Elena Kalvytė Augutis (1917-1996): ‘Special Circumstances’ by Rasa Ščevinsienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

We have just met Elena Augutis as the fellow Lithuanian who accompanied Bronislava (Bronė) Jutkutė (later Umbražiūnas-Amber) from the Bonegilla camp in northern Victoria to the Hotel Ainslie in Canberra. There we mentioned that Elena Augutis was said to have had ‘special circumstances’.  Here we look further at these and her life as a whole.

The only photograph we have of Elena, from her Bonegilla card, is so out of focus
that Ann has used a Web service, Unblurimage.ai, to improve it a little

Source of original:  National Archives of Australia

Pregnant Women

When the 839 First Transport passengers had yet another medical examination, at the Bonegilla camp, at least their third in the migration process, the examining doctor reported that, “Two of the women are pregnant”.  One of them was Ann’s mother, pregnant with Ann.  Since Ann read that sentence, she has taken a particular interest in the story of the other woman, Elena Kalyvte Augutiene.

We know from several sources that Elena Kalvyte had married Jonas Augutis in Germany in 1947, before she boarded the General Stuart Heintzelman.  Probably because she knew that all the Heintzelman passengers were supposed to be single, she appeared before the selection panel using her maiden name.

Jonas follows

Perhaps Jonas applied too, but was rejected for the First Transport. He was not accepted for resettlement in Australia until his application for the Tenth Transport, the Svalbard, which reached Melbourne on 29 June 1948, when his daughter was already one month old. Perhaps it was her imminent birth that finally got him on a ship to Australia. This ship had sailed from Bremerhaven before her birth, on 8 May 1948, but its 52 days (7½ weeks) sailing time was more typical of ships of that era than the fast Generals.  His brother, Juozas, 8 years younger than him, came also.

Jonas Augutis from his 1948 Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Elena's early life

Elena Kalvyte, the mother of the new Australian, was born on 31 August 1917 in Berciškiai village, Šilute district, in Lithuania, to Jurgis Kalvis and the former Ona Kaulickaitė.  An American Expeditionary Force’s (AEF) Displaced Persons (DP) Registration form completed on 19 July 1945 gives her previous occupation as clerk, her languages spoken, in order of fluency, as German and Lithuanian and her last residence in Lithuania as the city of Pagėgiai.

It is worth noting that her religion is stated to be Evangelical, unlike the vast majority of Lithuanians.  Various writers using various sources suggest that around 85 per cent of the population in 1939 were Catholic – they probably would be excluding the more varied Vilnius region, still in Polish hands.

Elena left the Hotel Ainslie in Canberra on 10 or 11 February to return to the Bonegilla camp.  By this time she would have been more than five months pregnant.  Her pregnancy would have been visible and probably interfering with her work. Nonetheless, as far as officialdom was concerned, both Elena and Ann’s mother had signed a contract to work in Australia in jobs where they were needed for two years (even though the paper they signed said one year only).

Pregnant women work in farm households

The issue was solved, at least until childbirth and perhaps later, with help from the Lutheran Church.  Both women were sent from the Bonegilla camp to assist nearby farmer’s wives.  In the case of Elena Augutis, it was to a Mr and Mrs RG Molkentin in Jindera, New South Wales.

Jindera is only 25 Km northwest of the north side of Lake Hume; another 7 Km brings the driver to the Bonegilla camp.  Or the driver could take the better roads through Wodonga and Albury, then head a few kilometres northwest to Jindera.

Elena’s Bonegilla card records a baby girl’s birth on 23 May 1948 at the Albury District Hospital.

Jonas Augutis' story

We know a lot about the baby girl’s father from an obituary in the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, in 1983.

Former Lieutenant Jonas Augutis of the 6th Regiment of the Lithuanian Army was born on 21 September 1914, almost 3 years before his wife, in the Sadutiškis parish of Utena county. When he finished Utena senior high school, he entered Lithuania’s Military School, graduating with its 17th class to the rank of Junior Lieutenant and joining the 7th Regiment in Klaipėda. Later, he was transferred to the 6th Regiment and served in Pagėgiai, Elena’s last place of residence in Lithuania. In 1938, he was promoted to the rank of Senior Lieutenant.

After the Soviets occupied his country in 1940, he was transferred to the Vilnius garrison with his regiment. As Soviet officials judged him to be unreliable, he was soon arrested and imprisoned in Lukiškės prison in central Vilnius. After the German Army invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the prisoners were transferred to the Vilnius railway station to be taken to Russia. When the Germans bombed the railway station, several wagons were uncoupled, saving some of the prisoners, including Jonas.

During the German occupation of Lithuania in 1941-44, Jonas became the deputy governor of Utena County. On Lithuanian Independence Day, 16 February 1944, General Plechavičius made a radio appeal to the nation for volunteers to fight Soviet-backed partisans. Some 19,500 men responded to the appeal. Amongst them was Jonas, who was sent to fight the partisans in southeastern Lithuania.

When the Germans tried to transform the squad into SS units, Plechavičius resisted, was arrested and sent to the Salaspils concentration camp. His battalion was disbanded with Jonas being sent to Germany and assigned to an aviation unit. When the War ended, Jonas found himself in the American zone of Germany. He lived in a Displaced Persons camp, served in an American labour company and met Elena Kalvaitė.

Jonas goes to Canberra

Finally selected for resettlement in Australia and housed initially in the Bonegilla camp, it is likely that Jonas was able to reunite with Elena and meet his daughter. Two days after his 34th birthday, he was off to Canberra to work for the Department of the Interior, probably as a labourer. Let us hope that his wife and daughter were able to travel with him or join him soon after.

The Department of the Interior was responsible then for all official aspects of life in Canberra, as well as a wide range of other activities, including elections, meteorology, surveying and lands. The range is so wide that it is impossible to tell what Jonas was tasked to do. We know from his obituary that he joined Australia’s Bureau of Statistics after completing his employment contract and stayed there until his retirement in 1979, aged 65, the then compulsory maximum age of employment. (Ann notes that she was working across the road from the Bureau, in the Department of Immigration from 1977, and may well have crossed his path in the local shopping mall.)

In the early 1950s, the couple and their small daughter were living at 3 Ross Street, a short thoroughfare in suburban O’Connor. Given their circumstances, it may well have been built by the Government to rent. The address was confirmed by the Commonwealth Government when a notice of grant of citizenship to the couple was published in the gazette in December 1959.

Jonas appears before a magistrate

When Jonas came the before Canberra Court in June 1955, charged with both assaulting a policeman in the execution of his duty and drink-driving, at least one reporter for both the Queanbeyan Age and Canberra Times chose to describe him incorrectly as resident on the longer, more prominent, Queanbeyan address of Ross Road.

Jonas made counter allegations of having been assaulted by the police after his arrest. Elena gave evidence in support of her husband, one of the occasions when we have a record of the marriage having occurred in 1947.

Police evidence included Augutis having lost his driving licence once before, in November the previous year, while being fined £20 for drink driving. He had applied successfully to have the licence restored on 16 February. This, therefore, was the second occasion in less than a year when he had been found driving erratically when under the influence of alcohol. Still, he only was fined, £35 on the drink driving charge and £20 for assaulting the policeman. He was given 3 months to pay the total of £55, a hefty amount when you consider that its buying power then was equivalent to more than $2,300 in 2024.

Drinking too much alcohol is also on record for a number of the men from the General Stuart Heintzelman. Considering what they, as well as Jonas Augutis, had gone through during World War II, it is no surprise that they were using this approach to deal with what then was seen as, “Forget the past, look to the future”. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (now commonly PTSD) was not recognised until 1980, when it entered the American Psychiatric Association‘s third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) as a result of the behaviour of Vietnam War veterans.

Jonas’ occupation at the time of his 1955 court appearance was still ‘labourer’.

Elena and Jonas' daughter

Elena and Jonas’ daughter started appearing in the local press, the Canberra Times, in September 1958. She attended Turner Primary School and had placed in the Junior High Jump competition at the School’s first athletics carnival. She also won a place in what the School called its Junior Championship. In the following year’s athletics carnival, she also placed in the 75 yards (69 metres) race for 11-year-old girls. 

In another crossing paths moment, the sports ground used by the Turner School is across the street from where another First Transport arrival, Valeria Mets, was living. She probably was at work, though, when her friend’s daughter was competing successfully.

Citizenship

Elena and Jonas received Australian citizenship at the same ceremony on 17 June 1959. They were with 54 other recipients, all of whom were given bibles either from the British and Foreign Bible Society or the Roman Catholic Church in Canberra. They would have been an excellent source of reading practice for English language development so long as they were much later versions than the 1611 King James Version still in common use at that time.

Jonas is recorded on his passenger list as Roman Catholic, while we know already that Elena identified as a Protestant. Which version of the bible they accepted, how they reconciled their religious differences or if they even bothered, are unknowns.

What is known is that Elena, newly back in Canberra with a baby, had help from nuns who were associated with Canberra's St Christopher's Cathedral.

Now that Elena and Jonas were Australian citizens, they were required to be on the electoral roll and to vote in elections. Electoral rolls for the period 1961-77 show them still living at Ross Street, with Elena’s occupation shown as cleaner and Jonas (recorded as John) shown as a machine-operator.

Elena, Jonas, their daughter and the Bureau of Statistics

Since John or Jonas spent his life working for the Bureau of Statistics, it is possible that the machine he was operating was a computer.

The citizenship ceremony was shortly after Elena was photographed with someone probably well known to her from some months together in early 1948, identified in the Canberra Times as Miss A Molkentin. They were said to be among visitors at the opening on 26 May of an exhibition of statistical equipment by the Bureau of Census and Statistics, then co-located with the Treasury in Parkes. We would not be surprised if they were staff gathered around for the purpose of a publicity photo, meaning that both Elena and Miss Molketin were employed by the Bureau, now the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).  (We will add the photograph if we can find a version which is not mostly black.)

At that stage, the Bureau was conducting complete censuses of the Australian population every 7 years. A very useful one for our purposes had been conducted in June 1947, just 5 months before the First Transport arrived. The 1954 census included most of the Eastern European refugees, still known as former Displaced Persons or New Australians. The next was to occur in 1961. However, the Bureau may well have been employing temporary staff, likely to have been female, to prepare punch card records of surveys, for example.

Ann has been told that their daughter also was a good musician. The Canberra Times of 12 July 1962 records her passing the Grade IV examination of the Australian Musical Examination Board, a hint that her parents had been able to afford a piano at home for some time. The next year she passed the 5th Grade examination. In 1965, she passed the 6th Grade examination.

The 1 June 1967 issue of the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette announced her appointment to the Commonwealth Public Service as a Clerk in what then was called the Third Division. She followed her parents into what then was called the Statistician’s Branch of the Department of the Treasury.

This was the first step on the ladder of a public service career and it looks like a step which she might have taken as soon as she finished high school at the end of the previous year. If she wanted further education, the Commonwealth Public Service provided time off for classes and other support.

Her promotion into the position of a Clerk Class 2/3 in the Public Finance and Taxation Section of the Statistician’s Branch was confirmed on 14 January 1971.

The daughter’s Canberra friends were told of her marriage in Canada in June 1976 by an advertisement in the Canberra Times 4 days after the event. We have no idea if there was sufficient money for her parents to fly from Canberra to attend.

A marriage and new life in Canada should have led to a resignation in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, but the search engine for the National Library of Australia’s Trove digitisation service has been unable to find one. Nor can Trove find appointments to the ABS for either John/Jonas or Elena. It is highly likely that they were temporary employees only, able to be left without employment when the Bureau did not need them. This would explain why Elena was prepared to give her occupation as ‘cleaner’.

The parents move; Jonas dies

By the 1980 electoral roll, Elena had moved to a new address, Dexter Street in the Canberra suburb of Cook, but had no occupation, while John was living still at the Ross Street address. It is quite possible that this is a record of John not get around to updating his residence before that electoral roll was finalised. (Newer electoral rolls are not available to the public for privacy reasons, which was not an issue in the 1970s and earlier.)

The family’s next appearance in the press was in April 1983, when Jonas died aged 68. The advertisement indicated that Elena and “John” had 2 granddaughters in Canada. It also tells us that Jonas’ brother, Juozas, who came to Australia with him in June 1948, had left for the United States. There, another Augutis brother, Mikas had settled.

An older Jonas Augutis in the photograph accompanying his obituary

Source: Mūsų Pastogė 

The advertisement also said that Jonas had died “after a long illness”, often code for cancer. Whether it was cancer or not, Elena probably had devoted herself to care for him throughout, maybe even into his last days.

Jonas’ obituary in Mūsų Pastogė described him as being of an open nature, a keen reader of books, interested in Lithuanian and general history, and someone who subscribed extensively to the Lithuanian press. He was cremated at the Norwood Park Crematorium on April 21 1983. His farewell included a speech on behalf of the Lithuanian returned servicemen’s organisation, Ramovė.

The family donates

Public thanks appeared in a Lithuanian publication for a donation from the Augutis family in 1990, a very generous $100 from Elena.  She had donated it to the Independent Lithuania Foundation in Canberra.  This was only months after Lithuania had announced its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990.

The Augutis name previously appeared on a list of donors in 1951, for 10 shillings to the National Fund. The purpose of this fund was assumed known to readers. Ten shillings, the equivalent of $1 in decimal currency, may appear small but was the largest amount a number of donors were giving and corresponds in buying power with more than $25 in 2024.

Elena's last years

In another possible moment of paths crossing, Elena lived in the same suburb as Ann in her later years. They may well have been at the local shops at the same time.

Elena joined Jonas in Norwood Park with a plaque on the same rock after her death on 6 October 1996 aged 79, in Morling Lodge, Canberra’s first aged care home. She did not receive an obituary. We are doing the best that we can here.

Augutis plaques, Norwood Park
Source:  CAMCF on Find a Grave

SOURCES

‘AEF DP Registration Record’ (Kalvyte, Elena) Folder DP1750, names from KALVITE, ELLA to KAMBROWSKA, Ruth, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, ITS, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/67568764?s=elena%20kalvyte&t=2738679&p=0, accessed 7 November 2025.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Kalvyte, Elena’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203640622, accessed 8 November 2025.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Augutis, Jonas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203678465, accessed 8 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1955) ‘Assault Allegation Denied By Canberra Police’ Canberra, 17 June, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91200919, accessed 9 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1955) ‘Claims Constable Kicked And Punched Him’ Canberra, 17 June, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91201156, accessed 9 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1955) ‘Wife Tells Court Of Husband's Injuries’ Canberra, 22 June, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91203754, accessed 7 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1955) ‘Magistrate Rejects Allegations Against Canberra Constable’ Canberra, 28 June, p 6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91204078, accessed 9 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1958) ‘Isaacs House Wins In Turner School Sports’ Canberra, 23 September, p 13 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/103121705, accessed 9 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1959) ‘Electronic computer demonstrated’ Canberra, 27 May, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/114842319, accessed 7 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1959) ‘56 Migrants Enter Full Citizenship’ Canberra, 18 June, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/114844678, accessed 7 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1959) ‘Stonehaven Wins Turner School Athletics Trophy’ 21 September, p 9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/103101338, accessed 7 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1962) ‘What People Are Doing, Pupils Pass Music Test’ Canberra, 12 July, p5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131726767/14513046, accessed 9 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1963) ‘Music Study Passes To 24’ Canberra, 24 October, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104284561, accessed 9 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1965) 'Music examination results' Canberra, 22 March, p 19 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131762530, accessed 5 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1976) ‘Marriages’ Canberra, 16 June, p 22 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131823361, accessed 7 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1983) ‘Deaths’, Canberra, 19 April, p 15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116379793, accessed 7 November 2025.

Canberra Times (1983) ‘Funerals’, Canberra, 20 April, p 32 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116380111, accessed 9 November 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 3 September, p 3112 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240886578, accessed 7 November 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1967) ‘Appointments, Retirements And Dismissals’, Canberra, 1 June, p 2733, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241040405, accessed 9 November 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1971) ‘Confirmation Of Provisional Promotions’, Canberra, 14 January, p 360 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241066570 accessed 9 November 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Elena Augutis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180994456/elena-augutis, accessed 7 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1951) ‘Maza kolonija, bet daug aukoja!‘ (‘Small Colony, But a Lot of Sacrifice’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 19 December, p 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259360432, accessed 7 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1990) ‘Canberroje‘ (‘In Canberra’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 8 October, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1990/1990-10-08-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 8 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Queensland Branch; J25, Case files, annual single number series with or without 'Q' [Queensland] or 'QB' [Queensland Brisbane] or 'CLF' [Client Files] prefix, 1946-; 1953/4102, SVALBARD - nominal passenger roll - departed Bremerhaven, Germany 8 May 1948, 1948-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1629089, accessed 8 November 2025.

Queanbeyan Age (1955) 'Q’beyan Man on Assault Charge', Queanbeyan, NSW, 17 June, p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article270636187, accessed 5 November 2025.

Queanbeyan Age (1955) ‘Police Cleared of Assault Charge', Queanbeyan, NSW, 28 June, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/270646241, accessed 9 November 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 7 November 2025.

VB (1983) ‘Mirusieji, A A Jonas Augutis’, (‘The Dead, In Memoriam Jonas Augutis’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 9 May, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-05-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 7 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Povilas Plechavičius’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povilas_Plechavi%C4%8Dius, accessed 8 November 2025.

Bronislava Jutkutė Umbražiūnas-Amber (1912-2003): Orchid grower who returned to her free homeland, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Bronė Jutkutė lived a long life, during which she became an orchid grower with the husband she married in Australia. There was turmoil in the middle of it, though, after the Soviet Union invaded her homeland in mid-June 1940, probably until she found her feet in Sydney.

Bronė was already 28 years old when the first of 3 invasions of her homeland occurred in 1940, having been born on 7 February 1912. She was born in Mažeikiai, Žemaitija or Samagotia, a city in northwestern Lithuania, on the Venta River, to Jonas and Ona Jutkus. Ona’s maiden name was Žotkevičiūtė.

From biographies we have published of fellow Samogitians, those of Bronius Šaparas and three men with the Smilgevičius family name, we know that these lowlanders are seen as different in personality and culture by other Lithuanians.

The Arolsen Archives have not digitised any records yet for anyone with the Jutkutė or Jutkus surname. The record of Bronė’s interview with the Australian selection team in Germany, in a file held by the National Archives of Australia, says that she had received the usual 4 years of primary school education. She had attended an agricultural school for an additional 2 years. She was not married, a prerequisite for selection on the First Transport.

There is no information at all on her previous employment although, now aged 35, she probably had been in the Lithuanian and German workforces for 20 or more years.

Bronė Jutkutė from her Alien Registration application

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Brone’s Bonegilla card notes that she was sent to the Hotel Ainslie in Canberra on 22 December 1947. She was expected to work there as a cleaner and a maker of beds, known at the time as a “housemaid”. Her agricultural training and possible work experience in that sector counted for nothing in Australia’s then strongly sex-stratified workforce.

The building once called the Hotel Ainslie still exists at the bottom of a major natural landmark, Mount Ainslie, near the Australian War Memorial. Wikipedia contributors record that “the building now occupied by the (Mercure) hotel was built between 1926-27" (meaning it will be 100 years old next year or the year after) "as one of eight hostels designed to provide accommodation for public servants in preparation (for) relocating the Parliament from Melbourne to the new national capital. Following the adverse impact of the Great Depression in 1932, a liquor license was granted to building lessee, Ernest Spendlove. The building was renovated and shortly thereafter re-opened as a public hotel.“

Wikipedia further records that Spendlove sold the hotel in 1950, so he was still the employer when Bronė arrived, together with another Lithuanian woman, Elena Augutis. There were 3 women from the First Transport already working at the Hotel. They were Latvians Birute Pabrants and Maria (Mika) Pimbers, and Estonian Hilda Ramjalg. All were 29 or more years old, except for Mika, who was only 19.

Bronė and Elena had left Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre for the Hotel Ainslie on 22 December 1947. Since Canberra still does not have easy access by train, they may not have arrived until 24 December. The Hotel would have been mostly shut down for Christmas Day, although we presume that some guests stayed and would have expected to be fed, in a festive fashion. Let us hope that the 5 Baltic women were given the time and support to have a celebration on the day also.

With one exception, they probably stayed at the Hotel Ainslie for another Christmas but, like most of the other First Transport refugees, were free to find their own employment after 30 September 1949. (The one exception was Elena Augutis, whose Bonegilla card outlines her special circumstances. We will have more about her later.)

In July 1954, Bronė, using the full form of her first name, Bronislava, placed the advertisements of her intention to apply for Australian citizenship in the two newspapers then required under the Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1948-1953. The National Library’s Trove digitisation service has made available one of them, from Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. It records her as then residing at 35 Francis Street, East Sydney. This is only 100 metres from the Central Business District’s Hyde Park, in an area now designated Darlinghurst. Still at that address, she became an Australian citizen on 20 April 1956.

Between her departure from the Hotel Ainslie, perhaps when her contract to work as directed finished on 30 September 1949, and her Australian citizenship in April 1956, the New South Wales office of the Department of Immigration kept a record of her changes of employment.  Presumably her residential address remained constant during that period.

35 Francis Street, East Sydney, now 41 Yurong Street, Darlinghurst
and very renovated

Source:  Google Street View

While the Department's employment record does not have any dates, it does tell us that Bronė worked at the Gladesville Mental Hospital in Parramatta, followed by Lady Davidson House in Turramurra.  Like the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, Lady Davidson House was run by the Federal Government's Repatriation Department during the time that Bronė probably worked there.

Long trips would have been involved in getting to work every day, with the Gladesville Hospital trip involving at least 28 minutes on the train and the trip to Turramurra still taking more than one hour.

In June 1957, her name appeared in a list published in the New South Wales Government's Gazette, of people who were owed money by Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited.  Since a Dunlop factory is not listed on the Department of Immigration record, this change in employment probably occurred after her grant of Australian citizenship.

Bronė must have left one of Dunlop's factories without collecting the £3/18/7 she was due for her work. The Reserve Bank of Australia says that this amount had the buying power of $152 in 2024, one-sixth of the wage that would be paid now to a similar worker.  (The minimum wage in mid-2024 for a 38-hour week was $915.90)

Nikita Khrushchev had delivered his speech criticising Stalin two months earlier, in a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Communist Party control of people’s lives in the Soviet Union started to loosen up after that. So we find that Elena Staigvilienė from Telšiai is looking for Bronė Jutkutė, daughter of Jonas, born in March 1912, left Lithuania in 1944, in the 17 October 1957 edition of Europos Lietuvis (European Lithuanian). Any attempt like that to contact someone who had left would have led earlier to experiencing life in the colder parts of Siberia.

In May 1962, there was another search, this time from someone who was looking for both Bronė and her sister, Elena Staigvilienė. Now we know why Elena was looking for Bronė 4 years earlier. The second searcher knew that Bronė had lived in Hanau while in Germany and thought that it was likely that she now was Mrs. Šopienė (having married a Mr Sopis). This advertisement was in the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven).

Bronė had not married Mr Sopis, while our National Archives records suggest that the only man of that name to enter Australia came much later than what was called officially the IRO Mass Scheme (1947-54). Instead, a November 1961 issue of Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) tells us that she had become the life partner of one Juozapas Renaška. We know about this because Tėviškės Aidai reports that Juozapas (Joseph in English) had collapsed and died of a heart attack on 30 October, after a hard day’s work. He was only 36 years old at the time. Bronė was just a few months away from her 50th birthday.

Her partner was known to have a congenital heart valve disorder, but doctors still said that he should live easily to be 60. He had not complained of illness or any ailments. He was buried on All Souls' Day, 2 November, at the Rookwood Lithuanian Cemetery. He was not a public man, but a circle of friends and compatriots attended a mournful service and accompanied him and Bronė to the cemetery.

By 1963, Bronė had joined her life to that of Teofilis Umbražiūnas, whose last name is probably a misspelling of Ambražiūnas. Since both were too complicated for most Australians, the couple started to use Amber as well.

This time it seems to have been a marriage, since Teofilis’ sports club, Kovas, with whom he played volleyball, recorded the union in the 14 April 1963 issue of Mūsų Pastogė. Rasa's translation of its notice is, “Longtime club member Teofilis Umbražiūnas and Bronė Jutkutė, who have created a Lithuanian family, are wished much success in their future lives by Sydney Lithuanian Sports Club Kovas". By this time, Bronė was 51 years old.

There appears to be no mention of Teofilis in the Lithuanian-language press before the marriage, especially not that he was an orchid grower, so the two are likely to have taken this up together afterwards. For example, Tėviškės Aidai reported in July 1976 that, at a concert by the Daina choir, the conductor, the accompanist and the singers of duets were presented with bouquets of orchids by the owners of an orchid garden, Bronė and Teofilis Ambražiūnai-Amber.

In 1981, a team of Lithuanian sportspeople was preparing to travel to Chicago for competition. The organisers had many ideas for raising funds for uniforms, fares and overseas expenses. One of them was to establish a group of supporters who had donated at least 100 dollars to the cause. Before the team left, the “centurion” supporters would be awarded a special departure badge, their names would be published and they would be presented at a farewell ball. The first centurion was a former good volleyball player for Kovas, a native of Vilnius, Teofilis Ambražiūnas, who owned an orchid business with his wife.

There are too many other public records of generous donations from Bronė and Teofilis to mention them all here, so the orchid business seems to have been a very profitable one.

Indeed, it may have been so profitable that they decided in 1994 not only to retire, but to retire back to their Lithuanian homeland together. They settled into the city of Klaipėda.

Teofilis died of a heart attack on 24 September 1997. As he was born on 12 November 1922, he was nearly 75 years old, a good age at that time (a little higher than the NSW median of 74.3 years) for a man who had spent more than 40 years of his life in NSW -- but some of it in the privations of World War II.

Teofilis was, however, 10 years younger than his wife, who was now 85 years old. Bronė lasted another 5 to 6 years, dying sometime in 2003 according to the headstone on their grave. They are buried in the Lėbartai cemetery in Klaipėda, together with another person, Konstancija, who is probably Teofilis’ mother.

Surprisingly, while Konstancija bears the married woman’s version of the Umbražiūnas family name, both Bronė and Teofilis have been buried under the Australianised name, Amber.

Bronė rests in peace now in her country of birth, after a life that saw happiness and beauty, as well as upheaval and sadness.

Brone's gravestone, with what looks like plastic orchids

Source:  Cemety

CITE THIS AS:  Ščevinskienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Bronislava Jutkutė Umbražiūnas-Amber (1912-2003):  Orchid grower who returned to her free homeland', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/11/bronislava-jutkute-umbraziunas-amber-refugee-orchid-grower-who-returned-to-free-homeland.html.

SOURCES

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Bronislava Jutkute’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203732287, accessed 30 October 2025.

Cemety, ‘Bronė Amber (1912-2003)’ (Lėbartai cemetery in Klaipėda) https://cemety.lt/public/deceaseds/1596597?type=deceased, accessed 1 November 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1956) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, 20 September, p 2862 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232988815/25126342, accessed 30 October 2025.

Daily Telegraph (1954) ‘ Public notices’ Sydney, NSW, 5 July, p 25 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248935087, accessed 29 October 2025.

Elektroninio archyvo informacinė Sistema (Electronic Archive Information System, in Lithuanian with some English) ‘Viekšnių dekanato gimimo metrikų knyga’ (‘Birth register book of churches in the Viekšniai deanery’, in Lithuanian ) (1912, Mažeikiai church, page 40, baptism record number 15, Bronislava Jutkute) https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267310872/300725240/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=40, accessed 1 November 2025.

Europos lietuvis (European Lithuanian) (1957) ‘Paieškojimai’ (‘Searches’, in Lithuanian), London, England, 17 October, p 4 https://spauda2.org/britanijos_europos_lietuvis/archive/1957/1957-10-17-EUROPOS-LIETUVIS.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (1957) ‘Unclaimed Moneys’ Sydney, NSW, 14 June, p 1841 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/220354404/14355216, accessed 30 October 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1962) ‘Paieškojimai’ (‘Searches’, in Lithuanian), Sydney, NSW, 30 May, page 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1962/1962-05-30-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 30 October 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1963) ‘Pranesimai’ (‘Notices, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 14 April, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1963/1963-04-17-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1981) ‘Pasirengimai išvykaiį Čikagą, Rėmėjai Šimtininkai’ (‘Preparations for a Trip to Chicago, Centennial Sponsors’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 26 October, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1981/1981-10-26-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1982) ‘Syd. Lietuvių Klubo reikalais‘ (‘Syd. Lithuanian Club Affairs’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 11 October, p 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1982/1982-10-11-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1997) ‘Mūsų mirusieji, A.a. Teofilius Amber-Umbražiūnas‘ (‘Our Dead, In Memoriam, Teofilius Amber-Umbraziūnas, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 15 December, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-12-15-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogės Spaudos Baliaus Rengimo Komitetas (Mūsų Pastoge’s Press Ball Organizing Committee) (1983) ‘Mūsų Pastoges spaudos balius, spaudos baliaus atgarsiai‘ (Mūsų Pastogė Press Ball, Press Ball Reviews‘, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 10 October, p 7, https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-10-10-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

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 (sic), 1947-1947; 743: JUTKUTE Bronislawa born 20 February 1912; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL STUART HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 30 October 1947 (sic), 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005907, accessed 1 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, New South Wales Branch; SP1121/1:  Applications for Registration of Aliens, 1948-1968; JUTKUTE, BRONISLAVA:  Bronislava Jutkute [Lithuanian - arrived Fremantle per GENERAL STUART HEINTZELMAN, 28 November 1947] [Box 564], 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=31906721, accessed 10 November 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Inflation Calculator’ https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualDecimal.html, accessed 1 November 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator’ https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 2 November 2025.

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1961) ‘Sydnėjus, vėl mirė širdimi‘ (Sydney, died of another heart attack’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 7 November, p 4 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1961/1961-nr44-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1976) ‘Sydnėjus, Dainos Choro Vakaras‘ (Sydney, Daina Choir Evening‘, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 24 July, p 3 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1976/1976-nr29-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 1 November 2025.

Wikipedia, 'Mercure Hotel Canberra' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercure_Hotel_Canberra, accessed 1 November 2025.

Aleksas Saulius (1923-2023): A centenarian, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Aleksas Saulius died in Adelaide on 10 November 2023. This in itself is remarkable because he had been born more than 100 years before, on 6 January 1923, in Lithuania.

The First Transporters went through medical examinations in Germany in order to be included in this cohort, then had a further check on the General Stuart Heintzelman before being allowed to land in Fremantle. Indeed, three did not get to land because the medical officer deemed that they would become a charge on Australian health services.

In light of this, it is not so remarkable that the 839 who landed have produced several centenarians, perhaps more than normal for any group aged 16 to 42 in 1947.

Aleksas’ place of birth was Biržai, Lithuania. The Arolsen Archives have not digitised any records yet of his time in Germany as a refugee from the Soviet invasion of his nation. All that we know about this period is that he was living in a Displaced Persons Camp in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt, when he applied to come to Australia.

From the summary of his interview by the Australian team in the Butzbach Camp, we know that he had had only 6 years of primary school education. He probably had an agricultural background, since his Occupation Suitability was described as ‘Medium farmer’.

Aleksas Saulius, 1947, from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

After a month and a half in the Bonegilla camp, Aleksas was sent to a place called Billipapoola in New South Wales for the Forestry Commission. Neither Google Maps nor the older National Mapping 1:250,000 maps have indexed this place. Even Apple Maps, helpful with former settlements near Ebor in northern NSW, has failed this test.

The hint to the answer comes from the back of his Aliens Registration record, held by the National Archives in Adelaide. It shows his first address after Bonegilla as c/- Forestry Office, Batlow, which is in New South Wales, west of Canberra. Billipapoola Reserve is 27 Km east-north-east of Tumut or 48 Km north-east of Batlow.

Whether Aleksas’ work involved sawing down trees, moving the logs or processing them, it would have been hard and dangerous labour. He was released from his initial obligation to work as directed on 5 October 1949. That was 5 days after the date directed by the Minister for Immigration: perhaps the message was slow to travel to Batlow.

An Aliens Registration record card shows that Aleksas saw a lot of Australia before he settled down. The next address after Batlow was Uni Hostel, Parramatta Road, Glebe, a residence for students of the University of Sydney. Then comes Dalween Private Hotel in Sydney from 10 June 1950 and, about 4 weeks later, c/- HS Atherton, Bli Bli, a rural town in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast region. (HS normally would stand for High School, but the Atherton Tableland is at least 1500 Km north of the Sunshine Coast: maybe HS Atherton was the the initials and surname of another employer.)

Never mind because, only 9 days later, Aleksas had moved to a Brisbane address. Five days after that, he started working with the South Coast Hospital Board in Brisbane. We are now at 17 July 1950. The next cryptic entry probably indicates that a file of papers on Aleksas had been forwarded to the Chief Migration Officer (CMO) for the State of Queensland, also located in Brisbane, at the end of November 1950.

Nine months later, that file had to return to the CMO New South Wales, because Aleksas had started work with the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric Authority at Island Bend via Cooma. We know that then he became the manager of one of around 120 camps built for other employees, the one at Spencers Creek.

In the absence of a digitised photo specifically of the Spencers Creek camp,
here's a generic one of Snowy Mountains Scheme workers heading out of camp to work: 
Let's hope that, in winter, they had accommodation which would be more resistant to blizzards 

Source:  Kidsnews

Renoldas or Reno Česna, generally known in Australia as Ron, was another Snowy Mountains Hydro employee who made a project in retirement of collecting all that he could on fellow Lithuanians also employed on the Snowy. His collection includes a December 1952 letter of commendation from a Bega High School teacher who had led a party of students on a visit which involving a stay at the Spencers Creek camp.

Mr KG Loft wrote that, ‘Personally, although I have had plenty of experience with children’s camps, I must say that I have never had so enjoyable a camp with young people … We would appreciate if you could convey our thanks to these officers in particular … Mr Alex Saulius, the camp attendant who made camp such a pleasant place.’

We know that Aleksas was generous also with his money, as there are many records in both the Australian-Lithuanian newspapers, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), and Teviškes aidai (Echoes of Homeland) of his donations to causes such as the construction of new churches and scouting.

He was particularly generous in donating funds for the construction of what was then the only church in the Snowy Mountains, Our Lady of the Snows in the Island Bend camp. At an altitude of more than 1200 metres above sea level, it qualified as the highest church in Australia. Before its opening on Sunday, 13 January 1952, the whole of the church had been painted white by Aleksas and a fellow Lithuanian refugee, Vladas Rackauskas.

The title of the church at the highest in altitude in Australia was to be taken in the 1960s by another church, in Perisher, which is more than 1700 metres above sea level. As the Island Bend camp closed in 1965, the year after construction of the Perisher church started, the latter now carries the Our Lady of the Snows name.

Aleksas next reported changes of address and workplace to the Department of Immigration, under its Aliens Registration requirements, on 28 July 1955. His new address was in an inner Adelaide suburb, Lockleys. His workplace was even closer to the inner city, in Mile End. He advised that he was a labourer with the Perry Engineering Company.

Aleksas next reported changes of address and workplace to the Department of Immigration, under its Aliens Registration requirements, on 28 July 1955. His new address was in an inner Adelaide suburb, Lockleys. His workplace was even closer to the inner city, in Mile End. He advised that he was a labourer with the Perry Engineering Company.

We know that Perry Engineering manufactured mechanical presses for the Chrysler, Ford and Holden car factories in Australia in the 1950s. Before WWII, it had focussed on building locomotives, including for South Australian Railways. Through this job, Aleksas was with the employer of many of the men from the First Transport. It may have been a fellow Lithuanian who found the job for him.

Another month later, he started work with the South Australian Electricity Trust, also as a rigger.

Aleksas became an Australian citizen on 11 February 1957 in West Torrens, Adelaide. He no longer was required by law to report every change of employment. As a citizen, however, the law required him to vote in Federal and State elections. He still needed to advise the Electoral Commission of changes of address, particularly if an election was in the offing.

On 1 July 1964, he married Giuseppina Ritarossi at Hectorville, also in Adelaide. He was 41 years old, while she was 35. She had arrived on the Galileo Galilei two weeks before in Melbourne, sponsored by Aleksas as his fiancée.

Giuseppina as a fiancée

Source:  National Archives of Australia

As far as we know, Aleksas never got to be a farm labourer – unless he helped the nearby Batlow orchardists with some apple picking when at his first, Billipapoola job.

From this point on, until his death, there is no more mention of Aleksas in the digitised public record. We can assume that this was because he focussed on being a husband and father. Aleksas and Giuseppina had a daughter and a son.

At the time of Aleksas’ passing on 10 November 2023, there were 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Giuseppina had died 20 years earlier, on 10 April 2003, aged 73.

Aleksas in older age

Source:  MyTributes

CITE THIS DOCUMENT AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Aleksas Saulius (1923-2023):  A centenarian' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/aleksas-saulius-1923-2023-centenarian.html.

SOURCES

Catholic Weekly (1952) ‘Snowy River Men Build Own Church’, Sydney 10 January p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146747887 accessed 5 April 2024.

Česna, Renoldas, collected papers in the Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide.

Find a Grave ‘Giuseppina Saulius’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194737055/giuseppina-saulius, accessed 4 April 2024.

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; 662: SAULIUS Aleksas DOB 6 January 1923, 1947-1947, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3121118, accessed 4 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878: Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-71; SAULIUS A: SAULIUS Aleskas [Aleksas, Alesksas] born - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as Aleskas, 1947-1957; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12050411, accessed 4 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878: Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-71; ITALIAN - SAULIUS G: SAULIUS Giusepina born 1929 - Nationality: Italian - Arrived Melbourne per Galileo Galilei 15 June 1964 Also known as RITAROSSI, 1964-1964; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30829366, accessed 28 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881: Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; SAULIUS, ALESKAS: SAULIUS Aleskas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1976; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9199823, accessed 28 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881: Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; SAULIUS, GIUSEPPINA: SAULIUS Giuseppina - Nationality: Italian - Arrived Melbourne per Galileo Galilei 15 June 1964 Also known as NEE RITAROSSI, 1964-1976; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7275267, accessed 4 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571: Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; SAULIUS, Aleksas : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1036, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203703963, accessed 4 April 2024.

Wikipedia ‘Perry Engineering’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Engineering, accessed 4 April 2024.

Romanas-Karolis Ragauskas (1924-2007) Engineer and Sports Administrator, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

The Kiewa Scheme

The State Electricity Commission of Victoria had been building a hydro-electric scheme south of the Bonegilla camp, in the Kiewa valley, on and off since 1937. It was mostly off due to World War II, so the end of the War led to its resumption in an environment of increasing electricity demand.

Twenty-six of the First Transport men were sent to Kiewa on 14 January 1948, according to their Bonegilla cards. Given that the town of Bogong had been established as the base for construction of the Kiewa Scheme, it’s very likely that the men were sent there, to the Kiewa Scheme rather than the town of Kiewa. This town is only 18 kilometres south of the Bonegilla camp by road. Bogong is another 80 kilometres south, so the men were only a bit more than an hour away from their initial home in Australia.

The environment of the Kiewa Scheme -- here, work on underground Power Station 4

Source:  SECV via Wikipedia

The Kiewa Scheme became the second largest hydro-electric scheme on mainland Australia, after the Snowy Mountains Scheme, so the men were engaged for a significant project. One of them was Romanas-Karolis or Romas Ragauskas.

Romas' birth

Romas was born on 2 January 1924, born in the central Lithuanian town of Kėdainai. That birthdate meant that he turned 24 one month after arrival in Australia, so he was just under the average age of the 839 allowed to land in Australia.

Romas in Germany

The Arolsen Archives have digitised 15 documents relating to Romas’ time in Germany, so we know a lot about it still. His American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP Registration Record was completed in Assembly Centre 16, which, if that is the same as the Team Numbers on a list available from DPcamps.org, was in Düsseldorf in the North Rhine Region of the British Zone of Occupied Germany. He was registered on 25 August 1945.

The person completing the AEF form has favoured the German language, so the handwriting which might be transcribed as “bauningineur” indicates that Romas stated that he was a Bauingenieur, a “building” or civil engineer. Given his youth, this could have been the field in which he had been training in his city of previous residence, Kaunas, but it is unlikely that he had much practical experience.

On the back of the form, we can read that he was lucky enough to have been dusted with DDT on 8 November 1945. The enthusiasm for this dangerous poison apparently was widespread among the Americans after WWII. Another Displaced Person from the First Transport, someone who had scientific training, Helgi Nirk, blamed her ill health in later life to the amount of DDT to which she had been subject in the camps.

The medical officer for UNRRA Team 35 checked his health that day, with Team 35 equating to Dieburg in the American Zone.

A second AEF form was completed in Darmstadt on 14 January 1946. It gives his occupation as “Student polit.”, presumably political science. His interests had broadened from engineering.

This form was completed in DP Camp 502, Darmstadt, according to a clear rubber stamp. The DPcamps.org list of UNRRA teams says that Team 502 was in Stuttgart, still more than 75 minutes away by modern, fast train. It looks like the UNRRA list is not a reliable guide to the camp numbers after all.

A third AEF registration has been partially typed in Darmstadt on 5 February 1946, making it much easier to read. For instance, it is now clear that Romanas’ mother was Balmira Ragauskienė, née Baliunaite, while all the forms show clearly that his father was Martinas. Romanas’ occupation on this form again was student. And his destination is handprinted, relatively clearly, as Kranichsteiner str 59 (59 Kranichsteiner Street), Darmstadt, Grosshessen, Deutschland. Unfortunately, the additional handwritten remarks at the bottom of the form are not so easy to read.

Google Street View shows 59 Kranichsteiner Street as a private building on the corner of Kittler Strasse, possibly built to house a shop on the ground floor originally. As a student, Romanas now was “free-living”, the term used for Displaced Persons who were not housed in the camps.

Wait, there’s a fourth AEF form, apparently a typed copy of the 5 February one, but without the handwritten remarks. It has an addition in German, though, which confirms that Romanas was studying at the institution then called the Technical High School, but now the Technical University of Darmstadt.

A list shows him as a Lithuanian who was issued with documents in Darmstadt, also in the American Zone, on 5 February 1946. Another digital document is one page of a 3-page list of Lithuanians, nearly all students at the Technical High School. There are 46 of these students, but Vytautas Skidzevičius is not one of those named. This list does not have a date but another, dated 14 July 1947, has him still at the Kranichsteiner Strasse address, still studying, but having been in Brandenburg “during the War”. Another card confirms the Brandenburg presence in May 1945.

There are at least 2 copies of this ID photo of Romas Ragauskas in existence still;
one has written on the back, "Darmstadt, 15.5.47"

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The remainder of the 15 documents are duplicates, one way or another – but it is better to have duplicates than no records at all, which is the case for many of the Displaced Persons we have looked at already.

Interview for Australia

The summary of his interview with the selection team for migration to Australia, on 14 October 1947, shows that he "fled from the Russian regime" rather than being forcibly evacuated. His is one of the cases where the details of his decision to depart, the route he took, any travel companions, have not survived.

The summary recorded that Romas had only 4 years of primary education and 5 years of secondary. The team failed to record his tertiary education. Still, they realised that he had the sort of experience that they could downgrade to potential builder’s labourer.

His knowledge of English was said to be “nil” at the time of his interview. He probably focussed hard on learning the language during the 4 weeks on board the Heintzelman and 5 weeks in the Bonegilla camp.

Romas' early work in Australia

After completing his two-year employment obligation with the State Electrical Commission of Victoria, it was 26 October 1949 in his case. Was else do we know about Romanas? For a start, since the Kiewa Scheme was civil engineering, he may well have stayed on.

However, he probably was offered better pay by the SRWSC at Eildon, in Victoria, where he moved in November 1949. Ann, as a former Victorian, interprets SRWSC as State Rivers and Water Supply Commission.  Here, potable water for the city of Melbourne was a focus, in addition to irrigation and hydro-electricity.

He stayed at Eildon until June 1950. By July 1950, he was living in Melbourne and working as a civil engineer with the Commonwealth’s Department of Works and Housing.

Marriage and family

He married a Lithuanian, Danutė Balnionytė on 17 November 1952, in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral. They lived at 19 Chapel Street, St Kilda, an inner Melbourne suburb. Danutė had arrived in Australia in April 1949. They had one son.

Danutė Balnionytė's ID photo on her Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Citizenship

The Melbourne Argus and Age newspapers of 21 November 1952 carried an advertisement from Romanas, as then required by law, announcing that he intended to apply for naturalisation. It said that he had been resident in Australia for 5 years, which was close enough, being only one week short. The National Library of Australia’s Trove digitisation service has not captured the notification in the Commonwealth Gazette that he had received Australian citizenship. The file on his citizenship application still held in the National Archives of Australia shows that he received citizenship on 30 July 1953.

Recognition as an engineer?

We know from the life story of the first former DP in this blog, Estonian Ernst Kesa, that Australia had no registration or recognition of overseas qualifications system for engineers at this time. We also know already that Romas’ occupation from 1950 was civil engineer. In 1954, he and his wife left Melbourne for NSW, where he spent eleven years working in various construction jobs.

Romas was able to work as an engineer on the construction of the Glenbawm and Grahamstown dams, still significant suppliers of water in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. His previous Australian work experience on the Kiewa Scheme, with the SRWSC and the Commonwealth Department of Works all would have helped get additional engineering employment.

In a Newcastle, NSW, meeting of the Australian Lithuanian Community for the area, R. Ragauskas was elected to be the delegate to the Community’s national congress in October 1958. When Danūte received Australian citizenship, on 3 December 1958, her address was given in the Commonwealth Gazette as Glenbawm Dam, via Scone.

Glenbawm Dam

Source: WaterNSW

Return to Melbourne

In 1965, the couple decided to return to Melbourne. Danūte's mother, brother, sister, and many friends and acquaintances lived here. Glenbawm Dam, via Scone, does not sound like an address where there were many like-minded people with whom to socialise. The education of their growing son may have been an issue also.

Romas starts sports administration

In 1970, Jonas Tamošiūnas, who was then the chairman of the Melbourne Lithuanian sports club Varpas, asked Romas to organise a golf competition for the 21st annual Australian Lithuanian sports festival. Until then, there had been no golf competitions at sports festivals. All the golfers gathered at the Albert Park golf course. Most of them were from Geelong at the time, with only a few from Melbourne. Romas was the winner of the golf competition he organised.

Jonas Tamošiūnas approached Romas again as the presidents of all the Lithuanian sporting clubs were starting an Australian Lithuanian Physical Education Union (ALFAS) board. Romas became the first secretary in 1971-1972. He was appointed chairman in 1973. Having been assured that there would not be much work involved, Romas found himself developing statutes for ALFAS and sports festivals and organising the first Australian Lithuanian trip to America.

In 1973, he was elected to the board of the Melbourne sports club Varpas and became its chairman, except for 1975, when he was the club's treasurer, until 1980.

Basketball player

Basketball results published Tėviškės Aidai in during 1975 show that Romas wasn’t just administering sporting groups, he was scoring lots of goals on the court too. Various photographs in Lithuanian-language newspapers show that Romas wasn’t tall, but at 5 feet 9 inches or 170 centimentres, he was not short either. He probably made up in agility on the basketball court what he lacked in height.

Engineers and Architects

In 1974, Engineer R. Ragauskas was elected chairman of the Australian Lithuanian Engineers and Architects Melbourne group. This group had existed for 15 years but had limited its activities to its professional members. A dinner on 21 July was organised to change this, and the majority of the 30 people attending were not professionals. Two members spoke about their work.

Chemist Kestutis Lynikas, who worked in the Reserve Bank's banknote issuance branch, gave an introduction to the production of Australian banknotes. Bronius Vingrys, an engineer with the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW), detailed the provision of water to the city. Both talks were well illustrated and two short, colour MMBW films were screened. The evening finished with coffee, cakes and wine, and a committee which hoped not to “return to the darkness of the past”.

Sports administration again

When the Lithuanian Days festival came to Melbourne in December 1976, Romas was the natural choice for sporting events co-ordinator.

The Melbourne Lithuanian Days 1976 organising committee with
Romas Ragauskas in the middle of the back row; also in this photograph,
second from the left in the middle rown, is Karolis Prašmutas' daughter, Birūte

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

In 1981, Viktoras Adomavičius became chairman of the board of Varpas, and Romas again took up the leadership of the ALFAS during 1981-82. In 1984, he was again Varpas chairman and secretary in 1985.

After a break, in 1989-91, Romas again chaired ALFAS. This time, together with the Australian Lithuanian athletes, he participated in the 4th World Lithuanian Sports Festival in Lithuania. For his hard work, he was awarded the titles of honorary member of the Melbourne Lithuanian Sports Club Varpas and a medal of honour from ALFAS.

At a 1996 Geelong sports day, Romas stands in front of a line of other
ALFAS medal of honour recipients

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

Later engineering career

Three classified advertisements in the Canberra Times, of September 1985, August 1988 and October 1990, shows that R. Ragauskas then was working for Roche Brothers Pty Ltd of St Kilda Road, Melbourne. In 1985, this company was organising the forecourt finishes for two areas of the now permanent Parliament House in Canberra, so was calling for subcontractors and suppliers interested in participating.

The 1988 advertisement was for subcontractors for work on the Mulwala Explosives Factory in Mulwala, New South Wales. The 1990 advertisement was for another important project near Canberra, a deviation to the Hume Highway south of Goulburn, New South Wales.

In the 1985 advertisement, Romas was named as “Ron Ragauskas”. His may well have been the office job of preparing tenders for these and other construction projects. In October 1990, he was still in the workforce at the age of 66.

There may well have been many of these advertisements in other Australian newspapers but Australian copyright laws mean that the Canberra Times is the only major city newspaper digitised by the National Library’s Trove project for the period from 1955 to 1995.

It has to be noted that Romas also was a frequent contributor to various appeals for financial support, for instance, for the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper.

Later life

He and his wife were still participating in and winning golf tournaments for Australian Lithuanians in 1999. This is the only time we see Dana mentioned in her own right, apart from a literal ‘wife in the kitchen’ comment on another activity. This probably was meant to be a thank you, but does not read well given the tremendous support Danūte must have given Romas over 54 years of marriage.

Romas passed away on the 15 January 2007, 13 days after his 83rd birthday. A notice was published in the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper on 17 January 2007.

Danūte died on 4 June 2016, aged 86, as notified in the Herald Sun of 7 June 2016. That notification names her son as Stan, possibly an Anglicisation of Stasys. He and his wife, Diana, had 4 children, grandchildren for Romas and Danūte.

In 2006, a perpetual trophy competition in basketball in the name of Romas Ragauskas was created. It is between the Melbourne Varpas Lithuanian Sports Club and its Geelong counterpart, the Vytis Lithuanian Sports Club.

CITE THIS AS: Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) ‘Romanas-Karolis Ragauskas, Engineer and Sports Administrator’ https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/romanas-karolis-ragauskas-engineer-and-sports-administrator.html.

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