Aleksandras Gabecas: In the “Promised Land”, Australia, translated by Ann Tündern-Smith and Jonas Mockūnas

Ann used Google Translate and her English language skills to draft a translation, but asked our Lithuanian-speaking, Rosebery expert, Jonas Mockūnas, to clean up her efforts and thanks him for the result.

Aleksandras' story

The journey [to Australia] and the impressions it left were interesting for us, but they were not yet life in Australia itself.

Today, it has been two and a half months since we came to Australia, but we only started working on January 17. Until then, we lived in Bonegilla, 600 miles north of Victoria’s capital city, Melbourne,* in an Australian Army camp, which in appearance did not differ much from the DP camps in Germany.

Only the nature is a bit different. There are so-called "gum trees" and other trees that look like willows. There are no spruces, pines, birches, maples, or other European trees here. Maybe they are grown as ornamental trees in gardens, parks, or near houses.

We were constantly visited by various journalists, bishops, photographers, filmmakers, ministers, and all sorts of people in the Bonegilla camp. During that time, we learned English, swam, had scout bonfires, played basketball, held swimming competitions, sailed, gave concerts, organized a three-nation show, and, most importantly, ate and dressed well.

At the beginning of January, they began to divide us into work groups. I, along with 6 other Lithuanians and 5 Latvians, ended up with the Tasmanian zinc mining company, Electrolytic Zinc. On January 17, we 12 were sent to Tasmania in planes as there was a seamen’s strike going on.

They settled us in northwestern Tasmania, about 12 miles from the Rosebery zinc mining town, in the middle of forests and wild mountains. The only road here is the railway. Rosebery is the only town that has no other communication than the railway, which is also run by a private company.

Uncredited, but highly likely to be Aleksas Gabecas' mind map of his trip to Rosebery

Source:  Skautu Aidas

Currently the newspapers here write a lot about the use of emigrants for new road construction work.

As I mentioned, we live in the mountains and in impenetrable forests. Our camp is on the slope of a mountain and consists of 8 cabins and 2 tents. We live in pairs in the cabins, which really are only tin shacks as it is not cold here and the snow melts as soon as it falls in winter.

I happen to live with Romualdas Krausas, who is our camp cook and who also says hello to you. At the moment he is making Lithuanian pancakes and suggests that I try them. All right!

This drawing was captioned, 'Mūsų brolių stovyklos vartai Tasmanijoj', which can translate as
'The entrance to our camp in Tasmania'

Source:  Skautu Aidas

Each day we travel 2 to 4 miles from our camp into the mountains to our workplaces. Here we cut, dig, clear, blast or burn the forest to build a new road to future large zinc mines. We work 40 hours a week. Every other week on Fridays, we get a free day to go shopping in Rosebery. We get paid for that day as well. Saturdays and Sundays are free from work. After all the deductions, we get five pounds and 15 shillings in our hands each week. Compared to others, we are quite well provided for.

The food is good, especially since one of us cooks it according to our preferences in a European way, because the Australians, despite having so many good things, don't really know what to do with them. In general they are backward, in music, in art, in clothing and in other areas. Everything that is modern and new comes from America or England.

Given the ladle crossed with the pickaxe, this looks like Aleksandras' rendition
of the hut he shared with the group's cook, Romualdas Krausas --
note that the chimney is freestanding although approached from inside the hut,
which is to offer the hut some protection if the chimney catches fire

Source:  Skautu Aidas

In general, Australia is a land of great extremes and a new future. Even in the wild grasslands, forests and mountains you can see modern trains, buses, cars, etc.

Food here is quite cheap. You can live for a week on a pound. A man's suit costs from 4 to 10 pounds. If made by a tailor, the price would be from 10 to 20 pounds. Only those things that are imported from overseas are expensive here. For example, take musical instruments: an accordion costs from 20 to 100 pounds, a radio from 20 to 30 pounds. Watches are priced from 20 to 100 pounds, if they are gold, of course. Simple ones only cost from 10 to 30 pounds.

The only problem here is with accommodation. We and many mountain workers live in blocks or tin shacks, because the government does not allow the construction of any slum dwellings and cannot keep up with the demand for modern houses. However, the climate here is warm and many Australians are happy to live in tents during the summer.

If you met me, you wouldn't recognise me. Living far from the city, I have grown a beard, bought two guitars even, and a radio. In my free time I draw, play or write letters.

Tomorrow, is 16 February [Lithuania’s Independence Day]. With that day's earnings, we will send a parcel to Germany for other DPs and remember our homeland with those struggling there.

The most senior people in the zinc company have promised to come and listen to our songs and music. This evening we will rehearse.

In closing, I wish all fellow scouts fair winds and can report that the 12 Vyčiai [Rover Scouts] scattered throughout Australia have not forgotten their scout promise, no matter where they are.

I am always prepared! 

Aleksandras Gabecas

FOOTNOTE:  *Bonegilla in fact is only about 200 miles (335 kilometres more or less, depending on which route you take) from Melbourne and it definitely is northeast, not north, making us wonder how much training in navigation this Rover Scout had received.  As for Rosebery, there now is a road and no railway.  Aleksas' guess for the distance here was closer to the what the modern traveller finds:  68 miles (110 kilometres).

SOURCE:  Gabecas, Aleksandras (1948) '4. „Pažadėtoj Žemėj“ Australijoj' ('4. In the "Promised Land", Australia', in Lithuanian) Skautu Aidas (Scouting Echo), Augustdorf bei Detmold, Germany, 15 June, pp 30-31 https://www.spauda2.org/skautu_aidas/archive/1948/1948-Nr05-06-SKAUTU-AIDAS.pdf, accessed 24 July 2026.

"General Stuart Heintzelman” men to Tasmania’s West Coast, January 1948, by Jonas Mockunas

Updated 8-9 May and 11-15 September 2025, and 2 August 2026.

The West Coast is an isolated, rugged and very sparsely populated part of Tasmania. Much of it is wilderness and home to ancient natural wonders, including cool temperate rain forests which are now listed as National Parks and World Heritage sites. The climate can be equally rugged, with over 2000mm of rain per annum and snowfalls in winter. 

Despite its isolation, human activity is now quite evident, with roads linking towns and providing access for locals and tourists. Mining in particular has impacted the environment at many locations.

Remains of the Hercules haulage line between Williamsford and Mt Read, near Rosebery

Source:  Mockunas collection

THE EZ COMPANY AT ROSEBERY

The small town of Rosebery was established in the late 1890s after gold was discovered nearby.  It became the mining base for the Electrolytic Zinc Company (EZ Co).  The processed zinc ore transported by the Emu Bay Railway to Burnie on the north coast of Tasmania and then to the company’s Risdon Zinc Works in Hobart for smelting.

In the late 1940s the mining industry around Rosebery was prospering and the EZ Co wanted to explore new territory. The opportunity of using newly available migrant labour to open up these areas was attractive. The first group of young migrants who had fled the Baltic States as refugees during World War II was sent from the Bonegilla migrant camp in early 1948 to assist with this task. 

THE MIGRANTS ARRIVE 

The First Transport of Baltic displaced persons to Australia arrived at Fremantle aboard the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman in late November 1947; the 839 Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian men and women were then transported to the Bonegilla migrant camp near Wodonga, beside the River Murray in northern Victoria. 

Apart from a contingent of women who very soon after arriving at Bonegilla were sent to fulfill their 2-year work commitments in Canberra, large-scale job allocations of these ‘Balts’ did not begin until the New Year.  Aleksandras Gabecas (see below) recorded that, after a very hot summer at Bonegilla, twelve of the men who had requested job placements somewhere cooler were selected for labouring work in Tasmania.  They would subsequently discover Tasmania’s West Coast to be considerably wetter and cooler than the mainland.

The men left Bonegilla on 13 January to board a ship from Melbourne to Burnie, but a waterfront strike caused a change of plans.  Instead they were flown to Wynyard on the north coast of Tasmania by the EZ Co. They were given a meal at Wynyard Airport and put on the railcar heading south - there were no roads linking Rosebery with the outside world at the time and the narrow-gauge Emu Bay Railway provided the only access. They arrived at their new workplace in the western forests in the middle of the night and company records show they were put to work the next day, 19 January 1948.

Fortunately for us, one of these men, Aleksandras Gabecas, also known as Alex Gabas in Australia, has left a record of his memories with images of those days to enrich the story we can tell today.  As part of the 50th anniversary of the First Transport to Australia, the Lithuanian weekly newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, published photographs with captions and articles by Gabecas over several editions.

Earlier his impressions of life in the Bonegilla camp and life during his first four weeks working for EZ were published in a Lithuanian-language scouting magazine, Skautu Aidas (Scouting Echo) in June 1948.  They are available in translation here.

Some of the passengers on board the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman
en route to Australia, November 1947;
Aleksandras Gabecas is in the front row with a guitar

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 17 April 2013

An announcement in the local press of their impending arrival in Tasmania

Source:  Burnie Advocate through Trove

THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Their work for EZ Co involved assisting the company’s exploration program: cutting tracks for surveyors and samplers, followed by wider tracks for bulldozers and heavy equipment. Each day the men would journey a few miles to their worksites where they would clear, dig, blast and burn their way through the forest. They worked a 40-hour week. 

The company supplied their food and tools and took them back to Rosebery every second Friday to collect wages and do some shopping.  Several also frequented the pub.  Saturdays and Sundays were free days, often spent in Rosebery or Zeehan.

While the EZ Co sought to provide all the fundamentals, on occasion the men had to resolve some of the material shortcomings during their shopping trips to town. For example, gumboots were not provided at first as they were in short supply, so some of the men purchased their own in Rosebery as the ground at their worksite was often a quagmire.  

Similarly, for the first fortnight the men had to work in the lightweight clothes that had been issued to them in Bonegilla.  After the first shopping trip, they got into a routine where they would buy a new shirt for the weekend in town and wear it to work for the next fortnight. 

Despite these initial shortcomings, in Gabecas’ view they were fairly well off compared with some of the other migrants: after deductions, the men were paid a wage of 5 pounds and 15 shillings per week.

THE BALTIC BUSHMEN CITY

The men initially lived at a railway siding which they named Baltic Bushmen City and erected an official-looking sign to proclaim their new home. The City was the base for further exploration work in the hinterland; officially known as Pinnacles Siding, it was located near Boko Siding, about 12 miles (19km) north of Rosebery. 

Some of the men with their Baltic Bushman City sign, mid-1948

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 2 December 1996

Gabecas wrote that it consisted of several tin sheds and a few tents set on a hillside in a landscape that was a welcome contrast to the scorched Victorian countryside. Each sleeping hut had 2 bunks, adequate blankets and a fireplace.  Lighting was by carbide and hurricane lamps.  

Meals were prepared by an EZ cook, he remembered, but in February 1948 he wrote about the benefit of sharing a hut with another Lithuanian who was cooking for all the Baltic men.

A second worksite, a much more basic tent city, was located 5 kilometres away.  Here they were able to prepare meals to their own (European) tastes.  

EZ tents in the bush

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 2 December 1996

Gabecas seemed to enjoy the adventure of the new experience, noting that the only drawback was the standard of accommodation.  A descendant of another Balt, Rosie Emerson, had these somewhat sharper observations:

"My father was one of these men who was sent from Bonegilla, to Rosebery in 1948 … these men lived in tents in the harsh Tasmanian climate. My father told how he’d wake up freezing and wet if he happened to roll into the side of the tent...

"There was a Christmas break when Dad went to Melbourne where he met my mother. He refused to return to the harsh conditions and completed the second year of his contract with the government in Melbourne at a brick factory, with much improved living conditions. 

"He used to meet my mother under the painting of Chloe in Young & Jackson's each weekend before they’d head of to dance the night away, a far cry from living in ice- covered tents."

THE WEST COAST BALTS, JANUARY 1948

Name	Age	Nationality
Blaubergs, Otto	30	Latvian
Gabecas, Aleksandras	25	Lithuanian
Jablonskis, Juozas	35	Lithuanian
Krausas, Romualdas	21	Lithuanian
Krizanovskis, Edwards	20	Latvian
Krumins, Alberts	25	Latvian
Kubiliunas, Jonas	22	Lithuanian
Kudras, Kirils	26	Latvian
Marazas, Antanas	23	Lithuanian
Maslauskas, Karolis	24	Lithuanian
Martišius, Saliamonas	27	Lithuanian
Roduss, Augusts	37	Latvian

LATER ARRIVALS

After about 6 months in the forests, these men were transferred to Rosebery to finish the remainder of their contracts. They worked for EZ Co on the surface as the unions had initially barred migrants from working underground. By that time, other Balts had also arrived to take their place, often after their first job placement in fruit picking. 

Three Lithuanians from the First Transport were sent to Rosebery after their Victorian orchard work, leaving Bonegilla again on various dates in March and April 1948.  They were Viktoras Kuciauskas, Rosie's father, Zigmas Paskevicius and Juozas Leknius.  Those known to have arrived a little later, from apple-picking in south-east Tasmania's Huon Valley, were Leons Mikelans and Izidorius Smilgevicius.

Around 80 Balts worked at Rosebery from the late 1940s and into the 1950s. After the men were released from their work contracts, most moved to Hobart or the mainland.

A small number stayed at Rosebery, having by then secured better paying jobs working underground in the mines. A few worked in the Farrell Mine at Tullah, while others undertook track-cutting and cartage on a contract basis.

One of the latter, Latvian Eizens Princis (Eugene Prince) married a local girl and stayed in Rosebery until retirement.

ANN'S NOTE

For anyone not acquainted with Melbourne folklore, Young & Jackson's is a centrally located hotel on a corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, across Flinders street from the main railway station for suburban lines.  Chloe is a 1875 painting by French artist, Jules Lefebvre, which has hung in Young & Jackson's main bar since 1909.

While Rosie Emerson's father, Ziggy Paskevičius, may have waited for his sweetheart under Chloe, Rosie's mother would not have been allowed into the main bar under the customs prevailing in 1949.  They were more likely met outside or in another part of the Hotel.

"Under the clocks" is another well-known Melbourne meeting place, the clocks being across Flinders Street from Young & Jackson's.  Above the entrance to Flinders Street Station, they show the departure time of the next train for each line.  Rosie's mother may have preferred that spot.

SOURCES

Advocate (1948) ‘Balts to Work on West Coast’ Burnie, Tasmania, 12 January, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69067798, accessed 5 May 2025.

Emerson, Rosie (2020) Comment on post regarding the above news item in the Advocate, in the General Stuart Heintzelman/First Transport Facebook private group https://www.facebook.com/groups/505412590020835/search/?q=rosie%20emerson, accessed 5 May 2025.

Holmes, Michael (2017) Tasmania’s Vanishing Towns: not what they used to be Hobart, The author, p 3.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1988) ’Ankstyvųjų metų albumas’ [‘An album of the early years’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 20 June, p 12 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1988/1988-06-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1996) ’Pažadėtoj žemėj Australijoje’ ['The promised land Australia’ in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 5 August, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-08-05-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1996) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (II)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (II)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 2 December, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-12-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (III)’ 'The First Transport: in photographs (III)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 20 January, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-01-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (IV)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (IV)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 12 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (V)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (V)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 19 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (VI)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (VI)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 23 June, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-06-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania, 1948-1998, Hobart, , pp 42-45.

Wikipedia, 'Chloe (Lebvre)' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlo%C3%A9_(Lefebvre) accessed 5 May 2025.