Anton Warapnickas, formerly Antanas Varapnickas (1914-1995), by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

The Germans use the letter W to represent the sound we make when a V is used in Lithuanian and English.  Antanas, the Lithuanian equivalent of the English language Anthony, also is likely to be Anton in Germany.  Changing his name to make it easier for the Germans is the most likely explanation for the Lithuanian refugee, Antanas Varapnickas, arriving in Australia as Anton Warapnickas.

The Arolsen Archives is yet to digitise any German records for Anton Warapnickas or Antanas Varapnickas.  Likewise, the Australian Archives in yet to digitise Anton Warapnickas’ papers relating to his application to migrate to Australia and his selection interview.  This means that we do not know when or how Antanas or Anton arrived in Germany.

However, a Lithuanian language newspaper published in Germany, Mūsų kelias (Our Path), carried advertisements from Antanas in May 1946.  He then was looking for his brother Jonas and someone called Ona Šimonelytė.  He also enquired after his married sister, Ona Kikilenė, her husband, Zenonas Kikilas, and their children, Gyliai and Gylytė. At this time he was based in the German coastal city of Lübeck.

We also know that he had married in Lithuania, to Judita Stonkutė.  Their marriage took place on 18 September 1938, when Antanas was 24, in the Seda parish church.  He had been born on 11 March 1914 in Grūstė village, Seda parish, Mažeikiai district, in Lithuania.  From the marriage record, we know that his mother’s name was Petronėlė Varapnickaitė (the name of an unmarried woman) and his father’s name was not stated.

The marriage record also tells us that his occupation, in Lithuanian, was darbininkas. This is the equivalent of labourer in the English language.

Anton Warapnickas from his Bonegilla card --

whatever was wrong with the eyelid on the right had been fixed by the photograph below

Source:  National Archives of Australia

His Bonegilla card confirmed that he had been the Antanas Varapnickas whose next of kin was a mother called Petronėlė Varapnickienė living in the Seda Grūstės village.  It might have been that a new Lithuanian arrival with good English and typing skills was helping the staff fill out the Bonegilla cards (someone like Viltis Salyte), in which case the married form of the family name (the one ending in -ienė) would have been assumed — and who was Anton to argue against this?

His Bonegilla card also advises us he had arrived in Australia on 28 November 1947 on the First Transport.  He then became one of the 26 men sent from the Bonegilla camp to help build the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme.  He left the camp on 14 January 1948, so he had spent roughly 5 weeks there.  For his sake, we hope that he was committed to attending the weekday English language classes.

He married for a second time in Melbourne in 1951, to Maria Pilelis.  It looks like she too modified her first name, perhaps in Germany, to suit the local orthography, as it usually is spelled Marija in Lithuania and Latvia.

She had arrived with Stepas Pilelis, 11 months older than her, on the Amarapoora.  This ship reached Fremantle in Western Australia on 22 July 1949.  Sad to say, Stepas was dead just over a year later, at the age of only 49.  An unsourced newspaper clipping on one of his files said that he was a tuberculosis patient who had hung himself from a tree, leaving a letter of explanation behind.  (The National Library’s Trove service reveals that the relevant newspaper was the West Australian.)

Stepas’ tuberculosis would not have been detected until Australia despite the careful checking for possible tuberculosis among all potential immigrants, which continues to this day.

Stepas was Latvian.   We know from a Tėviškės aidai obituary for Marija that her brother, Juozas Narušis, had a Lithuanian name. From this we deduce that Marija too was from a Lithuanian family and we know already that she was a widow before her second marriage to Anton or Antanas.

Together Anton and Maria advertised their intention to apply for Australian citizenship in the required 2 newspapers in August 1954.  They received this citizenship on 25 November 1955, when living on Bardsley Street, Sunshine, a northwest Melbourne suburb.

Antanas Varapnickas was another friend of Rasa's grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas:
here, Adomas (standing, left) has his hand on Antanas' shoulder (standing, right);
others in the photograph include Adomas' friend Beryl (front left) and, possibly, 
Marija Varapnickas (second from left)

Source:  Private collection

The earliest available digitised electoral roll on the Ancestry Website, for 1963, shows Anton working as a labourer while Maria had found employment as a weaver.  She may have been working for a factory in the Sunshine area manufacturing fabrics – or perhaps at home, weaving folk fabrics for members of the Lithuanian community.  Their situation remained the same in electoral rolls for 1967 to 1972.

At some stage they sought the rural life, moving to Daylesford, a spa town 114 Km northwest of central Melbourne.  Perhaps they thought that living here was more like living in Lithuania than Sunshine had been.

Their move to Daylesford occurred before one of two joint Commonwealth-State electoral 1977 rolls for Bendigo were compiled.  The compilation date for the digitised one possibly is 22 April 1977.  Anton still was working as a labourer, while “Mary”, now 67 years old, had moved to home duties.  This means that her previous work as a weaver was likely to have been in a factory.

On the 1980 roll, Anton had modified his occupation to builder’s labourer and they were at a different Daylesford address, suggesting that they were renting rather than buying.  From the Ancestry digitising we cannot tell the date on which the roll was compiled, but Anton had reached eligibility for the age pension on his 65th birthday, 11 March 1979.  The roll makes it look like Anton preferred to continue working for builders to retirement.

It was in Daylesford that Marija died on 13 January 1993 at the age of 82.  The Tėviškės aidai obituary records that she had been seriously ill for 26 years, a statement that suggests cancer as the cause of death. In Lithuanian, the obituary continued, “Deeply saddened are her husband, Antanas Varapnickas, sister Mercelė Matulionienė, sister Magdė Rimušaitienė in Berlin (and) brother Juozas Narušis, who endured 26 years of suffering in Siberia and lives in Lithuania”.

Anton or Antanas followed nearly 3 years later, on 19 September 1995. Both had spent their last days in the Daylesford Hospital. Antanas was 81 when he passed, a good age.

Although Anton Warapnickas never had changed his name back to its Lithuanian spelling, Tėviškės aidai used the Lithuanian version in its brief obituary.

This notes that he was buried with Marija in the Daylesford Cemetery. It adds, “We have no further information about the deceased.”

May this blog entry put on record that he was one of the 727 men thought young, fit, sturdy and alert enough to be chosen for inclusion in the first post-WWII party of refugees from Germany to Australia – a social experiment testing whether or not the Australian people were ready for migration from Europe so soon after the War’s end. The experiment was an immediate success and a resounding one too, in that it started the culturally diverse migration program Australia still has today.

The headstone on the Warapnickas grave in the Daylesford Cemetery

Courtesy Daylesford & District Historical Society

SOURCES

Ancestry, ‘Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 for Anton Warapnickas’ [1963] https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1207/images/33112_202632__151-00315?rc=&queryId=a21ba650-ff59-47ae-8859-f0a92b1cb248&usePUB=true&_phsrc=caR321&_phstart=successSource&pId=80213119, accessed 10 April 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Anton Warapnizkas’ (sic) https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203910028, accessed 9 April 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1955) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ [Maria Warapnickas’ naturalization] Canberra, ACT, 26 April, p 1154 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232877677/25099499, accessed 10 April 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1955) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ [Anton Warapnickas’ naturalization] Canberra, ACT, 10 May, p 1303 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232877677/25099499, accessed 10 April 2026.

Metrikai.lt [Search for a marriage certificate for Varapnickas, Location = Seda, County = Mažeikiai, Parish/village = Seda RKB] https://www.metrikai.lt/?F6=Sedos%20RKB&title=Varapnickas, accessed 10 April 2026.

Mūsų kelias (Our path) (1946) ‘Mes ieškome savųjų‘ (‘We are looking for relatives’, in Lithuanian) Dillingen, Germany, 23 May, p 7 https://spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_musu_kelias/archive/1946-nr20-MUSU-KELIAS.pdf, accessed 9 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A7109, "Dead" card index of Registered Aliens, 1948-1951; PILELIS, Stepas: Year of Birth - 1910: Place of Birth - LATVIA: Travelled per - AMARAPOORA: Certificate No – 95035, 1948-1951 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=205653436, accessed 10 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; K1331, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1948-1965; 1950/PILELIS S, PILELIS Stepas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per Amarapoora 22 July 1949, 1949-1949, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3102072, accessed 10 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; WARAPNIZKAS (sic) ANTON, WARAPNIZKAS (sic), Anton : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 826, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203910028, accessed 10 April 2026.

Sunshine Advocate (1954) ‘Public Notices’ Sunshine, Vic, 15 August, p 12 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/74772914?searchTerm=Warapnickas, accessed 9 April 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (1993) ‘A † A Marija Varapnickienė ‘ (‘RIP Marija Varapnickiene’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 2 February, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1993/1993-02-02-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 10 April 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (1995) ‘Iš mūsų parapijų, Melbournas‘ (‘From Our Parishes, Melbourne’, in Lithuanian), Melbourne, Vic, 3 October, p 7 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1995/1995-10-03-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 10 April 2026.

West Australian (1950) ‘Migrant Found Dead’ Perth, WA, 9 August, p 11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47879465, accessed 10 April 2026.

Wikipedia, 'Daylesford, Victoria' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylesford,_Victoria, accessed 10 April 2026.

Bolius (Balys) (1924-2011) and Vytautas (Vytas) (1926-1993) Kunčiūnas: Lithuanian brothers or half-brothers? By Rasa Ščevinskiene and Ann Tündern-Smith

Same father, different mothers?

Bolius and Vytautas Kunčiūnas have one record each in the Arolsen Archives.  It shows them as having the same father, Stasys Kunčiūnas and coming from the same place, Raseiniai in Lithuania.  This could either have been a small town with a population of 5270 in the 1923 Census, nearly half of whom were Jewish, or the larger county, part of Samogitia.

The difference is that Bolius’ mother is recorded as Konstancija Bendikaite while Vytas’ mother is said to be Konstancija Šilaikaite.  The two American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) DP Registration Records were signed off with the same signature on the same date (13.10.45) and at the same place, Assembly Center No. 24.

Is it possible that there is a spelling mistake with one of the mother’s surnames?  Rasa says yes, it is possible.  Ann says that the same official filling out both forms on the day, in the same place, makes it unlikely.

Also unlikely is that two successive wives might be called Konstancija, but Ann suggests that this might be one of the reasons why Stays Kunčiūnas , if a widower with a baby son, might have started talking with the second Konstancija.  By the way, there are no online records of a Konstancija Kunčiūnas dying or being buried.

Both young men are recorded as Roman Catholic on the General Stuart Heintzelman passenger list, so there was no possibility of Stasys and Konstancija Bendikaite divorcing in the 1920s, between the birth of Bolius, on 24 April 1924, and Vytas, on 12 September 1926.  Should they have separated, the baby Bolius surely would gone with his mother, so what then were the chances of the two reaching Germany together or both applying for and being selected for the same ship to Australia?

Vytautas Kunčiūnas in Australia

Someone made sure that Vytas travelled under a false name though, because he became Vytas Kuniciunas on the Heintzelman passenger list and in subsequent documents on arrival in Australia.

Vytautas Kunciunas photograph from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When he left the Bonegilla camp for the Pyramid Hill Quarries on 7 January 1948, the same hand which wrote his destination in flowing script also wrote “unknown” in the space for his next of kin.  Whoever typed out Bolius’ Bonegilla card has recorded “brother, Vitas Kunciunas” in that next of kin space.  Ann notes that “brother” is still shorthand when the accurate relationship is “half-brother” (and also in the case of step-brother).

The person completing Vytas’ card probably had forgotten to ask him.

The evening befoore Vytas’ departure from Bonegilla for Pyramid Hill on 7 January 1948 was memorable enough for Jonas Urbonas to record it in his diary for 6 January.  The entry was republished in the Mūsų Pastogė edition of 5 August 1996, in preparation for the 50th anniversary of Lithuanian scouting in Australia.  The translation of Jonas’ entry reads as follow:

“Tomorrow the first swallow will fly away from us into an unknown future.  It is Brother Kunčiūnas.  By the burning bonfire we say goodbye to him and the other brothers who are preparing to leave this emigrant camp.  Brother Kunčiūnas' words, full of deep sincerity, touch the heart of every Scout.  He remembers the last moments spent in the Homeland, the separation from his parents, and the tears rolling down his cheeks did not allow him to finish his farewell speech.

“Then we all parted ways and left the gardens of the homeland, hoping to return to the homeland again before the storms of war hit.  We are tightly bound by our mutual promises, although the weapons of war do not ring and we are not pursued by the occupiers and our goals have already changed, but we are united by common ideas, we dare to meet in camps and at conventions.  Although the vast distances and various obstacles separate us, we press on, wishing our brother Vytas good luck and a joint flight to the Pacific Jamboree.  After the traditional words are said, we leave the campfire."

Vytautas While in Germany

As for other members of the family, an April 1946 notice in the post-War, Lithuanian language newspaper, Žiburiai (Lights), had Vytas looking for his sister, Aldona Kunčiūnaitė, and brothers Jonas and Algirdas Kunčiūnas.

Vytas was living at 6a Altenberg Strasse, Borghorst, Wesphalia. Vytas added Münster to this address, but this bombed city was close to uninhabitable at the time. Perhaps he was trying to give readers a better idea of where he was than using only the name of the much smaller Borghorst, which also offered support to DPs.

The address also shows that Vytas had found private accommodation rather than living in a DP camp.

Bolius in Germany

A mid-1947 issue of another Lithuanian-language newspaper, Lietuvių žodis (Lithuanian Word) reported on a basketball competition organised by the Reppner YMCA.  B Kunčiunas played on the winning team.  As Repner is some 200 Km from Münster, it is unlikely that Bolius was travelling that distance in the conditions of post-War Germany to play basketball.

It is worth noting that Camp 24, where both Bolius and Vytas were registered in 1945, was a Repner camp for Baltic refugees.  It looks like Vytas moved out of the camp and to Borghorst for whatever reason.

On the other hand, it looks like the brothers were communicating with each other in order for both to be interviewed for the first refugee ship to Australia.  And Vytas wasn’t looking for Bolius as well in that Žiburiai notice because he knew where Bolius was.

Bolius Kunčiūnas in Australia

While Vytas was one of the 7 sent to the Pyramid Hill granite quarry, Bolius was one of 2 sent to the sawmill at Togganoggera in New South Wales.  We recently posted what we know of the other man sent to Togganoggera, Mečys Laurinavičius.   Mečys moved to the NSW capital city, Sydney, but Bolius moved instead to Victoria’s capital, Melbourne – perhaps because his brother headed there when his time at Pyramid Hill was over.

Bolius Kunciunas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Bolius’ occupation on the AEF DP Registration Recorded was stated to be student. Student of what, you may well ask.  It looks like architecture, because that is where he finished up in Australia.

Presumably he continued his studies when possible while he worked in jobs as relevant as possible.  We draw this conclusion from Bolius being added to the Register of Architects in Victoria in 1964, his 17th year in Australia.  This length of time suggests that he may have had something of a struggle to obtain his registration, as did a fellow architect from the First Transport, Ernst Kesa.  Kesa, however, had qualified as an architect in Europe and was able to work in the field before registration because his qualification also encompassed engineering.

Moving as far away from Melbourne as Darwin in order to do related work shows how keen Bolius was.  We know about his time in Darwin from social notes, Diana’s Diary, in a Darwin newspaper, the Northern Standard.  In March 1953, “Diana” recorded Bolius Kunciunas among the staff of the Drawing Office of the Department of Works who met at a Darwin hotel to farewell one of their number leaving on a holiday.

The online Dictionary of Unsung Architects, in its entry on D Graeme Lumsden, mentions Bolius Kunciunas as an architect “known to have passed through the office over the years“.  Since we cannot find Bolius’ work as an architect mentioned anywhere else on the Web, we could say that there was even less singing about it than about Graeme Lumsden’s work.  Lumsden was based in Melbourne, so Bolius must have left Darwin.

Bolius, also known as Balys to Lithuanians and Bill to Australians, was in Melbourne in 1955.  We know this because that is when he married another Lithuanian, Gražina Natalija, whose family name formerly was Bitė.  He was living in the Melbourne suburb of North Coburg when he became an Australian citizen on 2 May 1957.   Gražina had to wait one month more for citizenship, until 11 June 1957.

Bolius’ electoral roll records from 1963 to 1980 have been digitised by Ancestry.  On 8 March 1963, he and Gražina still were living in North Coburg but, by 19 April, they had moved to from their inner city home to the outer suburb of Nunawading.  On both occasions, his stated occupation was draftsman.  This continued into the 1980 entry, despite his registration as a qualified architect in 1964.

What is different about the 1980 entry is that it includes two more members of the Kunciunas family, male and female, both students but clearly having reached the age of 18. This means that Bolius and Gražina had their two children 18 years before the unrecorded date on which the 1980 roll was made up, that is, in 1958 or earlier.

The Melbourne Immigration Museum has a public artwork that pays tribute to 7000 people who have made the journey to Victoria.  Located in the northern garden of the Museum, its original artwork was designed by a Melbourne-based artist, Evangelos Sakaris, and launched in 1998.  Gina Batsakis led the design for the following stages of the project, which concluded in 2002.  Immigrants were invited to immortalise their own and family names there on payment of $100 for each name.  Bolius and Gražina (nee Bitė) Kunčiūnas and family were among the names so immortalised.

Morta Prasmutiene, widow of First Transporter Karolis Prašmutas, centre,
in the Immigration Museum's Tribute Garden

Source:  Birutė Prašmutaitė in Mūsų Pastogė

Bolius died on 19 September 2011, aged 87, and was cremated in Springvale Botanical Cemetery.  When Gražina died on 1 June 2019, she was cremated there too.  The Cemeteries Trust notes that, in both instances, the cremated remains were collected. They would have no memorial gravestones.

Vytas in Melbourne

Vytas may well have settled in Melbourne before his older brother.  For instance, he married there 2 years before Bolius, in 1953.  His bride was the former Ina Irena Špokevičiūtė.

He and Ina already had become such a part of Melbourne’s Lithuanian community that their marriage was reported in the Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) national, Lithuanian-language newspaper, on 2 September 1953.  Rasa’s translation of the correspondent’s report follows.

“A few weeks ago, the local Lithuanian community was expanded by another Lithuanian family, created by two regular local Lithuanian folk dancers and members of the Aidas choir, Vytautas Kunčiūnas and Ina Špokevičiūtė.

“V. Kunčiūnas has been diligently representing the Lithuanian name in Australia since his performances on the first transport ship.  In addition to folk dances and Lithuanian songs, he is also hardworking in the scout organisation.

“The young Kunčiūnas couple settled in the beautiful Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, in their own brick house, which they purchased with the joint efforts of the young woman's mother and two brothers.  Good luck to the young couple in continuing to represent the Lithuanian name.”

Vytautas and Ina were naturalised together on 23 January 1958.

Vytas’ and Ina’s electoral roll entries record that they were still at the Ivanhoe address in 1958, when he had “nil” occupation but Ina was working as a nurse.  By 1968 he was living without Ina in Armadale, a suburb about 12 Km south of Ivanhoe, and working as a draftsman.  He most likely got the idea for that career from his brother, Bolius.

The next electoral roll entry, for 1968, has him at the same Armadale address, still working as a draftsman, but this time sharing his flat with Genovaite Kunciunas.  The details for their 1972 entry are the same, while no later rolls for Vytas and wife have been digitised with indexing.   While we have the marriage details for Vytas and Ina, his marriage to Genovaite was too recent for the details to be public yet.

The next news we have of Vytautas is not good.  Tėviškės Aidai reported on 20 July 1993 that he was seriously ill, being treated in the intensive care unit of the Alfred Hospital.  He received Sacraments of the Sick on 11 July.

Vytautas had died before the news of his illness was published.  He passed on 12 July, aged only 66.  The 27 July issue of Tėviškės Aidai reported that the Rosary was said at the Tobin Chapel in Malvern.  The funeral Mass was celebrated by priest Pranas Dauknys at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, West Melbourne, the Lithuanian community’s church, on 15 July.  Vytautas was buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.  His wife Genovaitė, family and relatives were said to have remained in deep sorrow.

Vytautas and Ina probably had been able to divorce under Australian law, much more liberal than that of Lithuania in the 1920s.  The Ryerson Index records that Ina Kunciunas, still using her married name, died when living at Safety Beach, on the Mornington Peninsula south of the main Melbourne conurbation.   As Ryerson is recording a probate notice published on 2 November 2005 in the Melbourne Age, we don’t know her date of death but can assume that it was earlier in 2005.

Vytautas had moved from the brick home in Ivanhoe and the flat in Armadale to the inner south of Melbourne, the suburb of Elsternwick, before his death.

Vytautas and Bolius Both Scouts

Mūsų Pastogė noted above that Vytas had been “hardworking in the scout organisation”. In fact, both brothers were scouts.  A history of Lithuanian scouting in Australia was published in November 1996 in Mūsų Pastogė, in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of its foundation on the First Transport sailing to Australia.  It reported that the 46 boy scouts and 7 girl scouts on board were divided into 6 troops, with both Balys and Vytas in Troop 3.

Bolius was able to participate in the historic first gathering of Lithuanian scouts at the first Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree on the Yarra Brae property in Wonga Park, Victoria, organised by Borisas Dainutis.  He was recorded there in a photograph of some attending published by Tėviškės Aidai in its preparation for the celebration of 50 years of Australian Lithuanian scouting.

Tėviškės Aidai published this photograph from the First Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree 47 years later, with a caption which reads, translated, "Lithuanian Scout camp at the Pan-Pacific Jamboree near Melbourne, 23.1.49.  From left: Gabrielius Žemkalnis, Vytautas Neverauskas, Viktoras Kučinskas, Benediktas Kaminskas, an Australian priest in a scout uniform, the Bishop of Melbourne,
Dr. J. Simonds; behind the Bishop from the left, Balys Kunčiūnas, behind the Bishop from the right in the back, unidentified, next to the Bishop with a smile, Borisas Dainutis, and at the back right, unidentified.  Next year, 1997, will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the
Lithuanian Scout Union in Australia.

Source:  Tėviškės Aidai 

We do not know if Vytas was able to attend also, as promised by Jonas Urbonas in January 1948.  The Melbourne Age of 27 December reported that Borisas with 29 other scouts had moved in already on Christmas Day.  Vytas may have been among the 22 not included in the photograph above.

SOURCES

Age (1948) ‘Canvas Tent City Rises at Wonga Park’ Melbourne, 27 December, p 4 https://www.newspapers.com/image/124518561/, accessed 15 June 2025.

'AEF DP Registration Record' [Bolius KUNCIUNAS], Folder DP2214, names from KUNCAR, Jan to KÜHNE, Horst (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from KR /, DocID: 67916900 (Bolius KUNCIÚNAS), https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67916900, accessed 29 March 2026.

'AEF DP Registration Record' [Vytautas KUNCIUNAS], Folder DP2214, names from KUNCAR, Jan to KÜHNE, Horst (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from KR /, DocID: 67916901 (Vytautas KUNCIUNAS) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67916901, accessed 29 March 2026.

Ancestry.com ‘All Census & Voter Lists results for Bolius Kunciunas’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/35/?name=Bolius_Kunciunas+&birth=_victoria-australia_30099&location=5027&priority=australian, accessed 6 April 2026.

Ancestry.com ‘All Census & Voter Lists results for Vytautas Kunciunas’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/35/?name=Vytautas_Kunciunas+&birth=_victoria-australia_30099&location=5027&priority=australian, accessed 6 April 2026.

Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria [1953 marriage of Vytautas Stasys Kunciunas and Ina Irena nee Spokevicius] https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/efamily-history/69c720acba4add19229d3dfe/results?q=efamily, viewed 28 March 2026.

Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria [1955 marriage of Balys Kunciunas and Grazina Natalija nee Bite] https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/efamily-history/69c720acba4add19229d3dfe/results?q=efamily, viewed 28 March 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Bolius Kunciunas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203635508, accessed 28 March 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Vytas Kuniciunas’ (sic) https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203635549, accessed 28 March 2026.

Built Heritage Pty Ltd, ‘Dictionary of Unsung Architects, D Graeme Lumsden (1915-1995)’ https://www.builtheritage.com.au/dua_lumsden.html, accessed 28 March 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1957) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ [Bolius Kunciunas], Canberra, ACT, 3 October, page 2976 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232986663/25082694, viewed 28 March 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ [Grazina Kunciunas], Canberra, ACT, 8 May, p 1438, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240891979/25976026, viewed 28 March 2026.

Immigration Museum, ‘Tribute Garden’ https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/tribute-garden/, accessed 28 March 2026.

Lietuvių žodis (Lithuanian Word) (1947) ‘Sportas’ (‘Sport’, in Lithuanian) Detmold, Germany, 31 July, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_lietuviu_zodis/archive/1947-07-31-LIETUVIU-ZODIS.pdf, accessed 28 March 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1953) ‘Nauja šeima‘ (‘New Family’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 2 September, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259363045, accessed 6 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1996) ‘Pėdsekys: LSS Australijos rajono 50-mečiui artėjant‘ (‘Footprint: As the 50th anniversary of the LSS Australian District approaches’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 18 November, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-11-18-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 6 April 2026.

My Tributes, ‘Funeral Notice for Kunciunas, Bolius’ [Publication: Herald Sun; Date Listed: 22/9/2011] https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/funeral-notices/kunciunas-bolius/3385212/, accessed 6 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KUNCIUNAS BOLIUS, KUNCIUNAS, Bolius : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 557, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203635508, accessed 6 April 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KUNICIUNAS (sic) VYTAS, KUNICIUNAS (sic), Vytas : Year of Birth - 1926 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 556, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203635549, accessed 6 April 2026.

Northern Standard (1953) 'Diana's Diary' Darwin, NT, 12 March, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49484566, viewed 28 March 2026.

Prašmutaitė, Birute (2001) ‘Melbourne Imigracijos Muziejus’ (Melbourne Immigration Museum’ in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 29 January, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2001/2001-01-29-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 28 March 2026.

Ryerson [Ina Kunciunas] https://ryersonindex.org/search.php, accessed 6 April 2026.

Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, ‘Bolius Kunciunas, Springvale Botanical Cemetery’ https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search/detail?id=f4310462-509a-ef11-8a6a-6045bdc2c606, accessed 6 April 2026.

Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, ‘Grazina Natalija Kunciunas, Springvale Botanical Cemetery’ https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search/detail?id=156f3df1-559a-ef11-8a6a-002248957765, accessed 6 April 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1993) 'Iš mūsų parapijų, Melbournas' ('From our Parishes, Melbourne', in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 20 July, p 7 http://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1993/1993-07-20-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 8 April 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1993) 'Iš mūsų parapijų, Melbournas' ('From our Parishes, Melbourne', in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 20 July, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1993/1993-07-27-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 8 April 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1996) ‘Rajono Vadija (‘District Governor’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 6 August, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1996/1996-nr30-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 29 March 2026.

Victoria, Government Gazette (1965) ‘Architects Act, The Architects Registration Board of Victoria, Additions To The Register Made During the Year Ended 31st December, 1964’ [1896, Kunciunas, Bolius] Melbourne, Vic, 3 March, p 468 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1965/V/general/14.pdf, accessed 6 April 2026.

Žiburiai (Lights) (1946) ‘Paieškojimai’ (‘Searches’, in Lithuanian), Augsburg, Germany, 27 April, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-04-27-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 6 April 2026.

Bernardas Matkevičius (1922-1992) A Labourer's Life, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Bernardas first job in Australia

We’ve met Bernadas Matkevičius already. He was a workmate of Juozas Nakas, when both were employed by CJ Webb, Row & Anderson at Thornton, in northeast Victoria’s timber country. He was the truck driver in the June 1948 photograph below.

Aged 24 when selected for Australia and 5 feet 11 inches tall, that’s 180 centimetres, he would have had the physique for which the selection team were looking. We can’t tell you anything more about his selection at this time, as his papers are yet to be digitised.

While they were still working at Thornton, Bernardas, Juozas Nakas and a third Lithuanian in the photograph below, Edvardas Lapinskas, subscribed to the fledgling Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Lithuanian-Australian newspaper by sending £3 each. That may well have been a large slice of their savings. It was appreciated by the newspaper, which thanked them publicly in its 16 February 1949 edition.

Bernardas is in the cab with fellow workers Lithuanian Edvardas Lapinskas on the left, an Estonian, probably Helmut Nurmsalu in the middle and Lithuanian Juozas Nakas on the right:
the message on the back of this photo printed on postcard paper was dated 19 June 1948
and sent from Thornton, Victoria, where the group worked

Source:  Private collection

Later employment and residence

There is no citizenship file on the National Archives of Australia’s RecordSearch Web service and no digitised announcement in the Commonwealth Gazette of Bernardas becoming an Australian citizen. He clearly did, though, as he is on electoral rolls from 1963 to 1980. (Later rolls have yet to be digitised.)

The digitised rolls enable us to see where Bernardas lived and his stated occupation. In 1963, he was a rubber worker who lived on Bayswater Road, Wantirna, in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs. By 1968, he was living on nearby Orchard Road in Bayswater and had become a labourer.

Bernardas' photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

In 1977, he had moved again, to the suburb of Heathmont but was still a labourer. In 1980, he was still at the Heathmont address and a labourer.

We can see that Bernardas was already a rubber worker in 1957 and, probably, 1956 from a Victoria Government Gazette. The issue for 9 January 1957 contains a notice from Dunlop Rubber which includes Bernardas in a list of people for whom the company held unclaimed money. This may have been because of a pay rise where the retrospective amount was not included in his pay packet, or some other problem with his pay. The amount was only 7 shillings and 11 pence, but probably could have bought him several beers after work.

At the time, he was recorded as living in the inner, then industrial suburb of Port Melbourne, likely to have been close to his place of work.

Bernardas' early life

Also in 1957, in October, Mūsų Pastogė published a notice for him, saying that it had news for him from S. Daugėliškis. Senasis Daugėliškis was his birthplace, a village in the Ignalina district, Utena County in Lithuania.

Bernardas was a Christmas present to his parents, Anupras Matkevičius and the former Izabelė Peciulevičiūtė, as he arrived on 24 December 1922. This happiness was followed by sadness though, as Izabelė died only 19 months after his birth, on 24 July 1924. She was aged 39.

She had already born two older sons, Edmundas around 1913 and Jonas around 1917. He also had 3 half-sisters. We have this information because someone has been interested enough in him and his family to include their details on a family history Website, geni.com.

Bernardas' death

Bernardas was only 69 when he died at Heathmont on 15 October 1992. Unfortunately, whoever gave his name to officialdom misspelled it as Beranardas Markevicius. That also is how is burial in the Yan Yean Cemetery on 22 October is recorded.

At least the Melbourne Lithuanian-language newspaper, Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland), knew the correct spelling of his name when it carried a report of his death and burial in its 27 October 1992 issue.

Bernardas’ death certificate shows that he died from heart disease, and that he also was known as Ben Markevicius. Maybe he had noted that Australians found Markevicius easier to say than Matkevicius. But the death certificate also contains the incorrect Beranardas spelling of his forename.

Not surprisingly, given the low income occupations since his arrival in Australia, Bernardas’ final occupation was given as pensioner.

His grave is unmarked still. Presumably his estate was not large enough to cover the costs of a grave marker. Also, he may have died intestate, that is, without a will. We think this was the case since an online search for a possible will held by the Public Records Office of Victoria did not produce any results under either the proper spelling of his name or the misspelling.

Bernardas' burial site is in the middle of this photograph

Source:  Geoff F on Find A Grave

His grave might be a pauper’s grave.

SOURCES

Ancestry.com, ‘All Census & Voter Lists results for Bernardas Matkevicius’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/35/?name=Bernardas_Matkevicius&location=5027&priority=australian, accessed 26 March 2026.

Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria [search for Beranardas Markevicius’ (sic) death] https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/efamily-history/69a880855cdccbdd88c2952f/results?q=efamily, accessed 26 March 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Bernardas Matkevicius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203611495, accessed 26 March 2026.

Electronic Archive Information System, ‘Švenčionių dekanato gimimo metrikų knyga’ (Svencionys Deanery Birth Register, in Lithuanian) [Bernardas’ birth is recorded in the Senasis Daugėliškis church 1922 register, on page 66 as number 187] https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext/view/267143226, accessed 26 March 2026.

Find a grave, ‘Beranardas Markevicius, Yan Yean Cemetery’) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231620463/beranardas-markevicius?_gl=1*w6jern*_gcl_au*ODk2ODA1MDgxLjE3Njg0MTYwMDM.*_ga*MTU0MjMxMjQ3Mi4xNzM3Mzk2NDY1*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*czAzMTNiOWM0LTA0NjEtNGFhZi05NzkxLTU1MDM1ZGRjMzY0NSRvMjYkZzEkdDE3NzI2NTA0NjQkajU5JGwwJGgw*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*czAzMTNiOWM0LTA0NjEtNGFhZi05NzkxLTU1MDM1ZGRjMzY0NSRvMjYkZzEkdDE3NzI2NTA0NjQkajU5JGwwJGgw, accessed 26 March 2026.

Geni.com ‘Bernardas Matkevičius’ https://www.geni.com/people/Bernardas-Matkevi%C4%8Dius/6000000070489407928?through=6000000070492006821, accessed 26 March 2026

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1949) ‘Aukos Mūsų Pastogei’ (‘Donations to Musu Pastoge’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 16 February, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1949/1949-02-16-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 26 March 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1957) ( ‘Pajieškojimai‘ (‘Searches‘, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 14 October, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1957/1957-10-14-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 26 March 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; 482, MATKEVICIUS Bernardas DOB 24 December 1922, 1947-1947.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; MATKEVICIUS BERNARDAS, MATKEVICIUS, Bernardas : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 857, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203611495, accessed 26 March 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) (1992) ‘Iš mūsų parapijų, Melbournas‘ (‘From Our Parishes, Melbourne’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 27 October, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1992/1992-nr42-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 26 March 2026.

Victoria Government Gazette (1957) ‘Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited, Register of unclaimed money held by Dulop (sic) Rubber Australia Limited, 108 Flinders-street, Melbourne’ Melbourne, Vic, 9 January, p 117 https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/vic_gazette/1957/22.pdf, accessed 26 March 2026.

Vikipedija, ‘Senasis Daugėliškis’ in Lithuanian, https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senasis_Daug%C4%97li%C5%A1kis, accessed 24 March 2026.

Izidorius Smilgevičius with friends, by Ann Tündern-Smith

If you've looked through old photo albums, you may well have seen a street photograph or several.  We have one in this blog already, in the story of Rasa Ščevinskiene's grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas.  

Adomas Ivanauskas with friend Beryl on a Melbourne street, 17 October 1950

Source:  Private Collection

This form of street photography is said to have started in the United Kingdom in the 1930s and flourished during the period when few people had their own cameras, let alone phones which took more photographs than they took calls.

Given the size of cameras in those days, those being photographed would have been aware of what was happening and probably smiled because they knew they had been "caught".  An assistant handed the subjects a card to tell them where they could view contact prints in the next or following days.  There was a price to pay but, given the absence of personal cameras, many were willing.

Some of these photographers operated also at social events, as Rasa's blog entries about friends of her grandfather testify.

An niece of Izidorius Smilgevicius' wife, Joy Spain, gave me access to his small photograph collection when we met in Melbourne.  It included these two  photographs of Izzy with friends, likely to be fellow Lithuanians. 

One was definitely taken on a street, but by a photographer who was not accomplished.  A  better photographer would have not have cut off some of the man on the left by including less background on the right.  

Young Lithuanian men, probably on a Melbourne street —
might some of the others be those who absconded from EZ Rosebery with Izzy?

Source:  Private collection

The photograph below probably was taken at a social event.  That's my guess because the young men, all from the First Transport, I was told, are all dressed in their best (and probably only) suits.

Five Lithuanian men from the First Transport

Source:  Private Collection

So, who do you recognise in the photographs above?

SOURCES

Murray, Lisa (2019) 'Street Photography' State Library New South Wales, Dictionary of Sydney, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/blog/street_photography, accessed 24 March 2026. 

Museums of History NSW, 'Street Photography' https://mhnsw.au/whats-on/exhibitions/street-photography-touring-exhibition/, accessed 24 March 2026.

Museums of History NSW, 'The street snapshot craze' https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/street-snapshot-craze/, accessed 24 March 2026.

Mečys Laurinavičius (1922-1984) Becomes Max Laurin, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Mecys' first assignment

You may never have heard of Togganoggera in New South Wales. Neither has Google Maps, although the Australian-based Bonzle Maps can locate it. So can Phillip Simpson’s massive 2020 publication, Historical Guide to New South Wales.

We want to know where it is because the Commonwealth Employment Service at the Bonegilla Camp sent 2 of the First Transporters to work for WL Moore, Sawmillers, at Togganoggera, NSW. They were Mečys Laurinavičius and his fellow Lithuanian, Bolius Kunčiunas.

Mečys Laurinavičius photograph from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Simpson writes that Togganoggera is 29 Km southwest of Braidwood, on the Shoalhaven River. Its main industry is grazing. It has an airfield and a quarry, but there is no mention of a sawmill. The telephone arrived in 1918. The population of the locality in 1933 was 49 people (and 1933 probably was the last time anyone found it for a census).

Mecys finds trouble

Mečys appeared in the local newspaper, The Braidwood Review and District Advocate, a little after the first anniversary of the First Transport arriving at Fremantle, on 30 November 1948. He had been found drunk on the main street of Braidwood at “4.5 o'clock on the morning following the Ambulance Ball”, arrested by a constable and taken to the police station.

Presumably he had been released later that day because on the following day, when called at the Court of Petty Sessions, he failed to appear and his 10 shillings bail was forfeited.

The Ambulance Ball would have to be held in Braidwood’s Show Pavillion on 27 November, so Mečys was found to have overindulged on the morning of 28 November, exactly one year after he disembarked for a new life in Australia. Had he been trying to forget the next year? Had he been celebrating how wonderful it was compared with the previous 7 years of his life?

Mecys in NSW and citizenship

Mečys stayed in New South Wales after finishing his contract, presumably on 30 September 1949 along with nearly all the other First Transporters. We know that because on 29 June 1954, in the Sydney Morning Herald and one other newspaper, he was advertising that he intended to apply for naturalization under the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948-1953.

He was naturalized, granted Australian citizenship, on 30 November 1955, from an address in Eastwood, a suburb in the north of Sydney.

Mecys married, their address and occupations

In 1958, the first time Mečys appeared on a publicly available electoral roll, he had already married his Australian wife, Joan, and his occupation was given as rubber worker. Joan was a typist. They lived in Eastwood. In 1963, their occupations and street address were the same, but their suburb had become Rydalmere. All the details were the same on the 1968 and 1977 rolls.

Given that any marriage occurred more than 50 years ago, its record should be available, but a search of the New South Wales Government’s Marriage records said initially that it was unavailable. That was because someone has managed to massacre the spelling of both Mečys’ first name (“Mercys”) and his last name. A wildcard (*) is essential in such situations.

The marriage took place in 1951.

Mecys becomes Max

Before the production of the 1980 electoral roll, Mečys had decided to make things easier for his fellow Australians and, perhaps, especially his wife. He had changed his name to Max Laurin.

On the 1980 roll, Joan Laurin is still a typist but Max also may have made life easier for himself in another way, by ceasing to work with rubber and becoming instead a driver.

Mečys is a very Slavic name, short for Mečislovas, which in turn is the Lithuanian form of the Slavic forename whose Polish version is Mieczysław. This name combines miecz or meč meaning “sword” and slava or slav meaning “glory” or “fame”, so its meaning approximates “one who gains glory with the sword.” There being no immediate English or Germanic equivalent, Max was a well-chosen alternative.

Mecys and Mūsų Pastogė

The Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, had thanked Mečys in its 8 October 1973 edition for donating 8 books and 3 Lithuanian records to the Sydney Lithuanian Club Library’s Reading Room. No, it was more than mere thanks: it was sincere gratitude.

Mūsų Pastogė next had occasion to discuss Mečys in its 14 January 1985 edition, when it reported that he had died of cancer on 14 October in the Westmead Hospital. He was buried in Castlebrook Rosehill Cemetery. He left behind a grieving wife, an Australian woman. They did not have a family. He was a relatively youthful 62. Although he did not participate in Lithuanian life, he was a long-time reader of Mūsų Pastogė.

Mecys' death, funeral, burial

The Sydney Herald Sun newspaper of 15 October 1984 had carried the English-language death and funeral notice. Not only was Max Laurin the beloved husband of Joan but he also was the loved brother-in-law of Eric, Ken, Ron and Gwen and loved uncle of their families. He still was living on Bennetts Road, which original had been in Eastwood but which now, 30 years later, was in West Dundas.

His relatives and friends were invited to attend his funeral to leave the all Saints Anglican Church, Victoria Road, Parramatta after a service commencing at 9.30 for the interment in the Castlebrook Lawn Cemetery, Windsor Road, Rouse Hill. If Mečys was originally Roman Catholic like the majority of Lithuanians, he had become a Protestant for Joan’s sake.

Mecys and assimilation

He had assimilated even more by becoming a Freemason. The newspaper notice invited officers and brethren of Corinthian No 100 UGL of NSW attend the funeral of their late esteemed member Max Laurin. Regalia was to be worn. UGL was the United Grand Lodge.

At least Max and Mečys had never stopped the subscription to Mūsų Pastogė.

Mecys' past

We do not have access to a digitised version of Mecys’ selection papers at this time. The Arolsen Archives has yet to digitise any papers relating to his time in Germany. All we know about Mecys’ past is that his parents were Bronius and Marija; we know this from his death certificate. We will update this page with particular reference to Mecys’ time before Australia as more information becomes available.

SOURCES

Ancestry.com, ‘All results for Max Laurin’, https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=max_laurin&event=_australia_5027&searchMode=advanced, accessed 23 March 2026.

Ancestry.com, ‘All results for Mecys Laurinavicius’, https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=mecys_laurinavicius&event=_australia_5027&searchMode=advanced, accessed 23 March 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Mecys Laurinavicius’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203619596, accessed 23 March 2026.

Braidwood Review and District Advocate (1948) ‘Ambulance Ball’, Braidwood, NSW, 30 November, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/119376162, accessed 23 March 2026

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1956) Canberra, ACT, 24 May, p 1513 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/25099858, accessed 23 March 2026.

Death Search Results, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, ‘Laurin Max, 23254/1984’ https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/deaths?1, accessed 23 March 2026.

Herald Sun (1984) ‘Deaths, Laurin, Max’ Sydney, NSW, 15 October, p 27 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=lL5f5cZgq8MC&dat=19841015&printsec=frontpage&hl=en, accessed 23 March 2026.

Herald Sun (1984) ‘Funerals, Laurin, Max’ Sydney, NSW, 15 October, p 27 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=lL5f5cZgq8MC&dat=19841015&printsec=frontpage&hl=en, accessed 23 March 2026.

Klubo Valdyba (Club Board) (1973) ‘Padėka‘ (‘Acknowledgements‘ in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 8 October, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1973/1973-10-08-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 23 March 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) 1985 [No heading] Sydney, NSW, 14 January, p 12 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1985/1985-01-14-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 23 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations [Main correspondence files series of the agency] 1926-2001; 1955/32795, Application for Naturalisation - LAURINAVICIUS Mecys born 19 August 1922, 1954-1955.

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; 175, LAURINAVICIUS Mecys DOB 19 August 1922, 1947-1947

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; LAURINAVICIUS MECYS, LAURINAVICIUS, Mecys : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 572, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203619596, accessed 23 March 2026.

Sydney Morning Herald (1954) ‘Public Notices’ Sydney, NSW, 9 June, p 15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18427320,  accessed 23 March 2026.

Karolis Varkūnas (1912-1971): Sad end, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Some words, even though fifty-five years have passed, are still relevant. Writing about the death of Karolis Varkūnas, V Milčius said something that will never get old and will always be to the point.

Karolis Varkūnas was 58 years old when he died on 26 January 1971. A group of Hobart Lithuanians buried him on 29 January in Malbina General Cemetery, New Norfolk, Tasmania.

Karolis arrived in Australia on the First Transport in 1947. He had no relatives in Australia, he was single.

Karolis Varkunas' photograph on his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Words of wisdom

Milčius wrote of Karolis Varkūnas that quite a few single people have a “philosophy of pessimism”, hammered into their heads. Why work when you have no-one to whom to leave your property?

However, single people do not have to live in blind darkness when there is somewhere to leave their estate. Lithuanian national institutions are asking for legacies for the existence of the nation. Anyone can create a legacy, immortalise their name, remain alive while Lithuanian history exists.

Those who believe in leaving their earnings only in bars have shortened, unhealthy lives, become a burden to themselves and others. Their life history is left empty, maybe without even a mark in a cemetery, without memories among the living.

Karolis' last years

Varkūnas was a bricklayer by profession, he said, but without a permanent job. For the last couple of years of his life, he had avoided any work, so he left no property, only what he carried on his body. He had lived under the care of the charitable Mrs. Teresa Kairienė.

The Commonwealth Employment Office terminated his unemployment benefit and sent him to a power plant construction site. There he collapsed and died after only one day of work.

Karolis in Lithuania

He had been born near Ukmergė, a city 78 Km northwest of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, on 5 December 1912. His parents were Karolis and Veronika Varkūnas. Veronika had been born in Warsaw, Poland, around 1887, but may well have been of Lithuanian ethnicity given that both Poland and Lithuania were part of one empire at the time, that of the Russian Tsar.

Karolis completed his elementary schooling, served in the Lithuanian army from 1933 to 1935, then worked as a bricklayer – or was he a stone mason? -- before leaving for Germany.

The start of his life was no different from other young people. His chosen trade was good, so it shouldn't have been difficult to get a job.

His life experiences, however, his separation from his homeland, family, and lack of friends led Karolis, as well as other emigrants, to despair, lack of purpose, and unwillingness to cling to life.

Karolis in Germany

Karolis is another of the 31 whose selection papers have been misplaced. However, it turns out that the misplacement was onto the file about his application to become an Australian citizen (NAA: A446, 1955/52715), so we can see still what he told the selection team in Germany in 1947. Here, he was recorded as a stone mason, although bricklayer is mentioned as well, with 12 years’ experience in this trade in Lithuania. He also had worked for one year in farming in Germany.

The Arolsen Archives so far has not found and digitised any papers for Karolis in Germany, so it is not possible to find more detail on his life there.

Karolis is selected for Australia

On a Statutory Declaration given in relation to his application for citizenship, Karolis stated that he had left Lithuania for Germany in November 1943. This would mean that he was in Nazi Germany for 18 months before its defeat. The Australian selection team’s report has the usual “forcibly evacuated by Germans” explanation.

The team had been tasked to look in particular for men who could help with building construction, so masonry would have fitted the bill. The team also was looking for people with agricultural experience, to feed the returning service people and the families they now were forming. Karolis was 34 at the time though, which may no longer have been considered young in 1947. Nonetheless, he was given an A recommendation, which was more than the A- given to some others recruited for the First Transport.

Karolis in Australia

Despite that highly desirable construction experience, he was one of the 187 or more sent to pick fruit as their first job in Australia. His employer was Messrs Dundas Simson of Ardmona. He undertook that work for nearly two months, returning to Bonegilla on 22 March 1948. His card says that his destination one week later was Tasmania.

An Application for Release from Period of Exemption, his request for permission to stay in Australia after the initial contract period finished, has survived on a Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch, file.

On it, we can see that the next job for this skilled bricklayer was picking more fruit, for DK Calvert for another 3 months. He finally got to lay bricks again from 20 September 1948, first for the Australian Newsprint Mills company (presumably at Maydena) for one month, and then with a private employer, S Haunstrap.

When he completed the Application, he was living at New Norfolk, where presumably he was living also when he died. New Norfolk is some 36 kilometres from the centre of Tasmania’s capital city, Hobart, by a winding road which follows the River Derwent.

Another document records that he stayed in New Norfolk until December 1949, when he moved to across Bass Strait to Melbourne. He returned to Hobart in June 1955.

Karolis Varkunas in 1955

Source:  National Archives of Australia

In August 1954, in Melbourne, he applied for a new Alien Registration Certificate as the old one had become worn, perhaps because Karolis kept it with him wherever he was. At that time he said he was self-employed as a bricklayer.

In May 1955, Karolis was one of the more generous donors to an appeal for Lithuanians still in Germany, giving £1/10/-.

His Australian citizenship was granted 9 April 1956.

After that, Karolis lived such a quiet life that he does not appear in either the English or Lithuanian-language press, nor on official files, until his death.

Was he clinically depressed or otherwise ill?

Fifty-five years later, it is possible to ask whether the “philosophy of pessimism” and the lack of a desire to work were, in fact, deep and untreated depression: a medical condition rather than a deliberate choice?

His depression perhaps was not have been recognised as a medical condition by those around him but it does fit V Milčius’ description of “despair, lack of purpose, and unwillingness to cling to life.”

The collapse at work after two years of unemployment may well have been due to another undiagnosed condition, such as heart disease. The heart disease and other illnesses may have been intertwined with the possible depression.

Such illnesses would have had nothing to do with the issue of not having family to whom to leave one’s property. Milčius’ point about leaving it to a Lithuanian institution is well made, regardless, and applies equally to charities also, both in Lithuania and Australia

FOOTNOTE:  The National Archives RecordSearch service does not contain any files for someone with a Milčius family name.  As Tėviškės Aidai actually printed it as Mil-čius, this may not be a typographic error but the shortening of someone's name.  With this in mind, we looked again in RecordSearch to find Vincas Milinkevičius arriving in September 1948.  He looks like the only candidate for the V Mil-čius nom de plume.

SOURCES

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Karolis VARKUNAS’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203724312, accessed 7 March 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Karlos Varkunas, Malbina General Cemetery, Derwent Valley Council, Tasmania’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/215236428/karlos-varkunas, accessed 7 March 2026

Mil-čius, V (1971) ‘Hobartas, Palaidojom A A Karolį‘ (‘Hobart, We buried the late Karolis’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, Vic, 9 February, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1971/1971-nr05-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 7 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations [Main correspondence files series of the agency], 1926-2001; 1955/52715, Application for Naturalisation - VARKUNAS Karolis born 5 December 1912, 1947-1956 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8821097, accessed 7 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1184, Registration papers for non-British migrants, lexicographical series, 1949-1966; VARKUNAS K, VARKUNAS Karolis [Lithuanian], 1947-1955 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1914257, accessed 7 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; VARKUNAS KAROLIS, VARKUNAS, Karolis : Year of Birth - 1912 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 718, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203724312, accessed 7 March 2026.

Wikipedia, Ukmergė https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukmerg%C4%97, accessed 7 March 2026.