Alexander Nõmm (1922-2000): Sportsman, Builder, Family Man, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Silvi Nõmm Simpson

[Silvi Nõmm Simpson is the daughter of Aleksander.]

The photograph below comes from the collection of Aleksander Nõmm. It shows him with 3 Lithuanians, whose names he could not remember.

Aleksander Nõmm is seated on the running board of the truck in this photograph
which we have used 3 times already in this blog, for Edvardas Lapinskas on the left,
Bernardas Matkevičius in the cab and Juozas Nakas on the right

Source:  Collection of Aleksander Nõmm

Fortunately, it matches exactly with a photograph already supplied by Diana Bučiūtė, a niece of Juozas Nakas, who wrote his life story for this blog. There it was 3 named Lithuanians with an unindentified Estonian.

Now identified, Aleksander was born on a farm on the Estonian island of Saaremaa on 8 May 1922. He was named after his uncle, also Aleksander. Estonians often shorten Aleksander to Sass or sometimes Sander. His uncle was known already as Sander so the younger Aleksander got Sass.

Aged 18 or 19 in 1941, he found himself conscripted by the Soviet military machine into servitude in Russia. This was a period of his life about which he did not like to talk much.

He later believed that his loss of taste and smell was due to the freezing winters he spent in Siberia nearly starving, but being a farm boy, he knew what to eat to survive. His work was mainly building barracks, which meant that he developed carpentry skills which he could offer the Australian migration selection team in 1947.

After three years in Siberia, Aleksander was able to return to Estonia when the Soviets used all the manpower they could find to advance against the German occupation of the Baltic States.

Another Estonian who came to Australia in November 1947 on the First Transport with Aleksander, a man maybe 15 centimetres shorter than Aleks (who was nearly 2 metres tall), once told Ann that there was one Estonian on the ship of whom others were afraid. This was because he was a big man who had walked all the way back from Siberia.

At the time, Ann imagined an escapee on a solitary journey, living off the land. Even if the other Estonian was describing someone who had survived a walk from Siberia with a military unit, he still was talking about a massive effort. It could have been an effort which lost many participants under its wartime conditions. It was a walk from Asia, across Europe to an island off its west coast.

Back on Saaremaa, he joined other local men in what was meant to be a surprise attack from the rear on the German occupiers of their island. However, two German machine-gunners were able to fight off the invaders. Most were killed as the seawater turned crimson with their blood.

Sass was among a handful of survivors taken to Germany as prisoners-of-war. They left from the port of Mõntu on Saaremaa's Sõrve Peninsula.

The report of his interview for possible migration to Australia repeats some of this, saying that he arrived in Germany in October 1944, brought as a prisoner-of-war.

The carpentry skills that Sass said he had developed in Siberia were in great shortage at the time of his interview. As we’ve reported in some other entries in this blog, building was minimal during the War. Many of the people with the necessary skills were in the military, the Federal Government had brought in restrictions and the building that did go on mostly was for military needs.

So what did the selection team write on its report of the interview? Occupational suitability: “Heavy general labouring”. This is why “labourer” Nikolai Müristaja landing a first job in his watch-making profession in an earlier entry is so amazing.

The middle of three sons, Sass was the only one who was taken westwards by the Germans. After the Soviet occupation of 1944, his older brother, Heimar, decided to remain in the woods and fight. He became was the Estonians call a “forest brother” or metsavend.

While he participated in a guerrilla war from his forest bunker, the younger brother (Artur) and a sister 10 years younger than Sass (Linda) were the ones who kept Heimar supplied with food from the farm. Heimar and Artur were caught.

Heimar, the metsavend, was sentenced to a mere 10 years in a labour camp for treason. Artur received a 5 year sentence for assisting treason.

The thinking behind the March 1949 deportations from the Baltic States to the Gulag is said to have been, “Your family member is there already so you can join them”. It also was expected to destroy the economic base of the Kulaks, the small farmers, a class to which the Nõmm parents belonged. Thirdly, it was expected to destroy support for the Forest Brothers. Father, Jaan, then 63 years old and mother, Marie, then 56, were rounded up and sent off to Siberia for an indefinite period, the rest of their lives.

Sass’ sister Linda had caught pneumonia and was being cared by family friends. This meant that she was not at home when the authorities came looking for the family of Heimar and Artur. She was not deported.

Heimar and Artur did hard labour, shovelling hazardous materials, and it is believed in the family that this is why they both died young. Artur was lucky enough to have been released in December 1951, from a camp in the Archangel Oblast, having served a 4 and a half year sentence, and no doubt expected to survive as best he could. He died in 1986, still in a Communist country, aged 61.

Heimar was released in July 1955, from a camp in the Komi Autonomous Republic in the northeast of European Russia (around 1,000 Km east of the Archangel area) after 8 and half years of hard labour. He died in January 1981, also aged 61. In contrast, Linda was 78 when she died, her mother was 82, her father was 2 days past his 89th birthday, and Sass lived until he was 98.

As for destroying support for the Forest Brothers, Estonia had a least 2 who died without giving up, in 1980 and 1987, even after the last active one drowned himself rather than surrender when caught fishing by the KGB in 1978. The last Forest Brother of all was Jānis Pīnups, who emerged from the Latvian forests in 1995.

After his liberation in Germany in March 1945, towards the end of World War 2, Sass was in the Oberkassel camp on the Rhine River. He remembers Canadian Red Cross parcels were received by the camp administration but the managers took out the cigarettes, coffee and best clothes for themselves.

By 1947 he had moved to one of the four camps for Estonian displaced persons in the town of Melle. It was there that he heard about the Australians seeking young men and women to work in their country.

Aleksander in Melle, Germany, 1947

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Sass reckoned that he had his first real meal in six years on board the General Stuart Heintzelman. He was employed in the shipboard butcher’s shop for the duration of the voyage. Like other non-smokers, he used the freely issued American cigarettes to barter for other luxuries.

He remembered that the ship had steam turbines and a system which condensed the steam, giving plenty of fresh drinking water and allowing the use of large shower rooms. (Another passenger on a later voyage to Australia told Ann that the showers were hot, something special in those days.)

Those people who had brought musical instruments on board the Heintzelman formed a dance band which played during the evenings. The tables in the Heintzelman mess facilities could be hoisted up to the ceiling to create a dance floor.

Sass learnt modern dances, such as the samba, rumba and tango, while he was in Germany. He said he was best at the tango, but he was not musical or a folk-dancer.

On the train to Bonegilla, Sass thought that his first sight of eastern Australian countryside was “like a desert”. In early December, the fields were dry already. The yellow grass was a shock because he had thought that Australia was going to be mainly tropical.

Bonegilla itself was very exciting for the young Estonian men at first. They even found the local rabbits exciting. Sass remembers letting two of them loose in the barracks. Possums invaded the barracks without human assistance.

They went swimming in Lake Hume and found that they could catch yabbies for meals. There were big fish in the Lake also, near the Hume Weir, but their attempts to catch them were unsuccessful.

Those who returned late to the barracks would be welcomed with a bucket of cold water perched carefully on top of the partially open door.

Busloads of girls turned up from Wodonga and Albury to meet the new young men in the camp. Despite his dancing skills, Sass was afraid to take any of the girls to a dance as they were well dressed, while he “looked like a scarecrow”.

While in Bonegilla, the displaced persons received 5/- per week “tobacco money” for personal spending, after the costs of their board were deducted from their social security payments. At that time, a packet of tobacco cost 2/6.

His first Australian employer was the company of CJ Row, Webb and Anderson which operated what Sass called the Eildon timber mill. We know it from the Bonegilla cards as a timber mill at Thornton, about 12 Kilometres away from the better-known township of Eildon. Both are more than 130 Kilometres away from the company’s headquarters in South Melbourne. Given that much of the trip is on rural roads, it still is around 2½ hours drive between South Melbourne and Thornton or Eildon.

Sass reported Row and Webb were generous Australians, counterbalanced by Anderson, a “stingy Pom”. Sass received a minimum of £5/12/- for a five-day week, from which he paid 16/- tax and 36/- for accommodation and board. This left £3/-/- to spend or save.

Aleksander stacks timber at the Thornton mill

Source:  Collection of Aleksander Nõmm

After three or four months, his weekly wages went up to £7/10/-. Also, he found that he could earn an extra £3 on Saturday mornings doing piecework for Mr Webb. However, the accommodation provided was in barracks which had grass growing through the gaps in the floor. The gaps also permitted lizards to make forays through the barracks.

Aleksander (left) and another employee among the stacked timber

Source:  Collection of Aleksander Nõmm

While he was at Thornton, Sass attended English classes four days a week. Among the other DPs employed by Row, Webb and Anderson were the 3 Lithuanians in the photo above, who spoke to him in German, so he learnt some German there also. He had not picked up the German language while in Germany as he always was in camps with other Estonians.

Three Lithuanians and an Estonian again, with their clothes suggesting that this photo was taken in the same session as the truck photo: from the left, Edvardas Lapinskas, Aleksander, Bernardas Matkevičius and Juozas Nakas, with the CJ Row, Webb & Anderson sawmill in the background

Source:  Collection of Aleksander Nõmm

After finishing his compulsory employment at the Thornton Mill, Sass was able to find other work, but it was “three weeks here, six weeks there”. The Dunlop tyre company provided him with better employment, but best of all was Kraft Foods.

He started work with Kraft in 1953 and stayed with the company more than thirty years, until he retired in 1985. He was employed as a storeman, and a forklift driver and eventually in the company’s office.

At some stage, possibly even in his Estonian youth, Sass took up sport. As mentioned already, he was tall, and of medium build when younger, so he had the right body for a sportsman. His speciality in Australia was the shotput and javelin, until he damaged his shoulder.

Oberkassel, Germany, 1946:  Two volleyball teams with their trainers/managers
in plain clothes in the middle of the front row, with Sass 4th from the left

Source:  Collection of Aleksander Nõmm

In December 1949, a sports writer for the Melbourne Herald listed him as one of 9 javelin throwers invited to tests for inclusion in the Victorian athletics team. Success would lead to the Australian championships and inclusion in the team for the Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games) in Auckland, New Zealand, two months later.

The Australian Estonian newspaper, Meie Kodu, reported in January 1950 that he had competed in the Victorian Athletics Championships, despite the heat affecting all competitors. Affiliated with the Box Hill Club, he was placed third in the javelin. It looks like Sass just missed out on the Victorian team in the leadup to an Australian team for the Empire Games.

The first Australian Estonian Sporting Games were held in Melbourne during Easter 1954. Sass did well, coming second in the long jump with a leap of 5.78 metres and second also in the shotput, with a throw of 11.53 metres.

In June 1954, Sass was participating in an Estonian volleyball team which was involved in trial games against others to determine the grades in which eventually they would play. The Estonian team had won its 3 games so far. The following month, Meie Kodu reported that they had defeated a Greek team, Olympic (of course), maintaining a record of 5 wins and no losses.

Meie Kodu also reported in the same month that Sass had chaired a meeting of Melbourne sportspeople and was chosen to be the coach of the girl’s handball team.

Another Australian Estonian Sporting Games were held in 1955. Sass came second in the long jump again, with a slightly shorter jump of 5.74 metres. It looks like there was no shotput competition.

He wasn’t just a sportsman. He successfully played bridge as well. As early as July 1954, Meie Kodu was reporting Sass coming second in a bridge doubles competition when partnering another First Transport arrival, Sven Kiviväli.

By 1957, Sass was building his own house in the northern Melbourne suburb of Fawkner, having married Irene Sein who arrived in Australia in 1949. Their only child, Silvi, was born while the house was going up. Silvi worked as a librarian, married and provided 2 grandchildren to Sass and Irene. Mrs Nõmm also had an older son. The family moved into the Fawkner house in 1958.

That year was also the year when Sass became an Australian citizen, with Irene on 5 March 1958.

A turning point must have been reached in 1957-58, with marriage, house-building and citizenship, as there are no more digitised reports of A. Nõmm’s sporting achievements.

At the time of writing in 2026, Melbourne Estonians had held a Last Hurrah weekend to farewell their Estonian House on Melville Road in West Coburg 6 weeks previously. Back in 1971, they were renovating the recently acquired former cinema. A contributor to Meie Kodu listed those who turned up every weekend to help, including Sass and his bridge partner, Sven Kiviväli.

All dressed up and somewhere to go, 9 Estonians from the First Transport, probably in Melbourne's recently renovated Estonian House:  Standing, left to right, Ants Sumberg, Valentin Reesel, Erich Väli, know to all as "Potsa", Lembit Koplus (looking really happy to have left Pyramid Hill), Kalev Veermäe, Sven Kiviväli, and kneeling, left to right, Ralf Knuude, maybe Mihkel Kaige, Aleksander Nõmm 

Source:  Collection of Aleksander Nõmm

After arriving in Australia, Sass has lived and worked only in Victoria, but travelled by car through NSW, South Australia and as far north as Mossman in Queensland. He undertook bus tours of Tasmania and from the centre of Australia to Darwin. He and Irene toured New Zealand.

Ill health, however, prevented travel back to Estonia, even after its second independence in 1991. He didn’t actually want to go, because he wanted the memories of how things were to stay in his mind.

Irene died on 29 March 2008, days short of her 86th birthday. This was the point when Sass had to leave the home he had built himself. He lived with his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren for nearly 3 years. Then more health issues forced him into retirement care with Claremont Terrace Aged Care, McKinnon, near where his family lived.

Sass stayed there for another 9 years, passing the respectable age of 98 years. The ashes of both Sass and Irene rest in the Estonian section of the Fawkner Memorial Park in northern Melbourne.

SOURCES

Estonia’s Victims of Communism, Search Nõmm https://www.memoriaal.ee/en/search/?q=N%C3%B5mm&f=all, accessed 1 July 2026.

Hayward, Steve (1949) ‘Jack Davey's Test In Six-Mile Event’, Herald, Melbourne, 8 December, p 27 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244143925, accessed 19 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1950) 'Melbourneist' (‘From Melbourne’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 26 January, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85529847, accessed 10 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1953) 'Melbourne', (In Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 27 August, p4, https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1953/08/27/4, accessed 14 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1954) ‘Terves kehas terve vaim' (‘A healthy mind in a healthy body', in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 29 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85536610, accessed 10 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1954) 'Melbourne' (in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 1 July, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85536914, accessed 19 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1954) 'Sport, Melbourne' (In Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 8 July, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85536935, accessed 10 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1954) 'Melbourne' (in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 15 July, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/85536971, accessed 19 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1954) Sydney, NSW, 'Melbourne', (In Estonian) 15 July, p 3 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1954/07/15/3, accessed 14 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1954) 'Melbourne', (In Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 29 July, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85537041, accessed 11 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1955) ‘Rekordid kõnelevad’ (‘The records speak for themselves’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 10 February, p 3, https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1955/02/10/3, accessed 14 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1971) ‘Eesti Maja’ (‘Estonian House’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 14 October, p 2 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1971/10/14/2, accessed 14 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1972) ‘Rahvuskapitali Tänu’ (‘National Fund Thanks’, in Estonian, Sydney, NSW, 20 September, p 2 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1972/09/20/2, accessed 16 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1974) ‘Melbourne, Märkmeid Yarra-Linnast’ (‘Melbourne, Notes from the City on the Yarra’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 11 September, p 3 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1974/09/11/3, accessed 16 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1981) ‘Rahvuskapitali Tänu’ (‘National Fund Thanks’, in Estonian, Sydney, NSW, 9 September, p 2 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1981/09/09/2, accessed 17 June 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1985) ‘Meie Kodu tänab Toetuskaardid’ (‘Meie Kodu Thanks Supporter Cards’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 9 September, p 14 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1985/12/18/14, accessed 17 June 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 212, NOMM Aleksander DOB 8 May 1922, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005625, accessed 17 June 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; NOMM ALEXANDER, NOMM, Alexander : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - ESTONIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 608, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203902046, accessed 17 June 2026.

Nõmm, Aleksander (2003) Personal communications, 9 January and 16 September.

Antanas Martisius (1923-1997): Another Who Left, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinksienė

Updated 15-16 April 2026.

Few public records

Antanas Martisius is one of the 31 Heintzelman passengers whose selection papers have gone missing. In addition, there were 3 Displaced Persons with the same name in Germany after World War II, 4 if we count another First Transport passenger, Saliamonas Antanas Martisius, commonly known by his middle name.

At least we know from his Bonegilla card that our Antanas had a birthdate of 1 December 1923, so we can focus on a man with that name and birthdate. The Bonegilla card also says that he was one of the 7 sent to the Pyramid Hill Quarries in northwest Victoria.

Antanas' photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Antanas' Lithuanian past

The DP Registration Record form completed in Germany in November 1946 says he was born in Šakai in Marijampolė County, now close to the eastern border of the Kaliningrad exclave. His parents were Juozas Martisius and the former Prančiska Butkiūte.

His usual trade or occupation was stated to be smith, which presumably was a blacksmith as opposed to workers in metals other than iron.

A 1942 census in Lithuania, conducted despite the War, gives more information about Antanas and his family.

They actually lived in the Daugėliškiai village in the Šakiai district.  The parents married in 1921.  The census shows that they had had 9 children 21 years later, of whom 8 had survived (4 daughters and 4 sons). 

Antanas was born in Daugėliškiai village and had finished elementary school.  He was working as a metal turner at the Malcanas agricultural machinery factory in Šakiai.  Being what Australians call a "fitter and turner" would explain the "smith" description on his DP registration form.

Alien Registration Details

His Alien Registration Application form says that he was 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, so he towered almost as much as the 6 feet 3 inch (1.9 m) tall Lembit Koplus, his fellow Pyramid Hill worker.

The file which contains his Alien Registration Application form also has his original Certificate of Registration under the Aliens Act, a passport-like document. It was issued in September 1952 to replace an earlier Certificate which was mutilated. This means that there is no record of his movements after leaving the Bonegilla Camp for Pyramid Hill until a Rae Street, Fitzroy, address at the start of the new Certificate.

Later changes of address were to a hostel in Eildon, Victoria, in September 1953 and to semi-rural Clarinda, then on the outskirts of Melbourne but now definitely a southeastern suburb, in July 1956.

In April 1957, Mūsų Pastogė has him advertising twice for another Lithuanian to contact him.  His address now was in inner suburban Melbourne, on Montague Street in Albert Park.  "There is news from Lithuania" was added to the second advertisement, perhaps producing the desired reaction.

Antanas Leaves

Then the final record states that Antanas left the Commonwealth (of Australia) on 11 July 1958 on a passenger ship, the Oronsay. It sailed a trans-Pacific route, stopping at both Vancouver, Canada, and San Francisco in the United States.

The Oransay was favoured by several others who left Australia for the Americas. The first was Viktoras Kuciauskas in 1956, bound for the love of his life in the United States. The peripatetic Vladas Navickas left Australia on this ship in early in 1959. Veronika Tutins, now Brokans, travelled on the Oronsay with her family in 1960, probably with the aim of joining her successful brother-in-law.

Antanas' death

After Antanas left Sydney on the Oronsay, there is one final set of public records, about his death.  None of them give the date of birth of the deceased, but they all give the year as 1923.  This separates him from Saliamonas Antanas, born in 1920 or perhaps 1921, plus 2 others named Antanas Martisius and captured in the Arolsen Archives digitising, born in 1917 and 1921.

The major item is an advertisement in the Canadian newspaper, Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland in English) in its 6 January 1998 edition.  Headed Padėka or Thanks, a translation would read,

'ANTANAS MARTIŠIUS, our dearest and best man not only in Canada, but also in the whole world, departed for eternity on 12 December 1997.   With his loss, this foreign land became even colder.  We will carry in our hearts the goodness, patience, generosity and faith sown by the late Antanas all our lives and will try to help others, as he helped us. 

'We sincerely thank the Franciscan Fathers of the Resurrection Parish and the priest from Lithuania, Julius Sasnauskas, OFM, for the funeral rites, musician Danguola Radikienė for the beautiful singing and organ playing during the Mass, and Valea Siminkevičienė for the wonderful bouquets of flowers. 

'Thank you to the pallbearers, friends and acquaintances for attending the funeral, expressing condolences, flowers, requesting Mass and donations for the 6-year-old orphan, Renata Gelžinytė, from Lithuania who was burned. Thank you to Birutė Stanulienė and Genutė Kobelskienė for preparing a delicious lunch. Special thanks to Vytautas Kulnis and Viktoras Račiukaičis for their sincerity, help and advice during the funeral. 

'With deep sadness — Angelė and Birutė.'

Those attending the funeral on 15 December donated CA$180 for the 6-year-old orphan who needed a skin graft.

Who were Angelė and Birutė?  Since Angelė now has a joint headstone with Antanas, but with no dates in her case, we hypothesised that she was Antanas' wife.  We further hypothesised that Birutė was their daughter.   However, an 2010 article in Tėviškės Žiburiai about Birutė says that she was Antanas' stepdaughter.

Since the World Wide Web is still great at enabling people at great distances to make easy contact with each other, we now know from Birutė that the former First Transporter was indeed her stepfather.  And that Angelė is a good distance from sharing the grave with Antanas.

Antanas Martisius' headstone with space for wife Angele in 
St. John's Lithuanian Cemetery in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Source:  Billion Graves

SOURCES

Billion Graves, 'Antanas Martisius' https://billiongraves.com/grave/Antanas-Martisius/52346233?referrer=myheritage, accessed 14 April 2026.11.

‘Folder DP2579, names from MARTINSONS, MARIA to MARTON, IBOLYA (2)’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 68195911 (Antanas MARTISIUS), ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68195911, accessed 2 March 2026.

Geni 'Antanas Martišius' https://www.geni.com/people/Antanas-Marti%C5%A1ius/6000000052312923835, accessed 4 May 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1957) 'Pajieškojimai' ('Searches' in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 1 April, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1957/1957-04-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 13 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1957) 'Pajieškojimai' ('Searches' in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 8 April, p4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1957/1957-04-08-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 13 April 2026.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents, 1948-1965; 1958/MARTISIUS A, MARTISIUS Antanas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1958 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6036235, accessed 3 March 2026.

National Archive of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; MARTISIUS ANTANAS, MARTISIUS, Antanas : Year of Birth - 1923 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 964 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203615119, accessed 3 March 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1997) 'Toronto Ont' (in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 16 December p 2  https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1997/1997-12-16-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1998) 'Padėka, A † A Antanas Martišius' ('Thanks, RIP Antanas Martisius, in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 6 January p 2  https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1998/1998-01-06-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1998) 'Toronto Ont' (in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 6 January p 10  https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1998/1998-01-06-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (2010) 'Birutė Lukšėnaitė' (in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 19 October, p 15 https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/2010/2010-10-19-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

VšĮ Genealoginiai surašymai (Public Institution Genealogical Censuses) 'Šeimos surašymas 1942 metais' ('Family Census in 1942', in Lithuanian) https://eu3.ragic.com/genealogija/census/3/19406.xhtml, accessed 4 March 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Clarinda, Victoria’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarinda,_Victoria, accessed 3 March 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Marijampolė County’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijampolė_County, accessed 2 March 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Šakai’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0akiai, accessed 2 March 2026.

Wikipedia ‘SS Oronsay (1950)’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Oronsay_(1950), accessed 2 March 2026.

Vaclavs Kozlovskis starts work at Pyramid Hill, 8-31 January 1948, translated by Monika Kozlovskis

PYRAMID HILL, 8.1.49, Thurs 

This morning we looked over the quarries, our new workplace. We were quite surprised to see only five Australians working here; apparently it’s not a desirable job.  Work is carried out in two areas - the rock quarry and the sand quarry, where we’ll be working alone.

In the rock quarry holes are bored in the rock with a compressor, then filled with explosives.  The large rocks are always exploded, but the small ones are hit with a hammer into pieces to fit into the crusher.  These pieces are tipped into trucks with some sort of digger, and driven to the crusher. 

Drilling a hole into the granite, Pyramid Hill

Source:  Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis

In the other place, where for the time being we three Letts* will work, sand is poured into the trucks without the help of a of digger, and by our hands alone.  This sand is ground up with the rock, then carted away to be tipped out where a road is being built, about thirty miles from here.

Afterwards we drove into town, where the boss gave us an advance to buy the necessary clothes, as well as two pounds each for various other trifles.   He also gave us two pounds of tobacco, for it’s difficult to obtain here.

After lunch we changed into our work clothes and drove off to begin our labouring job. The boss himself is pleasant, but not so pleasant is the job.

For four hours we poured sand into trucks, and for four hours we scorched mercilessly in the hot sun; this is no longer just work, it is punishment.  Soon our hands were covered in blisters of unhappiness and protest, and our muscles in pain.

Worst of all, I’d left my water at home so I had to work with a dry throat and get by without a drink, for there’s no water here.

Finally the work hours were over, and we looked for some water to wash in.  Near the quarry there is a pond full of brown water in a gravel pit.  Not worrying overmuch about the leeches and abundant tadpoles we jumped straight in.  It’s amazing how cool this chest-deep water was,  it greatly refreshed us and took out the tiredness put there by the sun.

Our first work day over, we drove home.

PYRAMID HILL, 9.1.48, Fri 

On our second day of work we began throwing sand into the trucks from the morning on, the blisters on our hands becoming more and more unbearable.  We worked hard until lunchtime and it even seemed that we weren’t overly tired, but the picture was quite different that afternoon: on throwing the first shovelful tears almost came into my eyes, from the pain in my muscles and blisters.

We could no longer work as hard or fast as we had in the morning.  The four hours crawled past slowly, we could hardly wait to leave.  I was weary as never before.  My blisters hurt, my arm and stomach muscles ached, and so did even my sunburned back. This job is really terrible; only one year, and not one minute more!

PYRAMID HILL, 11.1.48, Sun 

We went to church. It’s a long time since I’ve been in this quiet place.  Nothing is different here, everything is familiar, even the pictures are the same as in the church in Latvia. The priest’s robes are quite the same that the priest wore in my distant homeland, and it even seemed to me that the grey-haired priest himself, Father O’Connor, was one and the same, except that he spoke a different, more difficult to understand language.

For about half an hour he spoke of the eight hundred Balts who have come to this country, of our lost homeland, and of we seven, who have come to the quarries.  I listened and marvelled — are we really as good as the priest says?  He said we are pleasant and hardworking, and good Catholics.  The priest said even more, but I don’t know the language well enough to understand it all.  The mass was over, we came out of the church and drove home.

PYRAMID HILL, 13.1.48, Tues 

Another work day, and another bone-weary drive home.  I still had dinner to prepare for us all as it was my turn.  Yesterday I caught some rabbits and penned them up to fatten up for Saturday, but today I let them go again, after all they might drop dead because they haven’t touched their food yet.  Late at night, completely exhausted, I went to sleep.

PYRAMID HILL, 14.1.48, Wed 

Today things turned out a little better.  We were very productive in the morning, but to make up for it we had more of a rest in the afternoon. To begin with, half way back from lunch the truck broke down and we had to walk the rest of the way.  The truck was fixed and returned, but when a driver wanted to use it for sand pouring, it broke down again and wouldn’t budge.

So this afternoon we worked with only a small vehicle.  But despite our frequent rests, coming home I was even more tired than before. I  didn’t feel like doing anything, so I went to bed straight after dinner, even though it was only seven o’clock.

One of the trucks, with its driver, maybe 3 Letts and a ring-in,
probably a Lithuanian or Australian

Source:  Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis

PYRAMID HILL, 20.1.48, Tues 

This was a really terrible day.  Yesterday afternoon we moved to the rock quarry, and today we worked there all day.  There wasn’t a breath of wind and the sun scorched down, little water blisters forming on our skins from the heat.

I drank a lot of water, but it was warm, and instantly converted into sweat.  Wherever I put my hand, my body became wet straight away, and perspiration dripped in large drops from my hair.  Finally work was over, but we still had to go into town for some bread.

A fire was raging there — the whole street was full of women standing beside belongings that had been carried out of their houses, and the men, thoroughly soaked, were attempting to put the fire out.  After we’d helped to extinguish the fire we took our bread, prised the driver out of the pub, and drove home.

Although it’s night, there’s still no relief from the bone-wearying sun’s heat.  I tried to sit outside, but a hot northerly wind is blowing.  It will be a miracle if I can sleep tonight.

PYRAMID HILL, 22.1.48, Thurs 

This is the worst day I’ve endured here — I couldn’t sleep at all last night and it’s already hot this morning.  Through the day perspiration poured down even when standing completely still, and on top of that we had to work!  My arms tired quickly and my glance moved all too often to my watch. I n the morning the watch hands seemed to move a little, but in the afternoon they even seemed to be moving backwards.

Finally, though, even this hot day reached its end and we drove home completely exhausted.  I went to bed straight after dinner, but it was too hot to fall asleep even sleeping completely naked on top of the blankets.  Suddenly it began to rain and the wind changed, and it cooled down straight away.  I crawled under the blankets and fell deeply asleep.

Vaclavs added these newspaper cuttings to his page on 22 January 1948;
all except the top left are from the Argus, Melbourne, 23 January 1948 

Source:  Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis

PYRAMID HILL, 22.1.48, Wed (sic) 

The boss showed up, and from morning his car was parked by the crusher.  The first thing we found out about was the change in our workplace — now the digger would be sent to the sand quarry, and the diggers themselves moved to rock loading.  When the boss arrived he said various things as well.  He said that several of us work well, but others don’t.  The wage we are paid is high, therefore we need to show good progress — the government can’t carry people who don’t do anything.  We’re not in forced labour, but work for our own wage, which is comparatively high, therefore we have to work hard, he said.

This year we will have two week’s holiday around Christmas.  By early February a barracks will be completed for us right here at the quarry and we won’t have to travel so far to go to work.

Petrol is rationed and expensive — each time we are driven into the town on Saturday or Sunday it costs one whole pound.

In fact I would prefer to live at the quarry, for then the town would be close by and we could easily go there whenever we wanted to, and we would no longer have to live in the jungles, where only quite rarely some seventeenth century limousine drives past, entirely without tyres.  Also at lunchtime we wouldn’t have to get in a car every day to drive into town, so we could spend more time resting.

The boss added that on rainy days when it’s too wet to work in the quarries, we still have to show that we’re willing to work and go to the workplace.  In this case we will still be paid whether we work under shelter or sit there all day and do nothing.  That’s all the boss said, the rest returned to work, while I accompanied him to translate to the tall Estonian who works on the trucks.

The tall—and only—Estonian was Lembit Koplus, whose Bonegilla card says that he was 6 ft 3 in or 190 cm tall; note that his two "boxing" companions are standing slightly in front of him
to increase the emphasis on his height, and it looks they are still in their pyjamas

Source:  Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis

Now I understood where the boss’s reprimand was aimed — apparently the Estonian is the worst of all.  It seems he often sits and smokes, holding up the trucks with their loads.

Towards evening the boss left to return to Melbourne, so we’ll have some peace again for the next fourteen days.

PYRAMID HILL, 27.1.48, Tues 

Yesterday the drivers had a booze-up, and today they had hangovers so they couldn’t work all day.  The morning passed unusually quickly, and we worked in the shade almost all the time.  We rested after each truckload, until the driver finally got around to exchanging a full truck for an empty one. The afternoon was much hotter, but the work wasn’t heavy at all, for again we rested after each truckload.

I discovered how poor provincial towns such as this must be — I tried to buy sixteen pounds of sugar, but the shopkeeper’s eyes just widened when I asked him for it.  He merely said ‘too short’, and weighed out eight pounds instead.  Who knows, perhaps his shop only carries some twenty pounds of sugar at once?  In the early evening there was a small rain shower, but despite this I was perspiring when I went to bed and tried to sleep.

PYRAMID HILL, 31.1.48, Sat 

First thing in the morning we began our preparations to celebrate our first pay packets. I’d brewed some beer, bought wine and invited all six of the quarry drivers, but whether any of them would show up, remained to be seen.

Around nine thirty the car arrived to drive us into town.  We bought glasses, pickles and all the other necessities for our party, and then waited as usual for the driver to finish his beer.

After a long wait we gave up and went into the pub ourselves to drink beer and toss quoits, as the Australians do.  We discovered that the pub has no tables or even chairs. In the middle of the room is a round bar in the centre of which the publican works, and around which were gathered almost all the men of Pyramid, drinking beer.  In this way they can forget the week’s sweat, and begin work next week with an empty pocket.

Only cold beer is drunk here, other drinks are neither suitable nor valued in this heat. We managed to get the driver out of the pub and drove home, where we put the table in order and began our wait.

We waited from five to six, but no one came.  At seven we decided to start drinking, but had only polished off two bottles of wine and several of beer, when suddenly a truck drove up with two of the drivers and two friends.

Now we let fly in earnest, until one of them fell into a drunken stupor and the others carried him into the truck.

We drank a bit more, then the others prepared to leave.  Only then did they discover that the headlights weren’t working, but this was soon remedied — two of our hurricane lanterns were hung on the car, and they drove off slowly and carefully.

Then we climbed into bed as well, and peace descended over the house.

FOOTNOTE

* Lett is another word for Latvian.  Besides Vaclavs, the other two were Persijs Arndts and Edgars Osis.

CITE THIS AS:  Kozlovskis, Vaclavs, trans by Monika Kozlovskis (2026) 'Vaclavs Kozlovskis starts work at Pyramid Hill, 8-31 January 1948', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/01/vaclavs-kozlovskis-starts-work-at-Pyramid-Hill-Victoria-8-31-January-1948.html.