Updated 8 and 9 May 2025.
The West Coast is an isolated, rugged and very sparsely populated part of Tasmania. Much of it is wilderness and home to ancient natural wonders, including cool temperate rain forests which are now listed as National Parks and World Heritage sites. The climate can be equally rugged, with over 2000mm of rain per annum and snowfalls in winter.
Despite its isolation, human activity is now quite evident, with roads linking towns and providing access for locals and tourists. Mining in particular has impacted the environment at many locations.
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| Remains of the Hercules haulage line between Williamsford and Mt Read, near Rosebery Source: Mockunas collection |
THE EZ COMPANY AT ROSEBERY
The small town of Rosebery was established in the late 1890s after gold was discovered nearby. It became the mining base for the Electrolytic Zinc Company (EZ Co). The processed zinc ore transported by the Emu Bay Railway to Burnie on the north coast of Tasmania and then to the company’s Risdon Zinc Works in Hobart for smelting.
In the late 1940s the mining industry around Rosebery was prospering and the EZ Co wanted to explore new territory. The opportunity of using newly available migrant labour to open up these areas was attractive. The first group of young migrants who had fled the Baltic States as refugees during World War II was sent from the Bonegilla migrant camp in early 1948 to assist with this task.
THE MIGRANTS ARRIVE
The First Transport of Baltic displaced persons to Australia arrived at Fremantle aboard the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman in late November 1947; the 839 Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian men and women were then transported to the Bonegilla migrant camp near Wodonga, beside the River Murray in northern Victoria.
Apart from a contingent of women who very soon after arriving at Bonegilla were sent to fulfill their 2-year work commitments in Canberra, large-scale job allocations of these ‘Balts’ did not begin until the New Year. Gabecas recorded that, after a very hot summer at Bonegilla, twelve of the men who had requested job placements somewhere cooler were selected for labouring work in Tasmania. They would subsequently discover Tasmania’s West Coast to be considerably wetter and cooler than the mainland.
The men left Bonegilla on 13 January to board a ship from Melbourne to Burnie, but a waterfront strike caused a change of plans. Instead they were flown to Wynyard on the north coast of Tasmania by the EZ Co. They were given a meal at Wynyard Airport and put on the railcar heading south - there were no roads linking Rosebery with the outside world at the time and the narrow-gauge Emu Bay Railway provided the only access. They arrived at their new workplace in the western forests in the middle of the night and company records show they were put to work the next day, 19 January 1948.
Fortunately for us, one of these men, Aleksandras Gabecas, also known as Alex Gabas in Australia, has left a record of his memories with images of those days to enrich the story we can tell today. As part of the 50th anniversary of the First Transport to Australia, the Lithuanian weekly newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, published photographs with captions and articles by Gabecas over several editions.
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| Some of the passengers on board the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman en route to Australia, November 1947; Aleksandras Gabecas is in the front row with a guitar Source: Mūsų Pastogė, 17 April 2013 |
THE WORK ENVIRONMENT
Their work for EZ Co involved assisting the company’s exploration program: cutting tracks for surveyors and samplers, followed by wider tracks for bulldozers and heavy equipment. Each day the men would journey a few miles to their worksites where they would clear, dig, blast and burn their way through the forest. They worked a 40-hour week.
The company supplied their food and tools and took them back to Rosebery every second Friday to collect wages and do some shopping. Several also frequented the pub. Saturdays and Sundays were free days, often spent in Rosebery or Zeehan.
While the EZ Co sought to provide all the fundamentals, on occasion the men had to resolve some of the material shortcomings during their shopping trips to town. For example, gumboots were not provided at first as they were in short supply, so some of the men purchased their own in Rosebery as the ground at their worksite was often a quagmire.
Similarly, for the first fortnight the men had to work in the lightweight clothes that had been issued to them in Bonegilla. After the first shopping trip, they got into a routine where they would buy a new shirt for the weekend in town and wear it to work for the next fortnight.
Despite these initial shortcomings, in Gabecas’ view they were fairly well off compared with some of the other migrants: after deductions, the men were paid a wage of 5 pounds and 15 shillings per week.
THE BALTIC BUSHMEN CITY
The men initially lived at a railway siding which they named Baltic Bushmen City and erected an official-looking sign to proclaim their new home. The City was the base for further exploration work in the hinterland; officially known as Pinnacles Siding, it was located near Boko Siding, about 12 miles (19km) north of Rosebery.
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| Some of the men with their Baltic Bushman City sign, mid-1948 Source: Mūsų Pastogė, 2 December 1996 |
Gabecas wrote that it consisted of several tin sheds and a few tents set on a hillside in a landscape that was a welcome contrast to the scorched Victorian countryside. Each sleeping hut had 2 bunks, adequate blankets and a fireplace. Meals were prepared by an EZ cook. Lighting was by carbide and hurricane lamps.
A second worksite, a much more basic tent city, was located 5 kilometres away. Here they were able to prepare meals to their own (European) tastes.
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| EZ tents in the bush Source: Mūsų Pastogė, 2 December 1996 |
Gabecas seemed to enjoy the adventure of the new experience, noting that the only drawback was the standard of accommodation. A descendant of another Balt, Rosie Emerson, had these somewhat sharper observations:
"My father was one of these men who was sent from Bonegilla, to Rosebery in 1948 … these men lived in tents in the harsh Tasmanian climate. My father told how he’d wake up freezing and wet if he happened to roll into the side of the tent...
"There was a Christmas break when Dad went to Melbourne where he met my mother. He refused to return to the harsh conditions and completed the second year of his contract with the government in Melbourne at a brick factory, with much improved living conditions.
"He used to meet my mother under the painting of Chloe in Young & Jackson's each weekend before they’d head of to dance the night away, a far cry from living in ice- covered tents."
THE WEST COAST BALTS, JANUARY 1948
| Name | Age | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| Blaubergs, Otto | 30 | Latvian |
| Gabecas, Aleksandras | 25 | Lithuanian |
| Jablonskis, Juozas | 35 | Lithuanian |
| Krausas, Romualdas | 21 | Lithuanian |
| Krizanovskis, Edwards | 20 | Latvian |
| Krumins, Alberts | 25 | Latvian |
| Kubiliunas, Jonas | 22 | Lithuanian |
| Kudras, Kirils | 26 | Latvian |
| Marazas, Antanas | 23 | Lithuanian |
| Maslauskas, Karolis | 24 | Lithuanian |
| Martišius, Saliamonas | 27 | Lithuanian |
| Roduss, Augusts | 37 | Latvian |
LATER ARRIVALS
After about 6 months in the forests, these men were transferred to Rosebery to finish the remainder of their contracts. They worked for EZ Co on the surface as the unions had initially barred migrants from working underground. By that time, other Balts had also arrived to take their place, often after their first job placement in fruit picking.
Three Lithuanians from the First Transport were sent to Rosebery after their Victorian orchard work, leaving Bonegilla again on various dates in March and April 1948. They were Viktoras Kuciauskas, Zigmas Paskevicius and Juozas Leknius. Those known to have arrived a little later, from apple-picking in south-east Tasmania's Huon Valley, were Leons Mikelans and Izidorius Smilgevicius.
Around 80 Balts worked at Rosebery from the late 1940s and into the 1950s. After the men were released from their work contracts, most moved to Hobart or the mainland.
A small number stayed at Rosebery, having by then secured better paying jobs working underground in the mines. A few worked in the Farrell Mine at Tullah, while others undertook track-cutting and cartage on a contract basis.
One of the latter, Latvian Eizens Princis (Eugene Prince) married a local girl and stayed in Rosebery until retirement.
ANN'S NOTE
For anyone not acquainted with Melbourne folklore, Young & Jackson's is a centrally located hotel on a corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, across Flinders street from the main railway station for suburban lines. Chloe is a 1875 painting by French artist, Jules Lefebvre, which has hung in Young & Jackson's main bar since 1909.
While Rosie Emerson's father, Ziggy Paskevičius, may have waited for his sweetheart under Chloe, Rosie's mother would not have been allowed into the main bar under the customs prevailing in 1949. They were more likely met outside or in another part of the Hotel.
"Under the clocks" is another well-known Melbourne meeting place, the clocks being across Flinders Street from Young & Jackson's. Above the entrance to Flinder Street Station, they show the departure time of the next train for each line. Rosie's mother may have preferred that spot.
SOURCES
Advocate (1948) ‘Balts to Work on West Coast’ Burnie, Tasmania, 12 January, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69067798, accessed 5 May 2025.
Emerson, Rosie (2020) Comment on post regarding the above news item in the Advocate, in the General Stuart Heintzelman/First Transport Facebook private group https://www.facebook.com/groups/505412590020835/search/?q=rosie%20emerson, accessed 5 May 2025.
Holmes, Michael (2017) Tasmania’s Vanishing Towns: not what they used to be Hobart, The author, p 3.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1988) ’Ankstyvųjų metų albumas’ [‘An album of the early years’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 20 June, p 12 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1988/1988-06-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1996) ’Pažadėtoj žemėj Australijoje’ ['The promised land Australia’ in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 5 August, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-08-05-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1996) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (II)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (II)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 2 December, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-12-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (III)’ 'The First Transport: in photographs (III)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 20 January, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-01-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (IV)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (IV)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 12 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (V)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (V)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 19 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025
Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (VI)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (VI)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 23 June, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-06-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.
Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania, 1948-1998, Hobart, , pp 42-45.
Wikipedia, 'Chloe (Lebvre)' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlo%C3%A9_(Lefebvre) accessed 5 May 2025.
