Stasys Domkus (1920-1998): A Tasmanian First Swallow, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 21 March 2026.

First Swallows

The Lithuanians from the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, who settled in Tasmania from early 1948 onwards, called themselves “the First Swallows”.  Not just in Lithuania, swallows are widely regarded as the heralds of spring and the return of warmer weather, so they symbolise renewal, hope, and new beginnings.  In Lithuania, their nesting in house eaves is believed to protect the home against fire and evil spirits.

Stasys Domkus qualified as a First Swallow, having been sent to Tasmania on 5 April 1948.  This was after he had spent more than 2 months picking fruit in the Victorian orchard of W Young, whose Ardmona business was called Kelvin Orchards.

Stasys Domkus, 1947, in a photograph from his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Stasys works in Tasmania

Stasys’ Bonegilla card does not tell us what he was to do in Tasmania but Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, says that his first job there was more fruit picking, at a place called Premaydena.  Tasmania being the Apple Isle, the fruit in this instance surely was apples.

Stasys may have stayed at Premaydena for several years, since Tarvydas lists his next employment as EZ Risdon from 1952 to 1955.  What he was doing in Premaydena when all the apples were picked we do not know.  Perhaps he was helping generally around the orchard which employed him or several orchards, because there always is more work to be done.

EZ Risdon is shorthand for the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australia at suburban Risdon in Tasmania’s capital city, Hobart.  The EZ Risdon factory had opened in 1918, at a time when there was a shortage of zinc throughout the British Empire.  The metal was necessary then for the production of weapons.  While the ore came from Broken Hill in northwest New South Wales, the plant was in Tasmania because of the availability of cheap hydroelectricity.

Stasys moved on to the Cadbury’s chocolate factory, staying there for the rest of his working life.

Stasys' family and citizenship

Around that time, on 17 November 1956, Stays married Kristina Petraitytė in the Hobart Cathedral.  The reception was in the spacious home of her parents.  The house was full of guests, young and old danced and sang Lithuanian songs.  The wedding lasted two days.

The Domkus family, parents and 2 sons, Antanas and Juozas, participated in Lithuanian community meetings, picnics, and church.  Stasys was secretary of the Hobart Lithuanian community for many years.

Stasys took his oath of allegiance to become an Australian citizen before the Lord Mayor of Hobart on 19 March 1958.

Tragedy struck when Juozas died in a car accident in 1992, followed by Kristina dying of cancer in 1996.  Kristina was much younger than Stasys, and only 58 when she died.

Juozas Domkas' plaque, which must have been prepared after his mother died in 1996

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Kristina Domkas' plaque in Cornelian Bay Cemetery

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Stasys' death and funeral

Stays spent his last couple of years in The Gardens retirement village.  He died on 13 July 1998, aged 77.  Ramunas Tarvydas wrote in an obituary that at least a hundred friends and acquaintances, Lithuanian and Australian, gathered to farewell him.  To honour a former soldier, his casket was draped in the three-coloured Lithuanian flag.

After the singing of the Lithuanian national anthem, the casket was escorted from the church by other First Swallows, Irena Jurevičienė (née Naujokatiene), Česlovas Juškevičius, Henrikas Juodvalkis, Povilas Auksorius, Jurgis Valius and Vladas Mikelaitis.

His body was cremated in Cornelian Bay Crematorium.  In addition to his son, Antanas, Antanas' wife and their two children, Kristin and Kendall, he left behind his mother-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law.

Stasys Domkas' plaque in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Ramunas wrote, “Stasys buvo švelnaus būdo, su humoru, sąžiningas, malonus visiems”. That’s Lithuanian for "Stasys was gentle, humorous, honest, and kind to everyone."

Life in Lithuania and Germany

Ramunas also wrote that he was born in 1920 in Kuršėnai, approximately halfway between the larger towns of Šiauliai and Telšiai in Lithuania.  The actual date of birth was 20 October 1920.  In addition to their one son, his parents had 3 daughters.  The record of his interview by the selection panel for resettlement in Australia says that he received 5 years of schooling, which was one year more than the Lithuanian minimum.

After he finished his schooling, he volunteered to join the Lithuanian army.  When the Soviets occupied Lithuania, his unit became part of the Red Army.  Later it became part of the German Army, which undoubtedly is how he found himself retreating to Germany in 1944.

At least, this military story is the one recorded by Ramunas Tarvydas in the obituary for Stasys, 50 years after his arrival in Australia.  A different story appears on an Australian form titled Particulars of Displaced Persons wishing to Emigrate to Australia completed on 24 September 1947.  There, a typist has recorded that Stasys was born in Tauragė, more than 100 kilometres away from Kuršėnai.  Tauragė is also the birthplace stated on 2 forms for the Department of Immigration completed in Australis.

Stasys had been working as a labourer for the previous 5 months in Germany.  Prior to that, he had worked for 7 years in a meat export factory in Lithuania.  Might this have been the Maistas factory in Šiauliai where another man about to board the First Transport, Algirdas Undzenas, had been one of the directors?

Working in a meat export factory might explain also why the Australian selection panel’s report of its interview with Stasys said that he had been “forcibly evacuated by the Germans for labour”.  It also said that he had arrived in Germany in September 1944, which was even as the Soviet forces returned to his homeland.

The Arolsen Archives has one document on Stasys which tell us only his Displaced Persons number in addition to his name, birthdate and Roman Catholic religion.  There is also a list of Lithuanians in the German town of Amberg, but it gives no birthdates, meaning that we do not know if it is naming our Stasys Domkus or a namefellow born 3 years later.  At the time of his interview for resettlement in Australia, Stasys was living in a camp in Buchholz, one of the places where the Australians interviewed.

In conclusion

Regardless of which version of his later years in Lithuania and his move to Germany is closer to the truth, Stasys was an ideal settler who contributed to Australia through his work here and his roles in the local Lithuanian community.

Footnote

Stasys' younger son, Antanas, is now known from the Find A Grave Website to have lived an unfortunately short life, like his brother Juozas.  The plaque below shows that he died shortly after his 53rd birthday.  His wife, Michelle, died only 5 weeks later.

At least the mention of grandchildren on Antanas' plaque shows that there is another generation of descendants growing up in Tasmania.

Antanas Domkus' plaque in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Sources

Find A Grave 'Anthony John Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212900430/anthony-john-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Joseph Phillip Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212982261/joseph-phillip-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Kristina Birgita Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212987160/kristina-brigita-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Michelle Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212900446/michelle-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Stasys Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224769074/stasys-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

‘Folder DP0842, names from DOMITAR, Radolf to DON, Moszka (1)’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 66913253 (Stasys DOMKUS), ITS Digital Archive/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66913253, accessed 20 February 2026.

‘Folder 10: DP Listen Amberg’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 81961491, ITS Digital Archive/Arolsen Archives DocID: 81961491, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81961491, accessed 20 February 2026.

‘k.p’ (1956) ‘Hobart Lietuviškos vestuvės’ (‘Hobart Lithuanian Wedding’, in Lithuanian) Teviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, Vic, 29 November, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1956/1956-nr42-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 20 February 2026.

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; 66, DOMKUS Stasys DOB 20 October 1920, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005502, accessed 20 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P3, Personal case files, annual single number series with 'T' (Tasmania) prefix, 1951-; T1971/2200, Domkus, Stasys, 1957-58 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9590631, accessed 20 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; DOMKUS STASYS, DOMKUS, Stasys : Year of Birth - 1920 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 466, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203655944, accessed 20 February 2026.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, Tasmania, p 162.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1998) ‘Tasmanija’ (‘Tasmania’, in Lithuanian) Teviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, Vic, 4 August, p 8 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1998/1998-08-04-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 20 February 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Amberg’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amberg, accessed 20 February 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Risdon Zinc Works’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risdon_Zinc_Works, accessed 20 February 2026.

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

Updated 14 April 2025.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vladas Mikelaitis, front of Bonegilla card

Source: National Archives of Australia

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

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

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

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

Source:  University of Tasmania

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May he REST IN PEACE.

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

Source: Find A Grave, photo by McNooza

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

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

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

Henrikas Juodvalkis (1917-2001), a faithful son of Lithuania, by Endrius Jankus

 

This obituary was written by Henrikas Juodvalkis' friend and fellow First Transport passenger, Endrius or Andrew Jankus, and published, in Lithuanian, in the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Musu Pastoge, on 19 February 2001.  Andrew kindly provided his English language version to me many years ago.  I am glad to be able to share it here, with some light editing to suit this medium 20 years later.

First Transport passenger Henrikas Juodvalkis was born in Zarasai, a city in northeastern Lithuania, on 5 February 1917.  He died in Hobart on 3 February 2001, just two days before his 84th birthday.

In the 1930s, he did military service in the pioneers platoon of the Ukmergé infantry company. He then was offered a place in the pioneers company in Radviliskis and a chance to further his studies in the Non-Commissioned Officers Academy in Kaunas. Having served his term, he decided to re-enlist in the army as an NCO.

When Lithuania regained Vilnius in 1940, Henrikas was with the first Lithuanian units to march into the ancient capital. He was one of the Guards of Honour who guarded the Lithuanian tricolour flag that first day on Gediminas Hill, and he was among those greeted at the flag lowering ceremony that evening by Generals Rastikis and Plechavicius.

At the start of WWII, Henrikas served for those who were fighting to reestablish an independent Lithuania. However, when the Germans occupied Lithuania in 1941, independence was crushed and Lithuanian army units were forced to serve the German invaders.

Because of his good record, and the shortage of officers, Henrikas was promoted to Warrant Officer and assigned to lead the third platoon of the third company. His battalion did guard duty in and around Vilnius. He himself was assigned to the home guard of the German military headquarters.

Later Henrikas’ battalion was sent to Russia and stationed near Rostov. There it guarded Russian prisoners of war and undertook mine-clearing operations at the front. After a year, when the tide of battle turned against the Germans, they and their Hungarian allies began to retreat from Russia.

While Henrikas was on leave he returned to Lithuania and was unable to rejoin his unit as it was disbanded in the turmoil.

At that time, in February 1944, General Plechavicius began to organise battalions of self-defence volunteers for Lithuania. Henrikas enlisted and he was sent to Marijampole. One morning, his unit was surrounded by German SS units and all were arrested. The Germans made them wear Luftwaffe uniforms and sent them off to Germany to work, mostly at repairing bombed airfields.

At the end of the War, Henrikas was near Hamburg. He made his way to Flensburg and joined a group of Lithuanian displaced persons at the Tim Kroger school. Later, all the Lithuanians were moved to a camp at Mutzelburg.

 

 

Henrikas in Germany, 

during the 1947 selection process for Australia

Henrikas came to Australia on the First Transport in 1947. He was assigned to forestry work in Tasmania, leaving the Bongilla camp in January 1948 for a job with Australian Newsprint Mills in Maydena. 

 

Henrikas'  "Bonegilla card"

(The age doesn't match the date of birth: 

Henrikas was 30 years old when the card was typed)

Source:  National Archives of Australia

 

There, he married a local girl, Dawn. Later, he and his wife shifted to Hobart, where they built a house. Henrikas at first worked in a position of responsibility in a zinc factory. After a few years Henrikas and Dawn set up a shop and were self-employed until pension age. 

 

 Henrikas in a group photograph of Lithuanians in Tasmania,

celebrating 50 years in Australia in 1997

Source:  Hobart Mercury

Henrikas helped to support his relatives in Lithuania and was a faithful son of this nation. He left behind not only a grieving widow, Dawn, but also friends in the Hobart Lithuanian community. The funeral took place on 7 February 2001.

Rest in peace, Henrikas.

 

The original obituary in Musu Pastoge*

 

Meryl Dawn Juodvalkis died on 17 September 2016, aged 88.**

---

 *Jonas Mockunas advises that "a.a." before Henrikas' name is the Lithuanian equivalent of the English (or Latin) "RIP" ("Rest in Peace" or "requiescat in pace").

**Dawn’s death notice is at https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/tributes/notice/death-notices/juodvalkis-meryl-dawn-dawn/4470912/, visited 29 April 2021.

CITE THIS AS:  Jankus, Endrius (2021) 'Henrikas Juodvalkis (1917-2001), a faithful son of Lithuania' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2021/04/henrikas-juodvalkis-faitfhful-son-of-Lithuania.html.

Henrikas Juodvalkis in army uniform


Source:  Musu Pastoge