Povilas Laurinavicius worked on his Lithuanian parent’s farm until August 1944. He then was conscripted into the Luftwaffe, the German air force, and taken to Westfalia in Germany. He was expected to help build fortifications for the Luftwaffe.
He was born in Riga, now the capital of Latvia, on 18 May 1908. This was during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II when, as in the Soviet era, workers moved wherever they were needed regardless of internal boundaries.
Personal records for members of the extended family are among those of the Palėvenė church, suggesting that the Laurinavičius farm was near this small town in northeast Lithuania.
Povilas’ migration selection record for Australia shows that he had 4 years of primary education and 4 years of secondary. Again, he was more educated than many of the Lithuanian men selected for the First Transport. He had no knowledge of English but he did know Lithuanian, Latvian, and something of Russian, Polish and German. |
| Povilas Laurinavicius' photo in his immigration selection papers Source: NAA: A11772, 174 |
At the time of interview by the Australian team in October 1947, Povilas’ occupation was described as Lumber Worker. He had been doing this work for the previous 2 years, that is, from around October 1945.
Heading towards 40 years of age, Povilas was one of the older DPs selected for resettlement in Australia after travelling there on the First Transport. After arrival, he was one of the 185 men sent to pick fruit in the Goulburn Valley on 28 January 1948. He returned to the Bonegilla camp after only 2 weeks, so clearly the experience had not gone well for him.
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| Povilas Laurinavicius' 1947 photo on his Bonegilla card |
Then he was assigned to be part of the first group sent to work at Broken Hill Proprietary Limited’s Iron Knob mine in South Australia. They left the Bonegilla camp on 19 February.
Povilas applied to have his sister, Bronė Minkevičienė, brother-in-law, Vytautas Minkevičius, niece, Regina-Marija, and another female relative come to Australia. Research by Rasa Ščevinskiene has shown that the other female relative, Alina Bonasevičius, was his brother-in-law’s older sister.
There’s nothing on the sponsorship file apart from the application, which Povilas signed off on 3 November 1948. The absence of any other paper or comment on the file is strange, but the date of application was only 11 months after he came to Australia. He had not been in Australia for long enough to lodge a successful sponsorship.A search for Povilas’ brother-in-law in the Arolsen Archives reveals that the sister, brother-in-law and niece left Germany on 8 August 1951 to resettle in the United States. They left on the General Muir, a sister ship to the General Stuart Heintzelman.
Povilas’ sponsorship application tells us that he had moved on from Iron Knob to what probably was safer employment and better paying also. He was still in rural South Australia but at Woomera, working for the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Works and Housing. He was earning nearly £11 per week (£10/19/10). This was at a time when the minimum wage was only £5/19/-.
We know from the story of Romualdas Zeronas that the pay at Iron Knob was £6/8/- each week.
An index card recording Povilas’ changes of address and workplace, which had to be reported to the Department of Immigration by any resident alien under the Aliens Registration Act, advises that Povilas’ move to Woomera was on 27 May 1948. He was released from his contractual obligation to work in Australia for 2 years on the same date as the vast majority of the other Heintzelman passengers, 30 September 1949.
His next move was to Glenelg in suburban Adelaide, where he lived and worked at the Pier Hotel from 23 January 1950. The mysterious initials M.W. suggest another change of employer when he changed his residence to Gilles Street, Adelaide, on 4 April 1950.
The Pier Hotel, Glenelg, was clearly on the coast, as was his next move, to Semaphore Road, Semphore, only 4 weeks after moving to Gilles Street, on 1 May 1950. His records were transferred to the Melbourne office of the Department of Immigration from the Adelaide office on 10 October 1951, marking a move from the State of South Australia to the State of Victoria. We do not have access to the Victorian records yet.
There is one Victorian record in Mūsų Pastogė, though. In its 23 June 1958 edition, this newspaper included him in a list of people who had donated £1 each to support the elderly, sick and injured Lithuanians who were still in Germany.
Cards indicating a move to Tasmania and then New South Wales are available from the National Archives of Australia, however. They show that on 4 April 1960, he was living on Weld Street, South Hobart and working as a wharf labourer—hard physical work for anyone but especially a man now aged nearly 52.
By 9 March 1962, he had moved to Elizabeth Street in the middle of Hobart. Presumably he was working still as a wharf labourer. The records were transferred to NSW on 26 June 1962, probably after a move to that State.
Povilas left Australia around 1964 and moved to Chicago, Illinois. He was aged only 61 at the time of his death, on 16 November 1969, he was living at 6159 South Artesian Avenue, Chicago.
Povilas had been in America for only five years before his death. He was mourned by his sister Bronė (Bronislava), her daughter, Regina, and Alina Bonasevičius, of Chicago—the very people he had tried to sponsor to Australia back in 1948. Another sister, Joanna, and her family were still in Lithuania.
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| Povilas' death notice Source: Draugas, 17 November 1969 |
Bronė’s husband, Regina’s father, the Vytautas Minkevičius who Povilas had started to sponsor for migration to Australia, had died in New York State on 30 May 1953. This was less than two years after arriving in the States and he was aged only 53.
His sister, Alina Bonasevičius, had been living at the same address as Povilas according to her death notice in Draugas, around 16 months after it carried the notice for Povilas. It looks as if Povilas decided that, if rest of the family were settled peacefully in America, he would join them there instead, at 6159 South Artesian Avenue.
Povilas may have died early and overseas, but his name is stamped in Australian philatelic history. Tasmanian Stamp Auctions, in 2023, offered an envelope addressed by Povilas from the Bonegilla camp to ‘Mr’ David Jones (the department store, of course) at the corner of Castlereagh and Market Streets in central Sydney. The envelope had been damaged when someone had torn off the stamp roughly, but someone else had recognised the value of its clear Bonegilla and nearby Wodonga postmarks.
The envelope had been in private hands, rather than the rubbish bin, for 75 years! We cannot tell for how much it was sold, but can see that the starting price was $11.00. |
| Povilas' envelope, a registered letter sent from Bonegilla camp on 16 February 1948 Source: Tasmanian Stamp Auctions |
Namefellows
The only Arolsen Archives records currently available are for another Povilas Laurinavičius, born after ours, on 7 July 1909. This Povilas Laurinavičius looked different, wore glasses, was a qualified and experienced lawyer, and resettled in the United States after his trip there on the USAT General M L Hersey, leaving Germany on 1 September 1949.
We found also that papers for a later DP immigrant to Australia, Povilas Laurinaitis, date of birth 8 April 1922, had been placed first on the selection papers file for our Povilas Laurinavičius (NAA: A11772, 174). We have notified the custodian of those papers, the National Archives of Australia.
Sources
Draugas (1969), ‘A.†A. Povilas Laurinavičius’ [‘RIP Povilas Laurinavičius’, advertisement, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 17 November, p 5 https://draugas.org/archive/1969_reg/1969-11-17-DRAUGASm-i7-8.pdf accessed 17 May 2025.
Draugas (1971), ‘A.†A. Alina Bonasevičius’ [‘RIP Alina Bonasevičius’, advertisement, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 5 March, p 7 https://draugas.org/archive/1971_reg/1971-03-05-DRAUGAS.pdf accessed 24 May 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė (1958) ‘Pinigai gauti’ [‘Money received’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 23 June, p 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge /archive/1958/1958-06-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 17 May 2025.
National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A261, Application forms (culled from other file series) for admission of Relatives or Friends to Australia (Form 40) (1953-61); 1948/592, Applicant - LAURINAVICIUS Povilas; Nominee - MINKEVICIUS Vytautas;Bronislarma; Regina- Marijan; BONASEVICIENCE Alima; nationality Lithuanian (1948-48) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7861148 accessed 17 May 2025.
National Archive 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); 174, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas DOB 18 May 1908 (1947-47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1834754 accessed 16 May 2025.
National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series (1946-76); LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1947-51) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9180525 accessed 17 May 2025.
National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1183, Registration cards for non-British migrants/visitors, lexicographical series (1944-76); 16/317 LAURINAVICIUS, LAURINAVICIUS, Povilas born 18 May 1908 - nationality Lithuanian (1947-62) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=60155147 accessed 17 May 2025.
National Archive of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947-56); LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS, LAURINAVICIUS, Povilas : Year of Birth - 1908 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 571 (1947-48) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203619595 accessed 17 May 2025.
Tasmanian Stamp Auctions (2023) '(CN1961) VICTORIA · 1948: cover with damaged front bearing a clear strike of RELIEF No.3 used at Bonegilla Immigration and Training Camp and a nice strike of the rubber boxed WODONGA datestamp (3 images)' https://www.tsauctions.com/listing/cn1961-victoria-1948-cover-with-damaged-front-bearing-a-clear-strike-of-relief-no3-used-at-bonegilla-immigration-and-training-camp-and-a-nice-strike-of-the-rubber-boxed-wodonga-datestamp-3-images/15125?fbclid=IwAR0BAnFLvsaiQtpdk8UmkXRRjTDaiv6BdO9qk-pSzIWdyzIq-C0y0XJaP_8 accessed 24 May 2025.
