Vladas Dailydė (1914-1970): Hard working, hard living, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Vlad Dailydė worked hard for nearly 23 years in Australia until an unknown health issue brought an early end to his life. Although his family name means ‘carpenter’ in Lithuanian, he was to be found in places where hard manual labour with metals or their ores was required: on the South Australian railway tracks, Woomera, Radium Hill and steelworks in Perth.

Vladas Dailyde's 1947 photograph from his selection papers
Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was an early supporter of the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, donating £1/4/- in April 1950, together with Juozas Sabeckis (an arrival on the Tenth Transport, the Svalbard). With inflation, that donation is the equivalent of more than $75 now. Given that we know from the story of Romualdas Zeronas that civilians in Woomera, where he would have been working then, were earning at least £9.10.0 per week, it was a high proportion of their income.

Four years later in 1954, Vladas was working in the uranium mine at Radium Hill. The Australian Lithuanian newspaper reported that there were at least six other Lithuanians there at that time. They gathered together to commemorate 16 February, Lithuania’s Independence Day.

They were commemorating not with patriotic speeches but an opportunity to donate money to the Vasario 16 (February 16) school in Germany. This was the name was of a Lithuanian-language senior high school, a gymnasium, in Hüttenfeld. At that time the school was the only full-time high school outside Lithuania offering courses in Lithuanian history, language, and culture. It is renowned for having played a critical role as a symbol of freedom for Lithuania during the Soviet occupation and was greatly supported by Lithuanian displaced persons around the world.

A later issue of the Australian Lithuanian recorded that he was one of those who had donated £5, not only likely to be about half his weekly income then, but the modern equivalent with inflation of more than $213.

Vladas applied to become an Australian citizen while working at Radium Hill. Closer to Broken Hill than Adelaide, in the same sort of desert country, it was Australia’s first uranium mine, having operated from 1906 to 1961.

That application shows that he was able to move on from the Bangham railway camp to a better paying job at Woomera in February 1949, before his contract with the Australian Government was ended by the Minister for Immigration on 30 September 1949. He stayed at Woomera for nearly one and a half years, until July 1950.

He was in Adelaide for around one year, from July 1950 until June 1951. During that time, he worked for General Motors Holden. Then he lived and worked at Mount Gambier for 6-7 months, from June 1951 to January 1952, working with JM Clements Ltd. He returned to Adelaide, to the suburb of Nailsworth until 4 April 1952, at which point he moved to Menindee, NSW, for one month. From there he left for Radium Hill, back in South Australia, where he was still on 1 June 1956, the date on which he swore an oath of allegiance to become an Australian citizen.

There had been one blemish on his record. He had been charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm after he threw a bottle over his shoulder at another Woomera worker. It was night, so his friend probably could not see the bottle coming. The result was a gash on the forehead which needed 22 stitches to close.

Vladas pleaded not guilty but admitted guilt to the lesser charge of common assault. Mr Justice Abbott ordered that Vladas be imprisoned with hard labour for one month. He took into account that Vladas had been held in custody for 25 days already. This means that Vladas had to serve an additional 6 days only – 6 days because ‘one month’ meant a ‘calendar month’. And the ‘hard labour’ could be anything from quarry work or road-building, to workshop and farm labour under strict supervision.

Vladas faces court

Source:  Whyalla News

Fortunately for his citizenship application, a wise public servant wrote on it, “In view of the time which has elapsed since the above conviction in July ’50 and the fact that he has not come under further adverse notice, recommended that application be listed for approval”.

Vladas was one of the older men on the First Transport, having his 33rd birthday 2 days after it sailed from Bremerhaven. He was born in the small village of Širvydiškis, in the region of Utena. At the time of his birth on 1 November 1914, the village had a population count of only around 30.

He had two or three years of high school – sources differ -- which was more than average for a country resident. He spent five years in the Lithuanian Army, from 1935 until the Soviet invasion in 1940. In the Army, he had been a driver for three years.

The return of Soviet forces in 1944 saw him leave his homeland, making his way to Germany, where he arrived in October. There he found his way to a Displaced Persons camp in Hannover-Buchholz. He had been working as a driver for two and a half years until it was time to leave for Australia. The Australian medical team after carrying out their pre-migration tests, declared him fit and healthy.

After Radium Hill, Vladas moved to Perth where he became as steelworker. He participated in the Perth Lithuanian community. He never married.

On 16 November 1970, he returned from work in high spirits, had dinner, sat down and smoked a cigarette. He had a medical episode and fell from the chair. Suddenly falling off his chair is likely to have been caused by some sort of circulatory issue, like a heart attack or a stroke.

He was taken to hospital and operated on, but his health did not improve, and he passed away on 6 December.

Members of the Perth Lithuanian community were present at his funeral service led by Father Laurynas Kemėšis. Words on behalf of the community and the ex-servicemen’s group, Ramovė, were said by Andrius Klimaitis. Vladas is buried in Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.

Vladas Dailyde's photograph from his obituary

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė 

A notice under the Trustees Act in the West Australian Government Gazette of 12 March 1971 confirms Vladas’ date of death as 6 December 1970, advises that he was a steelworker and his last address was in Marchamley Street, Carlisle, and states that 26 April is the last date on which claims against his estate might be lodged. The remainder of his modest savings were left to his sister in Lithuania.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1950) 'Port August Circuit, Before Mr Justice Abbott, Remanded on Assault Charge, Adelaide, 19 July, p 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44915098, accessed 13 November 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1954) ‘Aukos Lietuvybes islaikimo reikalams’ (‘Donations for the preservation of Lithuania’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 17 May, p 8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280316071, accessed 11 November 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1954) ‘Lietuviai Australijoj’ (‘Lithuanians in Australia’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 8 March, p 8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280313491, accessed 11 November 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Vladas Dailyde’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213720453/vladas-dailyde, accessed 13 November 2025.

Government Gazette of Western Australia (1971) ‘Trustees Act, 1962, Notice to Creditors and Claimants’ Perth, 12 March, p 764 https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/gazettes1971.html, accessed 13 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė ( Our Haven) (1950) 'Mūsų Pastogēs prenumeratoriai' ('Mūsų Pastogē subscribers’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 5 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259361880, accessed 11 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1970) ‘A A Vladas Dailyde’ (‘In memoriam, Vladas Dailyde) Sydney, 21 December, p 2, https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1970/1970-12-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 11 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-2001; 1956/10716, DAILYDE Vladas, 1955-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12147622, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; DAILIDE (Sic) VLADAS,  DAILIDE, Vladas : Year of Birth - 1914 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 462A2571, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203657752, accessed 13 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, 1947–1947; 62, DAILYDE Vladas DOB 1 November 1914, 1947–1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005498, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42) 1937-1948; 37/116, DAILYDE Vladas born 1 November 1914; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL STUART HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 29 November 1947, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7249185, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-1965; DAILYDE V, DAILYDE Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4074152, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; DAILYDE VLADAS, DAILYDE Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, accessed 13 November 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 11 November 2025.

Vasario 16-osios gimnazija (February 16 Senior High School, in Lithuanian) https://www.gimnazija.de/, accessed 12 November 2025.

Whyalla News (1950), ‘New Australian Charged with Assault’, Whyalla, SA, 21 July, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197619822, accessed 13 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Radium Hill’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Hill, accessed 12 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Sirvydiskis’ https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirvydi%C5%A1kis, accessed 11 November 2025.

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.

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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.