Povilas Deimantas (1917-2009): A Peterborough Balt, by John Mannion

Born in Lithuania, Povilas Deimantas was already 30 years old when he boarded the General Stuart Heintzelman for the longest trip of his lifetime, from Germany to Australia. 

Povilas (Paul) Deimantas in 1947,
ID photo from his Bonegilla card
Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was a subject of the newspaper reports I told you about in my first blog entry.

He recalls that after several weeks at the Bangham camp, 18 were selected to transfer in the South Australian Railways (SAR) system to Peterborough, midway between Adelaide and Broken Hill. He had no bloody idea where Peterborough was! 

Those selected had a good grasp of the English language and were largely self-motivated with the prospect of becoming engine drivers in 'loco' or as station staff in 'traffic'. Paul explained to me that these were the fortunate ones and that he planned to become ‘a big man’ in the railways! 

Back to the Balts: when Deimantas disembarked from the Heintzelman at Fremantle in November 1947, his first impression of Australia was one of disappointment — it was so ugly! The first things he noticed were the dry yellow grass and the dead trees — nothing like Lithuania (which was green and densely forested) — the public drinking and the Italian migrants. 

He didn't find Bonegilla in north-east Victoria much better — he disliked the intense summer heat as well as peeling potatoes, which he had to do in the camp for two weeks. 

At Bangham on the Wolseley to Mount Gambier railway line, the 62 workers slept in tents and water was in short supply.  At Peterborough, the men first lived in tents and later Nissen huts and other 'prefab' buildings which were relocated from Loveday Internment [WWII] Camp in the Riverland. 

Then a migrant hostel was built on Telford Avenue adjacent the railway workshops and ‘loco’.  Initially designed to house only single men, in the 1950s with the influx of German and Polish migrants, families were admitted.  Up to 200 people at as time lived at there.  The hostel operated on and off  from 1948 until 1972. 

Peterborough migrant hostel in 1952, in its quiet location next to the railway yards;
the still-standing Nissen hut is on the left of the buildings

Source:  John Mannion collection

In 1975 the hostel was demolished and removed by tender. Very little is known of who bought it and where the buildings went. Now the only remaining building left on the site is a Nissen hut that served as a recreation room. 

Despite only staying at Peterborough for four years, Povilas and his colleagues are still remembered by many in Peterborough for their manners, behaviour and appearance, particularly by the young girls of the 1950s. By now, Povilas would have been using the English fom of his name, Paul. 

Paul Deimantas (centre) and friends
at the Peterborough Town Hall about 1949

Source:  John Mannion Collection

Although there was general acceptance, life was often difficult for these and other new Australians at Peterborough or other locations within the Peterborough Division of the SAR. At times they had to put up with some racial discrimination, the most common being called a 'Bloody Balt' or told to 'Speak English you bastard'. 

However, it is surprising that despite the influx of over 300 European migrants into a country town where Australians had heard virtually no foreign languages on their streets, there was little prejudice. This is attributed to the fact that Peterborough was a working class town with a very transient population. 

There was some fear of these 'strangers’ however, particularly among the youngsters. A 15-year-old girl who moved from Marree to Peterborough for schooling and lived with her grandparents in 1950 recalls that although she had been exposed to Afghans and Aborigines, she did not know what to make of the 'Balts' with their long pushed-back hair. She would not go near them, convinced they ‘would take me away’. 

Another girl who grew up at Peterborough during the ‘Balt’ era relates how they would not even leave the pegs on the line in case the ‘Balts’ stole them. 

It has been said that friendships were difficult to establish at Peterborough, as ‘you didn't know where your mate might be next week’. This did not detract from some firm friendships however, with quite a few long-term railway families staying in the town. 

Paul relates a story about the time at Bangham when the ganger phoned the railway storeman at Mt Gambier for a bag of fish-plate bolts to be sent up, only to be told ‘You've already got 60 bloody Balts up there, isn't that enough?’ 

Learning English was not always easy: from whom were they supposed to learn English? Was it the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, the English or Australians? The other difficulty in learning English was that they were often put to work in track maintenance gangs with a number of their own countrymen, thus making it easier to communicate with each other, but not the ganger in charge. 

However, those who wanted to ‘get on' watched, listened, asked questions, carried notebooks and learned. Paul was curious as to what a ‘water bag’ was — he had heard of a water tank and water bottle, but could not picture a ‘bag of water’. 

A canvas water bag from about 1950,
Collection of the Kiewa Valley Historical Society

Source:  Victorian Collections

A young migrant railway worker heads for the Peterborough hostel with
 a) a tucker box at the left and b) a water bag on the right

Source:  Harry Piers/John Mannion collection

The other thing was the dust. Paul felt that it took him five years to get used to the heat, dust and flies. 

After shifting to Mile End in 1952, Paul met and married his Australian-born wife June. He clearly was more than acceptable to at least one Australian now.

Paul died on 13 November 2009, at the respectable age of 92, having been born on 6 October 1917.  June, having been born in Adelaide on 25 November 1931, died on 29 July 2018, also at a respectable age, 86.  They have been buried together in the Dudley Park Cemetery, Adelaide.

SOURCES

Dudley Park Cemetery Search Records, https://search.dudleyparkcemetery.com.au/ accessed 17 March 2024.

National Archives of Australia,National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947–1956; DREIMANTAS [sic], Povilas : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 911, 1947–1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203662951

Victorian Collections, From the Collection of the Kiewa Valley Historical Society, Bag Canvas Water Circa 1950, https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/507df2be2162ef014495f50f 

Jonas Švitra (1925-1980): The will of the people, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

A policeman and four State accommodation officials evicted an unemployed family from a hut in the Camp Pell housing area in October 1952.  The family was Jonas Švitra, his Australian wife Mabel, who had four children aged from seven years to four months (Herald, 1952a).

Jonas was born in Lastijei, Lithuania, on 21 August 1925.  After leaving his homeland in 1944, probably under compulsion from the German Army, he eventually lived in the Mattenberg Displaced Persons camp, in Oberzwehren, a suburb of the city of Kassel (Arolsen Archives nd).

'Jonas Mekas Overlooking Kassel/Mattenberg DP Camp in 1948',
a photograph by his brother, Adolfas Mekas.
The photograph was part of an exhibition of current art trends, documenta 14, in 2017,
held every 5 years in the city of Kassel.

Source:  'I had nowhere to go' by Jonas Mekas

Jonas Švitra was 22 when he arrived in Australia on the First Transport ship, General Stuart Heintzelman, in November 1947 (NAA: PP482/1, 82).  He made the perfect migrant, single, healthy, with blue eyes and fair hair.  He was 6 foot tall, or maybe only 5 foot 8 inches, depending on who was noting down the details (1.72 to 1.83 cm) (NAA: A2571, SVITRA JONAS; NAA: A11772, 663; NAA: A12508, 37/571; NAA: B78, LITHUANIAN/SVITRA JONAS).

The records in Australia’s National Archives show that Jonas was selected as a “heavy farmer”.  He had only 4 years of primary education, which was obvious when he tried to fill out one of the German forms now in the Arolsen Archives (1946).  That was no problem when it came to farming, so his first assignment in Australia was to the Commonwealth Government’s Flax Production Committee in Melbourne.

Jonas Švitra's ID photograph,
as used on at least two of his migration documents

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Despite his farming experience, it looks like Jonas was put to work as a labourer in a mill processing flax at Lake Bolac, near Ballarat.  That certainly was where he and his Australian partner were working until a couple of months before their Melbourne eviction hit the news.

Worried by the health of Mabel’s seven-year-old daughter, who has been in a Brighton convalescent home, they moved to Melbourne.  At first, they stayed with Mabel’s relatives while they searched for accommodation.  The shortage of places to live in Melbourne was then so severe that they finished up in an empty hut in the Camp Pell housing area (Herald 1952a).

Camp Pell had started in early 1942 as a US Army transit camp called Camp Royal Park after its location just north of the Melbourne Central Business District.  Its name was changed to Camp Pell after Major Floyd Pell, a member of General Douglas Macarthur’s staff.  He had been the first US Army Air Corps member to come to Australia, checking out the suitability of the Darwin area for B-17 bombers.  He had been killed during a Japanese air raid on Darwin in February 1942 (Dunn 2020).

By 1946, Camp Pell had become home to around 3,000 people experiencing the post-war housing shortage.  Many of these families needed temporary accommodation, having been directly affected by 'slum’ reclamation policies.  It was one of at least 4 similar camps in inner Melbourne but the most notorious, with some newspapers nicknaming it 'Camp Hell' (Commonwealth of Australia 2019).

Jonas and Mabel moved into an empty hut, empty because it was condemned, with two of their children.  Mabel was working with a dressmaking firm but Jonas had been unable to get work for some time.  He was registered with the Commonwealth Employment Service but could not keep in close contact because he had to stay home and mind the baby he had fathered with Mabel.

They moved into the hut on a Friday.  On the following Monday, a police constable arrived with four men from the State Accommodation Office, wanting Jonas to open the door.  Jonas said he would wait until his wife returned.  The door was then broken down and their belongings put out on the ground between the rows of huts.

Mabel said their relatives could not take them back and she did not know where the children would sleep that night.  The State Accommodation officer said they were trespassing.  Mabel said she had asked him earlier for help but he had refused.  The Accommodation official said that he could not remember this (Herald 1952a).

The evicted Svitra family

Source:  The Herald, 13 October 1952

That night they took shelter in another empty hut, staying for two days.  Then the authorised tenant arrived, and caretakers supervised removal of the family’s belongings to the ground between huts again.

The couple made their home next in a communal laundry at the Camp for several nights before friends found a space for them.  Other friends cared for the children (Herald 1952b).

Thanks to the intervention of a Member of the State Parliament, who read about the family in the Melbourne Herald, they were found a home in Ararat.  Their savings were down to £10 only, not enough money to get there.  Then Jonas gratefully accepted 10 shillings which had been sent to the Herald for him by an anonymous sympathiser.  The Herald was the newspaper which had run with the story from its start.

A third reader, a City businessman, paid the fares for the whole family to travel to Ararat.  He then took up a collection in the office building where he had his business, to pay for transporting the family's luggage.  “I just thought I would like to help them”, Mr K Glynn told the Herald.  The newspaper assured its readers that Jonas Svitra would be able to get a job in Ararat, despite his doubts on this score (Herald 1952c).

During this time, the Herald published two letters from readers shocked by the family’s story.   “It’s a scandalous way to treat a family with a sick child”, said Mona B Robinson from Deepdene (Robinson 1952).  “Whatever Government is elected, citizens have a right to demand that it solve the housing problem”, wrote Mrs Dorothy Irwin from Parkville (Irwin 1952).

On 4 November, the Herald printed a “Thank You” statement from Jonas and Mabel.  We want to thank the people of Camp Pell who stood by us in our need; The Herald for its reports about us; Mr Barry, MLA, for finding an emergency hut for us in Ararat: the people who broadcast our story, and the people who read about us, offered to carry our furniture to our new hut, and gave us money to reach our destination.  Our experience has shown us that the unkindness of governments is not the will of the people (Švitra 1952).

Jonas and Mabel probably were the type of people who would have been able to make ends meet easily in a fair society, judging from advertisements in the Dandenong Journal (July 1952).  This presumably was while they were living with Mabel’s relatives.  Jonas was advertising his shoe repair skills while Mabel offered to take orders for hand knitting to any pattern.  Both of them gave their address as care of Mr A Hill of Noble Park, a Melbourne suburb within the Dandenong area.  It also probably was closer to the convalescent daughter than Camp Pell in Royal Park.

Hill was Mabel’s maiden name, as shown on the certification of her marriage to Jonas on 4 October 1955.  Maybe Mr A Hill of Noble Park was a brother.

Their marriage took place after the divorce from her previous husband had come through in August 1953.  It was a civil marriage in the Melbourne city office of the Government Statist.  Their address was 5 Neylan Street, Ararat, so they had moved from their initial McGibbney Street residence.

Of interest is the occupations ascribed to both on the marriage certificate.  Mabel had become a Mental Nurse, while Jonas was described as a Mental Attendant (Victoria, 1955).

Jonas acquired Australian citizenship on 23 September 1957, when he was still at 5 Neylan Street, Ararat (Commonwealth of Australia 1957).

What happened to the family over the next 23 years is not on the public record.  The next available record is a death certificate for Jonas, who died on 31 August 1980, in Drummond Street, Carlton, an inner Melbourne suburb with lots of low-cost housing for students of the nearby Melbourne University.

It is clear that Jonas had become an almost anonymous individual, as his name is the only known detail of his life on the death certificate.  It records no birth details, no period of residence in Australia, no marriage, no children, no parents.  Even the stab at his age, 62 years, was an underestimate by 3 years (Victoria 1980).

What is at least as sad is the manner of his death: “Asphyxia due to aspiration of stomach contents”.  We are no doctors, but Ann has come across this previously in another First Transporter who lived and worked in a hotel and who had spent all of his final Sunday morning drinking.  Various articles on the Web, for instance, Novomeský et al (2018) and Vadysinghe et al (2022), confirm that this is a rare form of death in a previously healthy individual. It is more common in those who have been consuming alcohol or sedatives.  An autopsy found coronary sclerosis also: plaque on the inner walls of the heart arteries.  The coroner ordered the burial of Jonas’ body without an inquest, a legal inquiry into the cause of death (Victoria 1980).

More than 3 weeks later, he was buried in a public grave in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery.  He was back to his temporary 1952 refuge of Dandenong City.

From the age of 15 years onward, Jonas’ life was one of war and turmoil with temporary moments of calm.  May he now rest in eternal peace.

References

Arolsen Archives (nd) 3 Registrations and Files of Displaced Persons, Children and Missing Persons / 3.1 Evidence of Abode and Emigration / 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps / Folder 170:  Kassel-Oberzwehren, DocID 81997634, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81997634, accessed 27 August 2023. 

Arolsen Archives (1946) 3 Registrations and Files of Displaced Persons, Children and Missing Persons / 3.2 Relief Programs of Various Organizations / 3.2.1 IRO “Care and Maintenance” Program, Personal file of SVITRA, JONAS, born on 21-Aug-1925, born in LIETUVA, DocID 79803711 – 79803712 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79803711 and https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79803712 accessed 10 September 2023.

Commonwealth of Australia (1957) ' Certificates of Naturalization' Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National) 3 October p 2958 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232986660 accessed 10 September 2023.

Commonwealth of Australia (2019) 'Victoria – Place, Camp Pell (1946 - 1956)', Find & Connect, https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000676 accessed 10 September 2023.

Dandenong Journal (1952) 'Advertising' 23 July p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222360507 accessed 10 September 2023.

Dunn P (2020) 'Camp Pell, Melbourne, Formerly Camp Royal Park, During WW2' https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/camppell.htm accessed 10 September 2023.

Irwin D (1952) 'Homeless' The Herald 25 October p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245289176 accessed 10 September 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series (1926–52); 82, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers (1947 – 52) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 10 September 2023..

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947–56); SVITRA, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1925 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 1037 (1947–56) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693580 accessed 10 September 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 (1947–47); 663, SVITRA Jonas DOB 21 August 1925 (1947–47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118086 accessed 10 September 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42) (1937–48); 37/571, SVITRA Jonas born 21 August 1925; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947 (1947–47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7235050 accessed 10 September 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents (1948–65); LITHUANIAN/SVITRA JONAS: SVITRA Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General S Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1939–72) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30126217 accessed 10 September 2023.

F Novomeský, M Janík, ST Hájek, F Krajčovič, and L Straka (2018) 'Vomiting and aspiration of gastric contents: a possible life-threatening combination in underwater diving' Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine 48(1): 36–39 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6467823/accessed 10 September 2023.

Robinson MB (1952) 'Camp Pell Eviction' The Herald, 15 October p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245276695 accessed 10 September 2023.

Švitra J and M (1952) '"Thank You"' The Herald 4 November p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245286315 accessed 10 September 2023.

The Herald (1952a)  ‘State Evicts Jobless Migrant’, Melbourne, 13 October p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245298488 accessed 10 September 2023.

The Herald (1952b)  ‘Evicted Family Split-Up: Parents in Laundry' Melbourne, 21 October p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245284573 accessed 10 September 2023.

The Herald (1952c)  ‘Got help for evicted family' Melbourne, 28 October p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245279084 accessed 10 September 2023.

Vadysinghe AN, 

Nayakarathne TB,

 Banda I and

 Perera RAEI (2022) '

Choking together with aspiration of gastric contents: rare form of maternal death' Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences 12 Article number 58 https://ejfs.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41935-022-00318-x accessed 10 September 2023.

Victoria, State of (1955) 'Certificate of Marriage' Jonas Svitra and Mabel Carmen Hill 1236/55.

Victoria, State of (1980) 'Deaths in the State of Victoria' Jonas Svitra 31 August 1980 22400/80.

Margarita Vrubliauskienė (1911 - ?): Canberra goes on strike over Balt housemaid, by Daina Počius and Ann Tündern-Smith

‘When attractive Balt housemaid Margarita Vrubliauskiene waved a mop at the manageress of the hostel where she is employed, it nearly plunged Canberra into a major upset’.

So began one of many newspaper stories about an altercation which almost brought Canberra to a standstill. Over a three-day period in August 1949, newspapers from Innisfail in North Queensland south to Hobart in Tasmania, through Melbourne and Adelaide to Perth and Geraldton in Western Australia reported the situation. Grafton, Lismore, Wagga Wagga, Broken Hill, and Narrabri worried as Canberra negotiated.

The housemaid was Margarita Sadauskaitė-Vrubliauskienė. She was born in 1911 in St Petersburg. She arrived in Australia aged 36 on the First Transport ship, the General Stuart Heintzelman, on 28 November 1947. She was sent to work at the Mulwala Hostel in Canberra on 22 December. The hostel was run by the Department of the Interior for up to 240 public servants in Canberra.

Margarita Vrubliauskiene's photo from her Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

When Margarita was ill in bed, she had refused a request from the new management for her to work. This had led to what the Secretary of the Canberra Branch of the Liquor and Allied Trades Employees' Union called “pin-pricking”. Margarita had interpreted something said as a threat to return her to Germany and understandably became hysterical.

On 10 August, she was given 48 hours’ notice of dismissal for alleged insolence and insubordination. Fifty colleagues walked off the job in support of her. The Department of the Interior sent some staff to help but they could not cope, leaving 202 Mulwala residents to prepare their own dinners and breakfasts.

Margarita had worked at Mulwala for nearly two years with no fault found in her work. The local Conciliation Commissioner said that she could stay at Mulwala until another job was found for her but refused to order her reinstatement. Hearing this decision, the 40 employees of Mulwala Hostel who had walked out stayed out. They were on strike! As the strike continued, the residents had to make their own beds and clean up after themselves …

The Commissioner stated that he thought it was in Margarita’s own best interests that another place of work be found for her. He would not reinstate her because, if he did, “Mulwala might as well be handed over to the staff to run it themselves”. Revolutionary thought!

The strikers comprised 23 Balts and 17 Australians. The Balt strikers probably included Viktoria Berdagans who had been sent from Bonegilla to the Hostel together with Margarita. As well, we know from their Bonegilla cards that Ramona Biemelis and Jevgenija Zagorska had arrived to work there soon after. The 202 residents included 13 First Transport women who had been sent to Canberra to work as typists: Irina Fridenbergs, Elvira Kärmik, Heldi Kull, Valeska Lans, Veronika Ludzitis, Lucia Maksim, Vally Meschin, Aino Meere and her sister Maimu Naar, Elin Põldre, Reina Roosvald, Natasha Shersunova and Juta Usin. This headcount from the Bonegilla card records does conflict with statements elsewhere that 10 of the women in Canberra were working as typists.

On the following day, the strikers decided to join Margarita’s case with that of another migrant employee alleged to have received unsatisfactory treatment. Unless both issues were settled, and the manager with his wife removed from Mulwala within 24 hours, the Mulwala staff would seek the support of the staff of 15 other hostels in Canberra, and 5 hotels. Such a general strike would affect around three thousand residents of these establishments.

What was more, a number of newspapers noted, State Premiers, the Federal Cabinet and members of the Liberal Party, all of whom were due to meet in Canberra the following week, would be preparing their own meals. As the Hobart Mercury headlined on 12 August, ‘Tin-openers may be in demand’.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior, responsible for the hostels, asked the Conciliation Commissioner to order the Mulwala strikers back to work. He refused to do this. However, he told the Union that he would not hear an application to vary the award governing its members’ pay and conditions unless they returned to work on 12 August. The hearing for the award variations had been due to start on 15 August, but the Commissioner proposed not starting for another 3 months.

The Union Secretary told the Commissioner that he had advised the staff against striking but they had been reluctant to return to work. They had asked that their problems be discussed with the Union’s executive. The Secretary advised that the general strike would not be started until NSW State executive had considered the situation.

However, the threat of not hearing the case for the award variations worked. On Friday night, 12 August, the strikers decided to return to work on Saturday morning and abide by the decisions of a special meeting of Union members on Sunday. A deputation of staff from Mulwala and another hostel with some issues, Gorman House, headed by the Union Secretary, had called on the head of the Department of the Interior. He had promised to investigate their complaints if they returned to work. The strikers were concerned that if they stayed out, they would prejudice the claims of their fellow members to early consideration of improved conditions.

The Sunday night meeting of 150 Union members decided unanimously that the Mulwala staff should remain at work and abide by conciliation. This was on the basis that the head of the Department of the Interior would make full in inquiries into the actions of the manager and his wife while at both Gorman House and Mulwala House. The strike was over.

The husband and wife management stayed on. We know that Margarita would have been found a new workplace but do not know where it was. As other women from the First Transport were working at 6 of the 15 hostels, there was plenty of choice. We do know that, later on, she was the manager of the Astor Motel in Albury but had remarried a Pole and so changed her family name. The Astor Motel, by the way, recently has been renovated in such a retro style as to earn a report in the New York Times.

As for the hysteria on misunderstanding that she would be sent back to Germany, Margarita has gone out of her way to ensure that she was on the first ship of displaced persons to Australia. She must have heard that all of its passengers were supposed to be single. She had separated from her husband so that she could claim to be single when interviewed, even though anyone with a knowledge of Lithuanians could tell from her surname ending that it belonged to a married woman. She had placed her daughter (actually, her adopted niece) in a German hospital run by nuns. Clearly, she was very keen to get out of Germany, maybe – like many others – keen to get as far away as possible from Europe and war.

Lioginas, her husband, reached Australia on the Svalbard transport on 29 June 1948. He had been a judge in Lithuania but was sent to the Department of Works in Canberra, perhaps so that he could be near his wife. Her daughter, Henrika, was 18 when she arrived on the 12 February 1948 on the Second Transport, the General Stewart. She was employed at Mulwala Hostel with her stepmother. In September 1948, she married a General Heintzelman passenger, Alfredas Kuljurgies, in Canberra.

Henrika painted landscapes from the area surrounding her home on the road from Wodonga to the Bonegilla camp. One painting is held in a public collection, at the Murray Art Museum, Albury. She died in October 2010. She is remembered by the Henrika Kuljurgies Reserve, on a creek which runs through the new Killara village built across the Murray Valley Highway from where she used to live and into the Kiewa River.

Lioginas, Leo in Australia, died in 1984 in Canberra. If we had Margarita’s later married name, we could tell you more about her life too.

Lionginas Vrubliauskas is on the right of this Canberra photo,
a First Transporter, Birute Gruzas, is in the middle and
a gentleman remembered only by the family name Ceposz is on the left.

Source:  Collection of Birute Gruzas

Note:  We have used the 'Balt' descriptor in this article because this is the word that nearly all the newspaper reporters used.  As a noun to describe a native or inhabitant of the 3 Baltic states, it has been around since at least the late 18th century.  It was quickly applied to the Displaced Persons who arrived on the First Transport, since all of them were from the Baltic states.  The Second Transport, however, brought a greater variety of nationalities, mostly from the Baltic States and Yugoslavia but including 11 Poles, 4 Ukrainians and 2 from Czechoslovakia.  From then on, the variety of source countries grew to include all which now had Communist governments.  'Balt' was becoming inaccurate.

In August 1949, Arthur Calwell, who was Minister for Information as well as Australia's first Minister for Immigration, begged the press to use the term 'New Australian' instead of 'Balt, DP or Displaced Persons'.  However, his request was issued on exactly the day that our strikers walked off the job, so the message had not reached the journalists whose reports we have used.

References

Archives ACT, ‘Find of the month, February 2019, Mulwala House, https://www.archives.act.gov.au/find_of_the_month/2019/february/previous-find-of-the-month-22019, accessed 4 July 2023.

Australian National University Archives, ‘Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia’, https://archivescollection.anu.edu.au/index.php/federated-liquor-and-allied-industries-employees-union-of-australia, accessed 3 July 2023.

Holden, Katrina, ‘The Return Of The Great Australian Motel, with Wi-Fi and a Day Spa’, New York Times Style Magazine: Australia, 23 March 2021, https://taustralia.com.au/the-return-of-the-great-australian-motel-with-wi-fi-and-a-day-spa/#, accessed 4 July 2023.

‘Margarita Vrubliauskiene’, AEF DP Registration Record, Arolsen Archives DocID 69771010, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69771010, accessed 5 July 2023.

Mercury (Hobart), 'Tin-openers may be in demand', 12 August 1949, p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/26635831, accessed 4 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; KULJURGIS NEE VRUBLIAUSKAITE, Henrika : Year of Birth - 1929 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL STEWART : Number - W 1974, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203635339, accessed 5 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; VRUBLIAUSKAS, Lionginas : Year of Birth - 1906 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - SVALBARD : Number - V 11912, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203714270, accessed 5 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; VRUBLIAUSKIENE, Margarita : Year of Birth - [UNKNOWN] : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1190; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203714271, accessed 5 July 2023.

 

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The Canberra Times, 'Mulwala Hostel Staff to Accept Arbitration', 15 August 1949, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2818666/692528, accessed 4 July 2023.

The Canberra Times, 'No award while Mulwala staff is on strike', 12 August 1949, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2818296, accessed 4 July 2023.

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The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), 'Hostel strike over Balt girl', 11 August 1949, p 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248978113, accessed 4 July 2023.

 

The Sunday Times (Perth), ‘Waved mop and started a dust-up’, 14 August 1949, p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59493257, accessed 5 July 2023.

The Sydney Morning Herald, '25 D.P.s on strike in Canberra', 11 August 1949, p 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18125036, accessed 4 July 2023.

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Wikipedia, ‘Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_Liquor_and_Allied_Industries_Employees%27_Union_of_Australia, accessed 3 July 2023.

Karolis Prašmutas (1914–1985): Ingenious and Compassionate, by Ann Tündern-Smith with Birute Prasmutaite

Karolis Prašmutas had moments of fame among English-language readers only two years after arriving in Australia. He had built a photographic enlarger out of bits and pieces and sent an enlarged print of himself standing with it to the Department of Immigration. The print was used in a Departmental publication, Tomorrow’s Australians, in December 1949. You can read the text below the photograph.

With the headline changed to, He Made This Gadget Himself, and slightly altered text, the photograph also appeared in the January 1950 edition of another Departmental publication, The New Australian.

The Melbourne Age newspaper decided that the story was too good to pass, so ran its own version on 11 January 1950 in a column called News of the Day. The Age wrote, without including a photograph, ‘A flair for improvisation has enable Mr. K. Prasmutas, a Lithuanian migrant now employed by the State Electricity Commission at Yallourn, to overcome an obstacle which was hampering his hobby of amateur photography.

‘Mr. Prasmutas needed a photographic enlarger but could not obtain one anywhere. He decided to build one himself, and after fossicking around the scrap heaps near his quarters he found enough material for the job.

‘The amazing variety of bits and pieces he collected included a piece from the tailshaft and the headlight from an old car, two piston oil rings, a piece of water piper, two powdered milk tins, one jam tin, two pieces of glass and a 100-watt globe.

‘To prove that it worked successfully, Mr. Prasmutas enlarged a photograph of himself on his homemade machine and sent it to the Department of Immigration, which published the photograph in the recent issue of its bulletin, The New Australian.’

The fourth publication to carry the story of the homemade enlarger was house magazine of Karolis Prasmutas’ employer, the State Electricity Commission (SEC). It headed its April-May 1950 report, Ingenuity, and started, ‘Making a photographic enlarger “off the land”, as it were, presented no obstacles to Mr. K. Prasmutas, a Commission employee at Yallourn and formerly from Lithuania. From the various scrap heaps nearby he obtained a miscellaneous collection of items and, exercising his ingenuity, built the enlarger pictured (below)’.

The next two paragraphs are more or less the same as those in the Age, but the magazine used a different photograph. Perhaps it was even taken by its own photographer given that Prašmutas has suited up for the occasion.

The enlarger with Karolis Prasmutas from the SEC's magazine

I have been told that plans for building a photographic enlarger from scrap were circulating in Displaced Persons camps in Germany after World War II. Regardless of whether or not Karolis kept one of these plans or even was influenced by one, the important point is that he actioned the idea. He built an enlarger from Australian scrap and proved that it could work.

The same issue of the New Australian which carried the report of Karolis’ homemade enlarger published a paragraph from a letter he had written to it. The sheer volume of letters being received prevented the publication of anything more than this: ‘I think that all newcomers who will not think about the new country differences, but will do more to overcome difficulties, will be happy in Australia’.

That appears to have been the extent of his coverage in the English-language press, but Karolis Prašmutas has much more to say in his native Lithuanian. The Australian Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven, Our Refuge) has been digitised in the National Library’s Trove collection until the end of 1956 only, but Prašmutas had at least one entry each year.

Sometimes it was just the inclusion of his name in a list of donors to a worthy cause. On other occasions, he wrote his thoughts at some length. It is clear from these that he was a major supporter of the idea of a Lithuanian House in Melbourne, with appeals for its funding.

The Lithuanian House still operates in North Melbourne. I remember well lunching there more than 10, maybe 15 years ago, with Karolis’ widow and their 2 daughters — without realising how instrumental Karolis had been in the creation of these spacious premises. I also have attended a conference there, the Lithuanian House being roomy enough to accommodate such activities.

The entrance to Lithuanian House in North Melbourne

Source:  https://www.lithuanianclub.com/

Karolis also appealed for funds for compatriots still in Germany. In both of these types of articles, he would raise some of the objections put to him by other Lithuanians, and dismiss them. In one he wrote, in Lithuanian of course, ‘ … maybe tomorrow, maybe a year from now, you will be in need of comfort and support. The saying is correct: "You give to your neighbour — you give to yourself."’

On the occasion of his 50th birthday in early 1964, Mūsų Pastogė published a glowing tribute.

Karolis married a fellow Lithuanian, Morta Stakaityte, on 20 September 1952.  They had 2 daughters, Zita and Birute, and one son, Linas. 

Morta and Karolis on their wedding day ...

Source:  Prašmutas family collection

... and in later life, 1984

Source:  Prašmutas family collection

Karolis died from heart disease on 14 September 1985, at the age of 71, having been born on 19 January 1914 in the Lithuanian village of Bernotai. Morta died in May 2014, surviving her husband’s death by more than 28 years. Morta was 10 years younger than her husband and a respectable 89 years old at the time of her death. They are buried together with Morta’s mother in Fawkner Memorial Park, Melbourne. They had been granted Australian citizenship together in 1964.

Karolis’ selection papers for migration to Australia indicate that he had spent all of World War II in Germany as a prisoner of war, having joined the Poles in fighting against the German invasion of September 1939. His Personal Statement and Declaration, given at the Graylands military camp in Perth, Western Australia, the day after he arrived at the end of November 1947, indicates that he had trained in the Polish Army. 

His life in Germany as a prisoner of war must have been a hard one indeed.  No wonder he was declared only borderline fit by the Australian medical officer who examined him after his interview.

He had been working as a car mechanic in Germany for 13 months before presenting to the Australian selection team in September 1947.  He had also worked as a car mechanic in Lithuania for 2 years, presumably before World War II erupted in neighbouring Poland.

Josef Šeštokas in his Welcome to Little Europe book on the Displaced Persons sent to work in Yallourn in the Latrobe Valley, records that fellow refugees living in the same camp as Prašmutas regarded him as more dignified than the average and gave him the Lithuanian nickname, Baronas, meaning Baron. The photograph on his Bonegilla card supports that assessment.

Karolis Prašmutas' Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

His death certificate gives his occupation as a ‘fitter’, a person who puts together, adjusts, or installs machinery or equipment. No wonder he was able to put those disparate metal parts together into a photographic enlarger!

His skills, reinforced by that publicity, must have impressed his employer, the SEC, even before it sent its photographer to record them for the house magazine.  No doubt to their mutual satisfaction, the SEC ensured that Karolis had work which used those skills, so he stayed with that one employer for the rest of his working life.

Prašmutas family headstone, Fawkner Memorial Park, Melbourne

Source:  Ron M on FindaGrave.com

His two daughters have gone on to make significant contributions to Australia’s Lithuanian and broader communities too. The older daughter, Zita, is a musician who was the organist for the choir of Melbourne’s Lithuanian parish between 1970 and 1995. The parish uses the church of St Mary Star of the Sea in West Melbourne, not far from Lithuanian House. Since 1995 she has been the artistic director and conductor of this choir.

In 1975 she became the concertmaster of Melbourne’s Dainos Sambūris (Song Collection) choir. She was the concertmaster of the United Australian Lithuanian Choir at the First World Lithuanian Song Festival in Vilnius and Kaunas in 1994, and main accompanist at the Australian Lithuanian Song Festivals in 1984, 1990 and 1996.

During the period 1984 to 1987, Zita was concertmaster and a singer in a vocal-instrumental ensemble called Svajonės or Dreams. They performed in many Australian cities, and in the US and Canada in 1986 In the USA and Canada. They released a record in 1985.

She was the concertmaster and a singer in another vocal-instrumental ensemble called Svajonių Aidai or Echoes of Dreams in 1988-1989. They performed in Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney, as well as in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and São Paulo in Argentina and Brazil, many cities in the USA and Canada, in France, Germany, Poland and in Vilnius and Kaunas in Lithuania. in 1988 they released a self-titled record album.

Next in age, Birute starting learning the piano at age 7 and has studied at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music. She started conducting the Melbourne Choir, Dainos Sambūrio or Song Collection in 1978, having joined in 1974. She has been the organiser, musical director and a conductor in 10 Australian Lithuanian song festivals. Her choral activities have taken her to Lithuania. She has been a member of the board of the Australian Lithuanian Community Association Ltd, its president, and a leader of youth and scouting activities.

In 1975 the Prašmutas sisters organized a female octet, later a sextet, Dainava or Singing, which performed contemporary Lithuanian compositions as well as traditional folk songs. They gave concerts around Victoria as well as in Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart.

Zita has a Bachelor of Science degree, plus a postgraduate diploma in computer science. Birute too has a Bachelor of Science degree, specialising in mathematics and psychology.

Their younger brother, Linas, spent his working life with computers too, as an operator for a bank. He also has had a lifetime in scouting. He is the former head of the Vyciai, a unit for Lithuanian Scouts from 18 years old, and is the current Melbourne president of the Skautininkai senior scouts. His sister Zita is the current head of supply for the Lithuanian scouts in Australia.

The Prašmutas family, Zita, Karolis, Morta, Linas and Birute
in front of their East Malvern home in 1976

The Prašmutas siblings in 1975 as part of a team which organised the Third World Congress of Lithuanian Youth in Melbourne.  Birutė is on the far left, Linas is third from the left
and Zita is to the right of her brother.

Source:  Appendix to the Drauga international Lithuanian newspaper, 19 July 1975

Karolis Prasmutas would have been proud of what his children were achieving, and what they have achieved since he left us. Australia should be proud of them too.

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