians and one Estonian. The only unpleasant aspect is the doubling of the work year, but somehow I’ll get through this unexpected complication.

BONEGILLA, 4.1.48, Sun. Strange indeed is a person’s fate - you live and reach for your aims, when suddenly a completely unexpected wave of Fate’s hands occurs, and you can no longer appreciate the beauty of nature.

Today at Albury the blonde Lithuanian Vasilauskas drowned. I shared a cabin on the Heinzelman with him, and we sometimes partied together. Could this agreeable lad ever have imagined, that he would travel to Australia only to drown?

He was chest deep in the water, and suddenly suffered a stroke and drowned. It’s a pity about the young lad, did he really have to go just at the moment that his new life was beginning, after suffering the hardships and horrors of war-torn Europe?**

BONEGILLA, 6.1.48, Tues. Now soon our pleasant holiday will be over and we will have to start working. My name was announced over the loudspeaker this morning — tomorrow I will have to travel to Pyramid Hill, my new workplace.

I went to the office straight away to fill in the required form, then received a hat, pyjamas, coupons and five shillings; early tomorrow morning we’ll begin the two-hundred-mile bus journey.

BONEGILLA, 7.1.48, Wed. I woke at six-twenty, got ready straight away, handed back my bed linen, then carried my belongings to the loudspeaker. All seven of us ate breakfast, then sat in a small car. We drove to Albury, then we handed over our baggage and sat in the bus.

Bonegilla’s representative farewelled us, signalling the end of our carefree relaxation. Now, embarking on this journey, I’m also embarking on my own life; I’ll earn my own wages, and pay for everything myself. I’ve never lived that sort of life before, will I be able to adjust?

Finally the time has come when I can be my own master and ruler of my own destiny, when I can earn my own bread, and not have to be grateful for the crumbs thrown to me by others, and I will no longer have to burden any charitable institution.

After two hundred miles we reached Cohuna town, where the boss of the quarry came to meet us. We drove a further thirty miles in his car, then we were at our new home. The boss seems a very nice person, and he’d made some preparations for us.

The modern road trip westwards from Bonegilla camp in the east
to Cohuna and Pyramid Hill town takes nearly four hours;
the 1948 bus trip must have taken a hour or two longer on poor roads

Source:  Google Maps

We stopped in front of the farmhouse hired for us, where we’re sharing two rooms. Each man has his own bed, mattress, three blankets and a chair. Apart from these two rooms we also have a bathroom with a bath, a dining room and a kitchen with various utensils as new as if they’ve only just been brought back from the shop, still with the labels on them.

The kitchen table had a pile of food on it, for which we will pay at the end of the month. Food is the only thing we have to pay for ourselves, the house and contents we can use for free. The house even has a telephone, although there’s no electricity - we have to get by with petrol lamps.

The house itself, like all the others in Australia, is very lightly built and consists of only one layer of bricks. The wind blows through the cracks in the walls and floor, but in this heat such ventilation is quite pleasant.

All around our “castle” stretches a field covered in yellow grass. The soil is hard and red; it’s a miracle anything can grow in it. The groundwater, as can be seen from the ponds to water the sheep, is full of mud and the colour of cocoa. That certainly isn’t useable, and our own drinking water is collected in quite a novel way: At the end of the house stand two iron tanks that collect the rainwater from the roof. So, as it happens, we drink roofwater, but I can’t say that it tastes bad. The only thing is that in hot weather it’s warm and unrefreshing, but after all, what water is any good when it’s warm?

The house is five miles from our workplace and six from the nearest town, Pyramid, with its population of four hundred. We’ll eat lunch there in some restaurant, and prepare our own breakfast and dinner at home. We’ll be driven to and from work, and also into the town, even on Saturdays and Sundays, whenever we wish. Our wage is three shillings and threepence for every hour we work.

Everything sounds good so far. We’ll see how it is when we start work.

FOOTNOTES

*  For corroboration of the reception of the news that the contracted work period had been doubled, see Endrius Jankus' report for 20 December 1947.  The difference in dates might be due to Endrius report being based on notes rather than a diary, like that of Vaclavs.  It's also possible that the Latvians like Vaclavs were told separately and later than the Lithuanians, although we might expect such news to travel from one national group to the next via their common German language.

Also, Endrius writes that, "A few days later, we were recalled to assemble in the Great Hall and Dr Crossley informed us of changes. Immigrants from the First Transport would have contractual obligations of 12 months, but immigrants on subsequent transports would have to serve two years."  The few days later might have been 3 January, although that actually is 14 days later.

Of the two reports, perhaps Vaclavs should be favoured as far as the date is concerned since it comes from a diary apparently kept on a daily basis.  Regardless of the date, both reports tell us how upset the men (and probably women) were.

**  For a detailed report on the drowning death of Aleksandras Vasilauskas, please see https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2021/04/aleksandras-vasiliauskas-lithuanian-drowned.html.

*** The diary appears not have been kept on 1-2 January 1948.  Too busy celebrating the start of his first full year in Australia?

Railton, 1948: Goliath Portland Cement Company from Endrius Jankus' collection, by Ann Tündern-Smith

First published on 15 July 2023, updated on 2 December 2023, 23 February and 25 November 2024, and 26 January 2025.

During his 11-12 months working for the Goliath Portland Cement Company in Railton, Tasmania, Endrius Jankus collected photographs taken by another of the refugees.  Presumably, he purchased these at the going rate, around 5 pence per photograph, as calculated from information he provided in his translated diary entry, published here in the Bonegilla 1947-1948: Another Two Weeks, from New Year's Day (January 1-13) blog entry.  Probably, it was 6 pence or half a shilling for an individual photo, with a reduced rate for bulk purchases.  So here are the photos.

A group of Goliath Cement workers in 1948; From the left, Mindaugas Sumskas, a local, Povilas Niaura, Vaclovas Kalytis, Endrius Jankus, Kazys Vilutis
and (in front) Aleksandras Zilinskas

Smoko while loading a rail wagon of cement
Front: Povilas Niaura; Middle: Mindaugas Sumskas, Aleksandras Zilinskas, Tony Viknius; Rear: unknown, Endrius Jankus with a dark face, Kazys Vilutis, unknown

Lunchtime at the cement factory
 Standing: Povilas Niaura and a local; seated: Endrius Jankus, Aleksandras Zilinskas, unknown, Henrikas Surkavicius, Mindaugas Sumskas

Another 1948 lunch group at the Goliath factory:  Left to right, Endrius Jankus,
Povilas Niaura, Vaclovas Kalytis, Henrikas Surkavicius, Antanas Viknius, 
Kasys Vilutis, Mindaugas Sumskas, Vytautas Stasiukynas

Four of the men have a smoke before a concert at Railton:
Left to right they are Endrius Jankus, Aleksandras Zilinskas,
Kazys Vilutis and Vaclovas Kalytis
(You can view larger versions of any photographs above by double-clicking on them)

The Bonegilla cards of 18 men show that they were sent directly to the Goliath Company at Railton.  Endrius Jankus' card shows that he was sent to Tasmania for fruit picking but we know from the photographs above and other evidence that he then moved onto Railton.  There might be others like that, such as Vaclovas Kalytis and Aleksandras Zilinskas. Comparing names from various sources, I have come up with a list of 22, consisting of 3 Estonians, 5 Latvians and 15 Lithuanians:

Napoleonas Butkunas

Endrius Jankus

Vaclovas Kalytis

Mykolas Kartanas

Armands Laula

Johannes Liiberg

Povilas Niaura

Edmundas Obolevicius

Juozas Peciulis

Jonas Razvidaukas

Harolds Ronis

Alfred Saik

Antanas Simkus

Vytautas Stasiukynas

Evalds Stelps

Mindaugas Sumskas

Henrikas Surkevicius

Endel Uduste

Helmuts Upe

Antanas Viknius

Kazys Vilutis

Ojars Vinklers

Aleksandras Zilinskas

As recounted in Paul (Povilas) Niaura's story, the initial accommodation was in Goliath's single men's camp.  At first, they moved into the existing huts, but new ones for the new arrivals soon were built.  Ray Tarvydas says that, after wood and tools for making furniture were provided, it was Anton Viknius who showed the others how to do it.

Ramunas adds that, at first, most worked in the factory or the quarry, where the work was harder but the pay better.  Henrikas Surkevicius was promoted to the analytical laboratory after 3 months.  A document from post-WWII Germany made available by the Arolsen Archives shows that this is not a surprise:  his occupation was recorded there as 'Chemiker' or 'chemist'.

What is surprising is that a younger brother apparently left a gold mine in Canada to join Henrikas at Goliath Cement!  On his Bonegilla card, Henrikas recorded his next of kin as a brother, Teodoras, whose address was Picle (sic) Crow Gold Mines, Picle Crow, Ontario.  Teodoras has his own Bonegilla card showing his arrival in Australia on 24 March 1949 on the Mozaffari and his departure from Bonegilla on 6 June 1949 for Goliath Portland Cement Co Pty Ltd, Railton, Tasmania.

Perhaps Henrikas thought that his brother was headed for the Pickle Crow Mines but this turned out to be a plan which lapsed.  Arolsen Archive documents show Teodoras in Germany in 1946 and his 1949 Mozaffari voyage brought Displaced Persons from Germany who had travelled by train to Naples in Italy.

Someone has typed onto Teodoras' Bonegilla card 'none' in the Address of Next of Kin field, but his older brother in Australia was still working at Goliath.  Papers which appear to be working documents created by Ramunas Tarvydas have been acquired recently from the Goliath office through Stephen Niaura, son of Povilas (Paul).  Ramunas has recorded that Henrikas left Goliath on 30 June 1950.  His younger brother arrived one year earlier, on 8 June 1949, and stayed for more than the contracted 2 years, not leaving until 2 October 1952.

One of Ramunas' papers shows that 5 of the men 'absconded' during February 1949, so after only 9 months of labour at Railton.   Another 6 'left of own accord' during March and subsequent months.  These numbers do not include Endrius Jankus.  The labour expected of them could well have been way too hard after the wartime and post-war years of deprivation.

As per Endrius Jankus' story, the Commonwealth Employment Service may have tracked down the absconders and early leavers, to insist that they were not free to chose where they wanted to work.  They had been brought to Australia to fill vacancies which the Government had decided were in the national interest.  Finding where they were sent next probably will be difficult after the destruction of personal employment files, unless their absconding finished up on a policy file still held by Australia's National Archives.

By 2 October 1948, the local Burnie newspaper was reporting on a Railton function to celebrate one of Lithuania's national days.  Tarvydas writes that the singing was led by Vaclovas Kalytis and the women joining in the national dances were locals who had been taught the steps by Lithuanian men in the list above.  Kalytis kept the music going at other gatherings with his piano accordion.

Lithuanian migrants celebrate a national day,
with help from their Latvian, Estonian and Australian friends

Source:  Burnie Advocate, 2 October 1948, p 3

Arthur Calwell's Information Department considered the celebration so important that
it was included in the first draft of its newsletter for migrants, the New Australian

Source:  NAA, CP815/1, 021.148 

A later Lithuanian national day celebration to which the public was invited is described in more detail by Genovaitė Kazokas in her PhD thesis on Lithuanian Artists in Australia 1950-1990.  She wrote, "In September, 1949, the fifteen Lithuanian men working in Railton celebrated Lithuanian Day by organizing a Lithuanian folk-art exhibition, the first ever held in Tasmania, and by performing national songs and dances.  Invited guests included local clergy and Mr. Davies-Graham, the manager of the Railton Cement Works where the Lithuanians were employed.*

"Young local Tasmanian women, trained by the Lithuanians, partnered the men in folk dancing and the small male choir was trained and conducted by Vaclovas Kalytis. The programme also included a talk on Lithuanian history by Napoleonas Butkunas. 

"The male choir was invited to sing at several Catholic churches in the district.  The official Catholic newspaper published a complimentary report on the men's cultural abilities and activities.

"In an unusual move, motivated largely by his recognition of their cultural backgrounds, Mr. Davies-Graham recommended that several of the Lithuanians should be allowed to complete their work contracts in situations that would allow them to utilise their professional qualifications. As a result, one was appointed as an analytic chemist, another transferred as an agriculturist, and others to veterinary positions."** 

It's not a surprise, especially when we consider the folk dancing classes, that the newly arrived Baltic men challenged the local young men for single women.  Tarvydas reports that Aleksandras Zilinskas was supposed to have had two local girlfriends at the same time.  Their former boyfriends challenged Zilinskas to a fight, which he won.  That caused the local lads to gather others to their cause and march on the Baltic men's huts.  They had to be separated by the local policeman, who told them all to shake hands or "I'll bash your heads in".  The policeman prevailed.

We don't know who Aleksandras married but we do know that Mindaugas Sumskas was successful in marrying one of the local ladies.  She was Beverley Barker, daughter of Freda Barker, a widowed schoolteacher living in Railton.  Endrius Jankus remembers that Freda, "... opened her doors to us.  Her knowledge and advice helped many of us especially with problems in English and with government officials".

Another surprise, knowing Baltic habits, is that five of the men were non-drinkers.  A notable example was Edmundas Obolevicius, who was thought to be saving money to return to Europe.  This desire to return was a second reason why he was exceptional.

Tarvydas adds that, "Two more Baltic groups came to Railton later that year, and the last one in 1949".  The small town (2021 Census population still only 1,079) must have seemed very cosmopolitan in the years when it had its additional Baltic population.

We know that Povilas (Paul) Niaura stayed in Railton and that Endrius Jankus travelled to find his own work but returned to Tasmania.  I know that Henrikas Surkevicius and Mindaugas Sumskas moved to mainland Australia.  I've met with Armands Laula in Melbourne and Helmuts Upe in the hills to the east of Perth.  Any news of what happened to the remaining 14 will be received gratefully.

Footnotes

* Lithuania's National Day in February 16.  The only Lithuanian celebration is September might be for the autumn (in Lithuania) or spring (in Australia) equinox.  Napoleonas Butkunas participation in a 20 September 1949 celebration in Tasmania is at odds with the Aliens Registration record showing him reporting to the Melbourne Office of the Department of Immigration on 19 August 1949.  A September 1949 equinox celebration also would have occured 20 days after the First Transporters were to be released from their 2-year contracts.

** Henrikas Surkevicius' promotion to the analytical laboratory has been noted already.  Any advice on who was allowed to resume their agricultural or veterinary careers would be most welcome.

References

Advocate (Burnie, Tas), 'Migrants celebrate national day', 2 October 1948, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69190232, accessed 13 July 2023.

Harasym, R, 'The Pickle Lake Story', Sunset Country, Ontario, Canada, https://visitsunsetcountry.com/history-pickle-lake-ontario-canada, accessed 12 July 2023.

'Henrikas Surkevicius' in Lists of names of the town of Freiburg/Breisgau, Arolsen Archives DocID: 70850177, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70850177, accessed 12 July 2023.

Kazokas, Genovaitė Elena (1992) ‘Lithuanian Artists in Australia 1950-1990, Volume II’, Hobart, University of Tasmania, thesis. https://doi.org/10.25959/23205632.v1

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; Surkevicius, Henricas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1041, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203899949, accessed 13 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; Surkevicius, Teodoras : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - MOZAFFARI' : Number – [unknown], 1949-1949; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203899948, accessed 13 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Information, Central Office; CP815/1, General correspondence files, two number series, 1938 - 1951; 021.148, Immigration - From Minister [correspondence with Immigration Publicity Officer], 1947 - 1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=263676, accessed 23 February 2024.

Tarvydas, Ramunas, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania, 1948-1998, 1997, Hobart, The author, pp 46-8.

Endrius Jankus (1929-2014): From Sea Scout to Mining Engineer by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated on 23 September 2024, 30 April 2024 and 11 April 2023

The most recent 7 entries in this blog were Endrius Jankus' recollections of his arrival in Port Melbourne and his stay at the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre.  Now let's find out more about the author himself, starting with his important grandfather.

Martynas Jankus (1858 – 1946) was known, even in his lifetime, as ‘the Patriarch of Lithuania Minor’. This was a part of Prussia with a Lithuanian-majority population. From 1871 it had been part of a unified Germany. On the Baltic Sea, with Lithuania to the north and east and modern Poland to the south, it included what is now Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave.* 

Self-educated after primary school, Martynas became a printer of Lithuanian-language books, often their first publisher. He was one of the publishers of Aušra (Dawn), the first Lithuanian-language newspaper, and a number of other periodicals. As one of 24 signatories of the 1918 Act of Tilsit, he demanded the unification of Lithuania Minor with the rest of Lithuania, which led to the persecution of some signatories when Nazi Germany invaded during WWII. He was a member of the State Council of Lithuania, the law-making body between 1928 and 1940.**

Martynas Jankus in the United States, 1926

Source:  Wikipedia

During the Nazi occupation, Martynas was banned from giving public speeches. In 1944, he was forced to evacuate to Germany by the Nazis. He died in Flensburg, northern Germany, one year after the end of WWII. He had told his oldest daughter that he wanted to be cremated so that his ashes could be returned to his homeland after independence.

This major figure in the development of modern Lithuania was the grandfather of one of the First Transporters, Endrius Jankus. Born in Draverna, Lithuania, on 7 July 1929, to Martinas (sometimes also known as Martynas, like his father) and Ane Jankus, Endrius was the youngest of three children. He knew his grandfather well, having grown up in the village of Bitėnai, where his grandfather had his printing press.

After the Soviet Army invaded Lithuania in June 1940, Endrius’ father was fired from his job. Learning that the family had been on a list for deportation to Siberia, they left by train for the comparative safety of Germany ahead of the second Soviet invasion in 1944.

The older Martynas and his family had experienced deportation to Siberia already, after Tsarist Russia occupied their part of Lithuania in 1914. It was there that Martynas’ father, Endrius’ great grandfather, and Martynas' youngest son, Andrius, Endrius’ uncle, had died.

In Germany, the family found refuge in the Flensburg Displaced Persons camp, where the Patriarch of Lithuania Minor died in 1946. Flensburg was in the British Zone of Occupation, meaning that daily life there was much tougher there than in the American Zone: the British were suffering post-War privations at home too. As a young man living in these harsh conditions, Endrius saw the need to seek further refuge in a country where life seemed more certain. He applied to move to Australia as soon as the opportunity came up.

Endrius in the uniform of a Lithuanian Sea Scout on 10 September 1947,
in Flensburg, one month before the opportunity to migrate to Australia came

Source: limis.lt

At the age of 18, he set out for Australia alone from Germany, one year after his grandfather’s death. By then, he had completed his secondary education at a gymnasium or high school for Lithuanians in Germany.***

There is more detail of his early life in Lithuania in a couple of online obituaries, at Voruta.lt and Silaine.lt (both in Lithuanian). The Voruta tribute is wrong, however, in declaring that with Endrius’ death, the male line of Martynas’ family had ended forever. While Endrius' son, Martin, sadly had predeceased him in 2008 at the early age of 44, Martin had a son who is a member of the Facebook community of Heintzelman family members and friends.

Endrius kept a diary of his journey, from at least the day of arrival in Port Melbourne on the Kanimbla, 7 December 1947, until he was sent to work in Tasmania on 18 March 1948. He used this diary as the basis for writing a memoir of the period, which he sent to me in 2012. Due to its length, I have split it into the 7 entries immediately preceding this one in this blog. It gives an insight into life in Bonegilla, particularly for the Lithuanian men who were half the passengers on the Heintzelman and Kanimbla, which I have yet to find elsewhere. 

He stayed in the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre for more than 6 weeks until sent with a group to pick pears in an orchard at Ardmona in Victoria. The fruit-picking experience lasted a bit over 6 weeks. The group then returned to the Bonegilla camp for their next work assignment.

The 'Bonegilla card' for Endrius shows his father still in Flensburg and
Endrius' early employment in Australia

Source:  NAA

Endrius’ ‘Bonegilla card’ records this as more fruit picking in Tasmania from 18 March, 5 days after the return to Bonegilla. He stayed there for a short time only, since his own record of his residence outside Bonegilla on his application for Australian citizenship records the first place as Railton, Tasmania, from 23 March. Railton was the home of the Goliath Portland Cement Company, where Endrius had been sent to work, probably as soon as the fruit picking finished.****

He was at Railton for more than 11 months. The application for citizenship lists further addresses: Melbourne, Victoria, next for more than 5 months; back to Tasmania, Hobart this time, for the next two months; then Storey’s Creek from October 1949 to October 1950. There he worked for the Storey’s Creek Tin Mining Co (NL).  By the time he completed his application for citizenship in January 1953, he was living in Hobart and had been working for the Hydro-Electric Commission in Moonah as a 'diesel engineer' for 10 months.  When I visited him and his wife in September 2009, he was living out of Hobart with a beautiful River Derwent view, at Sandford.

An earlier Declaration of Intention to Apply for Citizenship was signed on 29 December 1949, a little over two years after Endrius’ arrival in Australia but three years before he would become eligible. He stated a motivation for applying so early. ‘I would like to visit my auntie in England who is my only relative living in 1953/54 for 5 months.’  This would have been stretching the truth a bit.  His parents may still have been alive and his older sister, Ieva (1924–2014), definitely was.  The statement was repeated in similar words on the January 1953 application.

In the end, his grant of citizenship was notified in a Commonwealth Government Gazette dated 16 July 1953. His receipt of his citizenship certificate was an occasion of great rejoicing, since it was part of a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the opening of Tasmania’s Pine Tier Dam. The whole event merited nearly half a page of reporting and photography in the Hobart Mercury newspaper of 3 June 1953.

Endrius was next in the news some 15 years later when the Good Neighbour, a monthly newsletter from the Department of Immigration, headlined his story, ‘Former Lithuanian set task of moving half an island’. At this stage, he was known as Christopher, based on his middle name, Kristups. He was running his own excavation company, employing 12 men. Its name, Explosives Engineering, is still in use by a Tasmanian company but whether this is the firm founded by Endrius is an open question.

'Christopher' Jankus at work, 1968

Source:  NAA

The Good Neighbour reported that he had worked on the Trevallyn power station, the Butlers Gorge power scheme and the Wayatinah power station, all in Tasmania, and the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme in New South Wales. Overseas, he had been involved in Niagara Falls power stations in Canada and construction of early warning radar stations in Alaska.

As for the half of an island he was to move, it blocked the mouth of the Tamar River to larger ships which otherwise could use the Bell Bay wharves in Launceston. Garden Island was 10 acres in size: Endrius’ task was to move 5 acres from the eastern side for land reclamation on the western side.

While single at the time of his citizenship ceremony, he advised the Good Neighbour that, “My travelling days are over. The family is keeping a pretty tight rein on me.” He had married Rosemary and they had three children, Linda, Martin and Maryanne.

A 1996 family portrait:  front row (L-R) Endrius, daughter Maryanne with her daughter, Megan, wife Rosemary; back row (L-R) son Martin with his wife, Kelly,
and daughter Linda with her husband, Steven.

Source:  Voruta, 30 August 2014, No. 12 (802)

The obituaries record that he had gone to Perth to study mining engineering at the Perth Institute of Technology (School of Mines). It seems more likely that he attended the West Australian School of Mines in Kalgoorlie. As Boas notes, this was somewhat in contrast with maritime aspects of his life in Lithuania, like the Sea Scouts. His experiences in helping to mine limestone and tin in Tasmania must have sparked a continuing interest.

According to Boas, Endrius Jankus did leave Australia in 1953, after he received citizenship and an Australian passport. She says that he stated, in answering a questionnaire, he was ‘disillusioned with his situation after the completion of his contract’. Even though the Australian Government thought of him as one of its citizens, ‘We were classed (as) stateless, the perpetual refugees of the world’. She doesn’t record what made him change his mind, but it could be that the UK and Europe in 1953 were even less appealing than Australia. He certainly made a success of himself after his return.

Having re-settled in Tasmania and started a family, he is reported to have said: ‘I didn't instil love for Lithuania in my children, I didn't want them, like me, to be heartbroken over the lost homeland.’ He himself followed events in Lithuania and was more than delighted with the restoration of an independent Lithuanian state in 1991.

As a former Sea Scout, he continued to be active in the Australian Lithuanian community. He wrote historical and polemical articles for Australian and American newspapers, some in English. He financially supported publications about Lithuania Minor and was a patron of the Lithuania Minor Foundation, which promoted his grandfather’s ideas.

Endrius or Andrew Jankus later in life
Source:  Voruta.lt

Martynas Jankus’ wish that his ashes could be buried in a free Bitėnai was overseen by his grandson and the grandson’s sister, Ieva, on 30 May 1993. Endrius visited his birthplace once again, in 1998. Captions in the Voruta tribute imply that he visited also in 1992 and 1994. He believed, along with other Lithuanians, that ‘my homeland is always in me’.

At the burial for Martynas Jankus' ashes in Bitėnai on 30 May 1993 are, left to right,
Algirdas Šarauskas (son of Juozas Šarauskas, chief scout leader of the interwar Lithuanian Scout Union), Endrius Jankus, Laimutė Šarauskaitė (daughter of Juozas Šarauskas)
and Endrius' older sister, Ieva

Source:  Europeana.eu

Endrius died in the Royal Hobart Hospital on 23 July 2014. His remains were cremated also so that he could be buried in the Bitėnai cemetery with members of his family.

Addendum 1

Ramunas Tarvydas' 1997 book, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, has an explanation of those 5 months and 2 weeks in Melbourne.  On page 32, he writes:

' ... problems arose with the men of the First Transport in regard to the length of their period of contract.  They claimed that in Germany they had signed on for one year only.  If the authorities had changed it to two years while they were on the high seas, the men said that they were not bound by such a change.

'Consequently, after working for a year at Railton, Viknius, Kalytis, Jankus, Vilutis and Stasiukynas decided to leave, despite the wishes of management and the admonitions of the government employment officers from Devonport.  They soon found work in various parts of Melbourne, but were contacted by the Immigration Department, who threatened the five with deportation to Germany if they did not return to Tasmania.  Andrew received the following letter:

'COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION,

455 COLLINS STREET,

MELBOURNE, C.1.

1st July 1949

'Dear Sir,

        You are directed to return to Tasmania and report to the Commonwealth Employment Officer within seven (7) days.

        You are reminded of your obligations to only accept employment as directed.

        Failure to obey this instruction will be viewed seriously and action will be taken for your deportation.

                                                                Yours faithfully,

                                                                         (signed) J Raftis

                                                                         for Commonwealth Migration Officer

'Andrew went to see the immigration authorities in Melbourne, and argued his case.  The officer became annoyed and threatened Andrew with the infamous Foreign Language Reading Test; the test could be in any language, so that if the authorities really wanted to deport Andrew and his accomplices, they could have given him a test in Mandarin or any other language "foreign" to him!

'Jankus and Viknius returned to Tasmania, but were not sent back to Railton.'  

Addendum 2

BBC Travel on 17 September 2024 published an article on 'Panemunė:  The scenic road that saved Europe's banned language'.  The banned language was Lithuanian and the author was Eglė Gerulaitytė.  She wrote that the Tsarist authorities during 1865 to 1904 had banned any publications in Lithuanian, expecting this to result in Russification.  

The ban had the opposite effect, leading to the smuggling of more than 40,000 publications annually into Lithuania.  They were produced by Lithuanians in what was then East Prussia as well as the emigrant community in the United States.  The Wikipedia article on Martynas Jankus notes that he was one of the suppliers for the smugglers.

I thank Jonas Mockunas and Daina Pocius for their assistance in the preparation of this article.

 

Footnotes

* More on Lithuania Minor can be found at https://www.draugas.org/news/lithuanian-minor-cradle-of-lithuanian-culture/.  

** The Lithuanian National Museum of Art, ‘Lithuanian Integral Museum Information System Virtual Exhibitions: Homeland is Always in Me’, https://www.limis.lt/en/virtualios-parodos/-/virtualExhibitions/view/151059, accessed 2 May 2021; Wikipedia, ‘Martynas Jankus’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martynas_Jankus, accessed 1 May 2023. There is a short video of a Kaunas monument to Martynas Janus at https://depositphotos.com/video/monument-of-martynas-jankus-kaunas-lithuania-martynas-jankus-or-martin-jankus-was-prussian-lithuanian-printer-128457826.html accessed 30 April 2024.

*** See here for more information on the education system which the Lithuanian Displaced Persons set up in Germany.

**** We know from Erika Boas (below) that the place in Tasmania where Endrius picked fruit was Huonville and can guess that he was helping to harvest an apple crop. Background to the Goliath Portland Cement Company at Railton, Tasmania can be found here.

Sources

Boas, Erika (1999) ‘Leading Dual Lives’, Lithuanian Displaced Persons in Tasmania, BA (Hons) thesis, University of Tasmania, https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7913/, accessed 12 January 2023.

‘Bronte Park Town of Pageantry in Tasmania's Most Colourful Coronation Rejoicing’ (1953) Mercury, Hobart, 3 June, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27149957, accessed 16 January 2023.

'Certificates of Naturalization' (1953) Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 16 July, p 1977, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232810367, accessed 16 January 2023.

‘Former Lithuanian set task of moving half an island’ (1968) Good Neighbour, 1 November, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17653211, accessed 16 January 2023.

Gerulaitytė, Eglė (2024) 'Panemunė:  The scenic road that saved Europe's banned language' https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240917-panemune-the-scenic-road-that-saved-europes-banned-language?fbclid=IwY2xjawFccgxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZyX3bj-m4EYMmzZEN9IQ8Uu1dFnHJMlo2bbo6QlJlL9SAq1DfGJZjwkmg_aem_73PKb1RiIWd1S167kZY7YQ, accessed 24 September 2024.

'Jankuviene Ane Kerkujyte', Fragebogen für DP, Arolsen Archives, Doc ID 79220657, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79220657

Kernius, Vytas (1995) 'Lithuania Minor, Cradle of Lithuanian Culture', Draugas News: Lithuanian World Wide News in English, 15 March, https://www.draugas.org/news/lithuanian-minor-cradle-of-lithuanian-culture/ accessed on 16 January 2023.

Lithuanian Integral Museum Information System (LIMIS), Virtual Exhibitions, Exhibition ‘Homeland is Always in Me’, https://www.limis.lt/en/virtualios-parodos/-/virtualExhibitions/view/151059, accessed 16 January 2023.

Lithuanian Integral Museum Information System (LIMIS), Virtual Exhibitions, Exhibition ‘Ieva Jankutė – daugther (sic) of Minor Lithuania’, https://www.limis.lt/en/virtualios-parodos/-/virtualExhibitions/view/21689455, accessed 13 January 2023.

'Mirė Martyno Jankaus vaikaitis Endrius Jankus’ (2014) Šilainės sodas, 20 August, https://silaine.lt/kulturos-naujienos/mire-martyno-jankaus-vaikaitis-endrius-jankus/, accessed 16 January 2023.

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; 380, JANKUS Endrius DOB 7 July 1929.  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005677, accessed 5 March 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P2836, Tasmanian Naturalisation, Citizenship and Alien records; JANKUS E, JANKUS, Endrius - application for naturalisation [arrived Fremantle per GENERAL STUART HEINTZELMAN, 28 November 1947].  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9593711, accessed 5 March 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571: Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration; JANKUS E, JANKUS, Endrius: Year of Birth - 1929: Nationality - LITHUANIAN: Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN: Number – 765.  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203627501, accessed 5 March 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12111, Immigration Photographic Archive 1946 – Today; 1/1968/16/158, Immigration - Migrants in employment - Civil Engineering - half an island in Tamar River moved - Lithuanian migrant, Christopher Jankus.  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7456662, accessed 5 March 2023.

National Archives of Estonia, National Archives of Latvia, Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Lituanica Department (2014) ‘Education’, Camps in Germany (1944-1951) for refugees from Baltic countries, http://www.archiv.org.lv/baltic_dp_germany/index.php?lang=en&id=419, accessed 16 January 2023.

Rimon, Wendy, ‘Goliath Cement’, The companion to Tasmanian history, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Goliath%20Cement.htm, accessed 16 January 2023.

Skipitienė, Giedrė (2014) 'Mirė Endrius Kristupas Jankus’, Voruta, Trakai, Lithuania, 30 August 2014, No. 12 (802), https://www.voruta.lt/mire-endrius-kristupas-jankus/, accessed 1 May 2021.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle:  Fifty years of Baltic immigration in Tasmania, 1948–1958, Hobart, Tasmania, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee.

Wikipedia, ‘Martynas Jankus’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martynas_Jankus, accessed 23 September 2024. 

Bonegilla 1947-1948: At Last, Off to Work (from 27January) by Endrius "Andrew" Jankus

This post finishes the recollections of Endrius Jankus, a Lithuanian refugee who arrived in Australia on the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman.  Endrius became known as Andrew in Australia.  He was born in Draverna in the south of Lithuania on 7 July 1929 and died in Hobart, Tasmania, on 23 July 2014.  He wrote this memoir in 2012, based on a diary he had kept during his first weeks in Australia.

27 January 1948 

Just after breakfast, the loudspeaker announced the names of all the persons who were being sent fruit picking. My name was among them. 

A little later, we were told to report to the employment office. They issued each one of us with clothing, meat and butter ration coupons and our old and new passports. 

After lunch, each of us was issued with seven and a half shillings. With this money, I bought some tobacco and two airmail letters. This left me three shillings to spend later. 

At 3 pm we were told that we could leave some of our belongings in the storeroom as we will be coming back after the fruit-picking season. I left my little wooden suitcase in the store. 

At night we went for a swim to cool off. 

28 January 1948 

I got up at 6 am and took my blankets back to the store as our departure time was scheduled for 10 am. 

Just before the departure time, four buses arrived to take us to our destinations. We boarded the buses and took off, but had to stop constantly as some of the buses broke down from "old age". 

We stopped at Wangaratta for a while. Some bought sandwiches, others bought the plonk which made us sick. It was well in the afternoon, just before 5 pm, when we arrived at our destination, Ardmona. 

Twelve of us were accommodated in a farmer’s pickers’ barracks. There were two in each small room on two single beds cocooned inside mosquito nets. Mozzies zoomed around all night trying to get under the nets. In the dead of night, they sounded like aeroplanes. 

On our arrival, we were given a meal in a little hut that served as a mess hall. An old man, most likely in his seventies, was our cook. After the meal, we went for a walk to familiarise ourselves with the area. Unfortunately, it was flat as a pancake surrounded by orchards as far as the eye could see. 

I shared a room with AJ, as we have known one another since Bonegilla and the Scout Movement.* 

29 January 1948 

I got up at 6 am, hot and sweaty. The heat seemed to follow us. While most of our families and friends shivered in Europe from the cold, ice and snow, we were sweating in the full brunt of Australia’s summer. 

Breakfast was at 7 am. Then we fronted up for work at the edge of the orchard. The Boss, an overseer, showed us how to pick the larger pears from the tree without damaging the little branches. 

Latvian fruit-pickers from the First Transport in another orchard,
at Grahamvale on the edge of Shepparton, Victoria

Source:  Collection of Arvids Lejins

Each of us was issued with a huge bag to fasten to the body by straps, with an opening at the front. This is where the pears were placed gently, so as not to bruise them. We were also issued with a wooden ladder to reach the top of the trees. Thus equipped, we proceeded to pick the fruit. 

Lunch was at 12 and we started work again at 1 pm, going until 5 pm. 

A group of First Transport fruit-pickers
eating their lunch on the job

Source:  Collection of Arvids Lejins

According to the paper issued by the Commonwealth Employment Bureau at Bonegilla, our pay was three pounds and five shillings for 44 hours a week. Since our arrival we only received only five shillings each week pocket money, so this seemed a fortune to us. 

The "fortune" left us wondering after our first shopping spree in Shepparton with two weeks' pay. A watch of local manufacture cost 11 pounds, shirts were one pound, shoes were two pounds. A parcel of many tinned conserves cost five pounds and ten shillings from a well-known Sydney firm which in specialised in sending parcels to the starving "Poms" but reluctantly accepted our orders to be sent to family and friends left behind in Germany. 

Everything non-British was hated, including the native Aboriginals. We saw a few Aboriginals gathered on the riverbank when a white man appeared and told them to move. It reminded us of our brethren left behind in our country with the murdering Stalinists ordering them around. 

We usually worked until midday on Saturday and spent the rest of the day having a rest and doing some chores, like washing and mending things. Sunday was a free day but many times we worked for the Italian tomato growers picking tomatoes. We got better pay from them. 

Things didn’t work out too well at this place. A week after our arrival, most of us got diarrhoea and we noticed that our bacon and eggs for breakfast were being cooked in a pan full of fat. We gently mentioned to the owner of the property that we appreciated the eggs and bacon for breakfast, but our stomachs could not take cooking them in a massive amount of fat due to the years of starvation. 

The next morning at breakfast, our cook charged into the mess room with a large carving knife and threatened to cut everyone’s throats. We were stunned and our friendship with the cook deteriorated. We laughed after the event and gave him top marks for bravery, for facing twelve young ex-soldiers from different military formations at seventy years of age. 

The other problem which occurred was the switching around of picking rates. On some days or even half days we would be picking at a daily hire rate then suddenly we would be picking at production rate, usually paid by the case at six-pence a case. If it rained, we didn`t get paid at all. We picked there for a month and left for Tatura on 1 March. 

In our picking gang we had one real Australian. He was in his forties, a happy-go-lucky fellow and friend to everyone. He came from Melbourne. He always appeared with a Gladstone bag. In it he had a thermos of "tea" which he used quite frequently. While we went back to the small mess hall for lunch, he remained in the orchard at his work site, no doubt indulging in his "cup of tea". 

Usually in the afternoons we came across him fast asleep under the pear trees. The boss never said anything to him or to us. As I used to talk to him, I was his favorite. 

One day, during a smoko, he offered me a "cup of tea". I could not refuse his friendly offer. I took a sip and my eyes almost popped out of my head. The "cup of tea" was strongly laced with some unidentifiable alcohol. 

Not to appear insulting, I downed the brew and felt sleepy for the rest of the afternoon. No wonder the poor chap used to fall of the ladder and stay there. 

We returned to Bonegilla on 13 March 1948, with our first mission completed. On 18 March, the same group was sent to Tasmania. I believe this was punishment, but for what, escapes me. My relationship with the Commandant at Bonegilla was not very friendly. We could put that down to a clash of cultures.

The end.

Footnotes

* This might well have been Antanas Jurevicius, since the 'Bonegilla cards' for both record that their first job was with Anton Lenne Pty Ltd of Ardmona.  Another possibility is Anicetas Jucius, also sent to Anton Lenne's orchard, but he was already 32 years old, much older than Endrius at 18 and Antanas at 25.

** Double-click on the images to see larger versions of them.