Vladas Mikelaitis (1925 –2006): 'A Good Bloke'

Updated 14 April 2025.

The tribute below was contributed to the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsū Pastogė (Our Haven), by Rože Vaičiulevičius and published on 26.7.2006.  Its author is unknown, but I am happy to offer credit where credit is due if the author is found.

Vladas Mikelaitis was born in southwest Lithuania in the district of Šakiai on 12 July 1925. He was one of five children. His parents were Pranas and Ona Mikelaitis. His father was the village blacksmith. 

He attended Valakbudis Primary School and, as a youngster, worked on the farm. 

When WWII broke out, he worked in the cooperative shop as an assistant. when the Germans were retreating from the east in 1944, he was taken to East Prussia to dig trenches for the retreating soldiers. 

At the end of the war in 1945, he lived in the displaced persons camp in Oldenburg, in the Wehnen camp. 

On the 28th November 1947, he arrived in Australia on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman which transported the very first post-WWII refugee migrants to Australia. He was sent to the Australian Newsprint Mills in Maydena (Tasmania), where he worked on a 2-year compulsory contract.

Vladas Mikelaitis, front of Bonegilla card

Source: National Archives of Australia

In 1951 he was married to Kateryna Tscherkasky. He lived at Battery Point for a short time where his daughter, Ona, was born. He moved to Karanja in the Derwent Valley at the time Marytė was born. He lived there for 12 years. 

While living at Karanja, Vladas built a house in West Moonah. He was a weekend builder. For 2-3 years he would work all week in Maydena, then travel to Hobart every weekend to build the house. He then moved to West Moonah in 1966. 

Vladas was transferred from Maydena to Boyer in 1975 and worked in the warehouse there until his retirement in 1986. He then moved to Glenorchy where he spent the remainder of his life. 

The Maydena workers felled the eucalypts which were turned into newsprint in this mill
at Boyer, Tasmania

Source:  University of Tasmania

He travelled back to his homeland of Lithuania on 3 occasions to visit family. On the first 2 times he went on his own, the third time with Kateryna and together they also visited her homeland — the Ukraine. Vladas never forgot his family and kept contact regularly by phone and letters. 

Vladas was a very active member of the Lithuanian community. He was involved with the Lithuanian Sports club “Perkūnas” and was part of the organising committee of the 24th Australian Lithuanian sports carnival held in Hobart in 1973. In the 80’s, Vladas was part of a volunteer group who edited, produced and distributed a local publication called the “Baltic News”. 

He loved the Australian bush and the country life. He enjoyed fishing, rabbiting, going to the football, working in his vegetable garden and gathering with friends to socialise. He enjoyed his Aussie beer and in Karanja on a sunny day would sit under the shade of the trees in his beer garden watching his veggies grow. He also had a “smoke house” in Karanja where he would smoke eels that he had caught. 

Vladas owned a home movie camera. He recorded holidays and movies of his grandsons when they were growing up. He amused the children by playing the movies in reverse. He had 4 grandsons and spent time with them in the garage teaching them to use a hammer and nails. 

In his later years his failing eyesight restricted him in many things, but he still enjoyed AFL football. He would be seen sitting inches away from the TV screen. At half time he would slip out to the garage for a quick cigarette. 

Vladas Mikelaitis at a reunion for the 50th anniversary of arrival in Australia
Source:  Hobart Mercury, 2 December 1997

He was a man of simple wants and needs. He was hardworking, honest and a man of integrity. His Aussie mates knew him as a “Good Bloke” who enjoyed a beer, a good yarn, AFL football and, of course, he drove a Holden. Vladas embraced life and both cultures with open arms.

May he REST IN PEACE.

Vladas rests with his wife in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart

Source: Find A Grave, photo by McNooza

I thank Daina Pocius, Archivist at the Australian Lithuanian Archives in Adelaide, for bringing this tribute to our attention.

Notes:  1. Vladas became an Australian citizen on 20 August 1957 while living at Karanja.  Source: 'Certificates of Naturalization', Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 22 May 1958, p 1640, viewed 26 June 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240892247.  On the FindaGrave Website, a helpful volunteer (Tanya V) has recorded that he died on 14 June 2006, so less than one month away from his 81st birthday.

2.  Double-click on the images to see enlarged versions of them.

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

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

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

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

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

Martynas Jankus in the United States, 1926

Source:  Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: limis.lt

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

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

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

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

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

Source:  NAA

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

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

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

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

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

'Christopher' Jankus at work, 1968

Source:  NAA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:  Europeana.eu

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

Addendum 1

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

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

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

'COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION,

455 COLLINS STREET,

MELBOURNE, C.1.

1st July 1949

'Dear Sir,

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

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

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

                                                                Yours faithfully,

                                                                         (signed) J Raftis

                                                                         for Commonwealth Migration Officer

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

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

Addendum 2

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

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

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

 

Footnotes

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

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

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

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

Sources

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947; 380, JANKUS Endrius DOB 7 July 1929.  https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005677, accessed 5 March 2023.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From a Lithuanian farm to Australian lawyer: Stasys Čibiras (1923-2012) by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 4 August 2024

Stasys Čibiras was born on a farm in Lithuania but retired from a law practice in South Australia. Learning the law means a close grasp of the meanings of words: for Stasys, known as Stan in Australia, English would have been his third or even fourth language. World War II changed the course of his life but this strong man survived and bettered himself. 

Stasys Cibiras at age 24 in 1947, on his 'Bonegilla card'

Source: National Archives of Australia

The farm was in senas (old) Daugeliškis, where he was one of seven brothers and a sister. Born on 13 October 1923, he was a student of mechanical engineering at a trade school when the Germans invaded his country in the summer of 1941. 

In 1944, he was taken to Germany to labour for the German Army, digging trenches between the opposing forces. He dug for eight months before being shot.  

He was taken a prisoner-of-war by the British. At the War's end, he got himself to the American Zone of occupied Germany, to the city of Kassel. He had become a Displaced Person, able to complete high schooling there in 1946. The following year in Eichstädt he studied philosophy. Like so many other Displaced Persons, his hope was to go to America, but he answered an earlier call to consider Australia instead. 

His appearance before the three-man Australian selection team took place a couple of hours away from Kassel by rail, in the town of Butzbach, near Frankfurt. Success in the selection process doubtless occurred because the team saw before it a 6-foot (183 cm) tall man who had just celebrated his 24th birthday and was healthy apart from the bullet wound. It was followed by a return to his camp on the outskirts of Kassel, hasty packing, another trip to Butzbach, then train travel to the Bremerhaven assembly point for his journey to Australia. 

Four weeks on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman were followed by four days in Fremantle and another voyage to Port Melbourne on board the HMAS Kanimbla. 

After one month in the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre, probably attending English language classes every weekday, he was one of a group of 33 men sent to Mount Gambier, South Australia, for their first Australian employment. For nearly two years, they laboured there for the Department of Woods and Forests, but were told that their two-year obligation had ended two months early for good behaviour like the rest of their fellow passengers.

Moving to Adelaide, Čibiras lived initially in a large tin shed in the western suburbs with other refugees. He continued to work as a labourer, mostly in an Adelaide factory. Later he became an orderly at the Daws Road Repatriation Hospital. During this time, he decided to study law at the University of Adelaide. This was no easy undertaking. As mentioned above, he would be studying in a very recently acquired language, at least his third after Lithuanian and German. 

Those who had migrated to Australia in 1947 were not eligible to apply for Australian citizenship until after 5 years residence here. Stasys beat the gun by one day, publishing the required notices in two newspapers on 27 November 1952 when his date of arrival was 28 November 1947. He managed, however, to hold off completing his application form until 5 days later. His citizenship was conferred on 15 April 1953. 

Stasys, or Stan, was already an articled law clerk when he applied for citizenship in 1952. Indeed, his law career probably started even earlier, because we know he instigated the Australian Lithuanian Student Association, Adelaide Branch, (Australijos Lietuvių Studentų Sąjunga or ALSS), with an establishment date of 25 August 1951. Members were university students or those studying at a higher professional level who had completed a diploma. 

With part-time study, it took him until 1958 to graduate from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Laws degree. 

Stan Cibiras as a successful immigrant: the full caption for this 1958 Australian Government publicity photograph reads, "When Stan Cibiras came to Australia 11 years ago from Lithuania he was employed as a labourer. Later he became a male orderly in an Adelaide Hospital. Working at night and weekends, he was able to undertake a Law Course at the Adelaide University and recently qualified as a Bachelor of Laws.  He is now employed as a solicitor with the
Crown Law Department of South Australia."

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Meanwhile, he had involved himself in the early days of the Adelaide Lithuanian Society.  A meeting was held to discuss the establishment of a Lithuanian community house and Stasys became a member of the committee to look into this. He was a member of the Australian Lithuanian community court, President of the Baltic Communities committee and became President of the Adelaide Lithuanian community for 1956-57.

While studying, and working, he even found the time to undertake a pilot's course with the University Air Squadron, attaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant. 

A 1962 publication on the South Australian Lithuanian community, Blėzdingėlės prie Torrenso or Swallows by the Torrens, had a sketch of Stasys in his role as community leader.  Jonas Mockunas has provided what he calls a very loose translation.  "Completely straight, never wrapping anything in cotton wool, Čibiras seems not to have felt any of the attacks directed at him and always did what he was determined to do.  A young, energetic lawyer, having finished his studies in Adelaide, Stasys  Čibiras would dress down those who tried to insert sour notes into the life of the community.  To the sorrow of his friends and the joy of his enemies, Čibiras has temporarily left Adelaide simmering in disputes and settled in pleasant Renmark ..."

After completing his articles, Stan's first job was as a crown prosecutor. While visiting Renmark, he found out that a local solicitor, wished to retire. It was agreed with the solicitor that Stan would take over his business. 

Stan married a fellow Lithuanian, Dalia Pyragius, and they had two sons. The family stayed in Adelaide, so Stan travelled more than 250 Km every weekend to see them. 

Stan Cibiras (centre) with his sons, Tony (left) and Paul (right)

Photograph kindly supplied by Paul Cibiras

After Stan's death in Canberra in February 2012, his friend and former business partner, Malcolm Daws, described his Renmark life in an obituary in a local newspaper, the Murray Pioneer.

Stan, Malcolm wrote,  "lived in makeshift accommodation in Renmark while renting office space in the old State Bank building in Renmark Avenue and because he could not afford his own car to drive to Adelaide, he would ‘grab a lift’ with whoever was going there on weekends. 

"After the first three months of hard work, Stan was left with just over $2 to his name. 

"However, his hard work started to produce results and he then quietly prospered, being able to afford to buy a house, a car and  about 10 years later, a share in the building which now houses the Renmark Medical Clinic and the Riverland Denture Clinic. 

"Although Stan was able to afford to have his two sons at boarding school in Adelaide, his marriage became a casualty but nevertheless his optimism remained undimmed. 

"He was proud of the later achievements of his sons Tony, a law graduate, and Paul, a mining driller. 

Tony Cibiras (left) at his graduation with his father, Stan (right)

Photograph kindly supplied by Paul Cibiras

"During his 30 years of legal practice in Renmark, Stan involved himself in a community in which he felt so much at home. A president and life member of the Renmark Club, he was also a president of the Rotary Club and a keen participant in tennis and golf where his enjoyment of both games outshone his prowess." 

Stan retired from his business, Cibiras & Daws, and from legal practice in 1990. He moved to Canberra, where his son Tony had obtained his legal education and was in practice. 

Renmark High School’s annual Stan Cibiras Award is presented to a Year 12 student who has overcome adversity to become successful. Stasys donated $500 annually until 2011 when the award was taken over by the Renmark Lions Club. Malcolm Daws wrote that, "The award came about after Stan lamented that he had always intended to write a book on constitutional law but had not done this, so he regarded himself as a failure.  Nothing could have been further from the truth."

By 2010, Stan's health deteriorated to such an extent that he was moved into a nursing home. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. When he passed away in February 2012, he had reached the grand age of 88. 

Malcolm Daws finished, "That the business name of Cibiras & Daws was registered for more than two decades causes your correspondent immense pride.  Stan's first consideration, when assessing a client's chances, was whether the client was 'a good bloke'.  Stan Cibiras was a good bloke."

In memory of Stasys (Stan) Čibiras, 13 October 1923 – 6 February 2012, and Anthony (Tony) Benius Čibiras, 26 August 1956 – 24 August 2022. 

SOURCES

Andriušis, Pulgis and Vladas Radzevičius (eds), Blėzdingėlės prie Torrenso (Swallows by the Torrens), J. J. Bachunas, Sodus, Michigan, 1962. (Jonas Mockunas advises that blėzdingėlė is also the name of a popular Lithuanian folk dance, performed by women only, so there is a connotation in the books title of Lithuanian cultural tradition being maintained in Adelaide.)

Čibiras, Paul, personal communications, 2022.

Daws, Malcolm, 'Farewell Stan Cibiras, just a genuinely good bloke', The Murray Pioneer (Renmark, SA), 14 March 2012, p 16.

Fatchen, Max, 'Their celebration was just like home', The Mail (Adelaide, SA), 30 October 1954, p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58098347 viewed 12 December 2022.

Gordon, Dalia, personal communications, 2012 and 2022.

J. Kalvaitis, 'Mokslo Keliu' ('Through Learning'), Musu Pastoge (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 20 June 1956, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259365397 viewed 12 December 2022.

National Archives of Australia: Australian Customs Service, State Administration, South Australia; Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-1971; CIBIRAS S, CIBIRAS Stasys - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1953.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A439, Correspondence files, multiple number series, Class 11 (Migrants A-C); 1952/11/8364, Cibiras, S, 1949-1953, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=802671 accessed 4 August 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; 534, CIBIRAS Stasys DOB 13 October 1923, 1947.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12111, Immigration Photographic Archive, 1946 - Today; 1/1958/29/1, Immigration - Migrants in the professions - When Stan Cibiras came to Australia 11 years ago from Lithuania he was employed as a labourer. Later he became a male orderly in an Adelaide Hospital. Working at night and week-ends he was able to undertake a Law Course at the Adelaide University and recently qualified as a Bachelor of Laws. He is now employed as a solicitor with the Crown Law Department of South Australia, 1958, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8109934 accessed 8 June 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; CIBIRAS STASYS, CIBIRAS, Stasys: Year of Birth - 1923: Nationality - LITHUANIAN: Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN: Number - 908, 1947-48, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203680665 accessed 4 August 2024.

Papers held in the Lithuanian Archives in Australia, https://www.australianlithuanians.org/uncategorized/adel-arkhives/ accessed 25 May 2024.

(Pocius, Daina), 'Australian Lithuanian Students (Australijos Lietuvių Studentų Sąjunga (ALSS))', Lithuanian History in Australia, https://salithohistory.blogspot.com/2013/11/australian-lithuanian-students.html viewed 12 December 2022.

Riverland Weekly, 'Renmark Lions Club honour', Riverland Weekly (Berry, SA), 8 December 2011, p 4, https://issuu.com/riverlandweekly/docs/rw_207_dec_8_2011 viewed 12 December 2022.

The Mail, 'Want to be Good Australians', The Mail (Adelaide, SA) 15 October 1949, p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55782457 viewed 12 December 2022.