More grateful Displaced Persons, December 1947, by Ann Tündern-Smith

The Western Australian Immigration file of papers for the arrival of the First Transport party includes a letter of thanks additional to the one from Roberts Miezitis we have looked at already.  

This one's 14 December date and the phrase, "leaving for Canberra" suggest that it was written in the Bonegilla camp.  The envelope filed with it is addressed to the Commander of the Graylands "Immigration Centre".  You will remember that Graylands army base is where all the women were housed during their Perth stopover.

The group who went to Canberra on 14 December, according to the Bonegilla cards, were 5 women only, all destined to work in the Acton Guest House.  They were 4 Latvians and a Lithuanian.  Four were to work as waitresses.  One Latvian became a cleaner or, in the terminology of the day, a "domestic".

The name may make you think that Acton Guest House was some sort of holiday destination but, in fact, it was a home for public servants who were yet to buy their own homes in Canberra.  More soon.

Here is a copy of the original letter.  There also is a typed copy on the same file.

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Presumably this letter was written by one of Antonia Baranovskis, Zelvi Elksnis, Mirdza (Mitzi) Klavins, Inta Vitolins or Birute Tamulyte, the 5 in the first group to Canberra.

We have to wonder if this was the first time that the phrase "New Australians" was used in writing.  Within months, the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, was urging the press and the public to use it instead of "Balts". 

For this reason, Balts now has something of a derogatory tone about it in some people's minds, whereas there is written evidence that it had been used for decades at least as the normal description for people from the three Baltic states.

From the Second Transport on, through another 147 ship arrivals, the passengers came from a variety of Eastern European nations in addition to the Baltic States.  "Balts" was now a misnomer.

SOURCE

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series; 82, General Heintzelman - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 27 June 2025.

Roberts Miezitis, who was thankful, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Born in 1909, Latvian Roberts Miezitis was one of the older passengers on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman.  His spoken English was so good that he was one of 15 nominated by cable from Germany as suitable for employment in an Australian staging camp as teacher or interpreter.  His written English, if transcribed faithfully in the typescript below, was a work in progress, but still easy to understand.

Robert Miezitis' letter with at least one transcription error 
(the spelling of his family name)

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Mr and Mrs Webb ran the canteen at the Swanbourne Barracks, according to Gratwick's minute to Nutt.

Why do we have it still?  It was attached to a report sent from Perth to Canberra, by the Acting Commonwealth Migration Officer for Western Australia, RW Gratwick, to the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration (Arthur Leonard) Nutt.   Gratwick attached two other reports will I will put up soon.

"Oronge" is mentioned three times, as a symbol of luxury, I suspect. Not necessarily in Europe before WWII, but certainly during the War.

Given the abundance of oranges and orange juice in Australia today, it's hard to image them as luxuries. Only one hundred years and more ago, they were luxuries in Europe. Hence the "orangerie", a greenhouse rich people had on their properties specifically to grow them.

Sources

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Central Office; A445/1, Correspondence files, multiple number series (policy matters); 174/4/8, Bonegilla Centre - Education of new Australians https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=75444 accessed 27 June 2025.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, Western Australian Branch; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series; 82, General Heintzelman - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 - nominal rolls of passengers https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 27 June 2025.

"General Stuart Heintzelman" men to Maydena, Tasmania, by Ann Tündern-Smith

The first mill in the world to produce newsprint from eucalyptus hardwood was opened in the Tasmanian town of Boyer by Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd (APM) in 1941.  During World War II, it was able to keep ten Australian daily newspapers supplied with their paper, so serious wartime rationing of the major means of news distribution was not needed. 

There was some rationing however, which led the press to be opposed to the Federal Government minister responsible for it, the Minister for Information.  He was Arthur Calwell, later to become Australia’s first Minister for Immigration at his own request.  The Australian media owners’ dislike of Calwell is a story for another time, perhaps.

 

Maydena was formerly called Junee and was a small settlement which provided access to Adamsfield osmiridium mining in the 1920s.

Maydena's location in Tasmania

Source:  Wikipedia

Starting in 1947, APM redeveloped the town as a base for logging eucalypts in the nearby Florentine Valley.  It was 50 Kilometres west of Boyer, where the APM workers turned the eucalyptus timber into newsprint.

 

Twelve of the First Transport refugees helped APM operate from Maydena, from January 1947.  They were 9 Lithuanians and 3 Latvians, listed below.

 

Latvians

 

Adams Mikas

Andrejs Preisis

Roberts Miezitis

 

Lithuanians

 

Albertas Medisauskas

Henrikas Juodvalkis

Jonas Gudelis

Jonas Tamosaitis

Julius Molis

Jurgis Mikalonis

Vladas Mikelaitis

Vytautas Narbutas

Vytautas Salkunas

 

Some have their life stories on this blog already.  Hyperlinks have been added to take you to them and more will be added as more life stories go up.

Mountain biking has become a popular sport in the logged forests around Maydena

Source:  Pulse Tasmania

Sources 

Calwell, Mary Elizabeth, personal communications, 2000-25.

 

Companion to Tasmanian History,  ‘Australian Newsprint Mills‘, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Australian%20Newsprint%20Mills.htm accessed 30 January 2023.

 

Engineers Australia, ‘Boyer Newsprint Mill, New Norfolk, 1941-‘, https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/heritage/boyer-newsprint-mill-new-norfolk-1941 accessed 30 January 2023.

 

Mathis, Esme (2024) 'The Adamsfield mining rush’, Australian Geographic, 16 October https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2024/10/the-adamsfield-mining-rush/ accessed 15 April 2025.

Wikipedia, 'Maydena' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maydena accessed 15 April 2025.