Remembering the First Transport, 30 years later from a Lithuanian perspective, by Ona Baužienė

(As the author points out below, she was the wife of the president of the Lithuanian Society of Australia immediately after WWII.  This meant that she was in a position to understand what was happening to Lithuania and Lithuanians during and after War.  

Her recollections were published in Mūsų Pastogė 30 years after the Lithuanians on the First Transport settled into the Bonegilla camp.  Thanks to great improvements in Google Translate, we can now follow them in English.)

Memories of December 1947

"Reading in the press about the 30th anniversary of the first post-war Lithuanian arrival in Australia brings back pleasant memories that I want to share. 

"In the post-war period, when my late husband was still the chairman of the Lithuanian Society of Australia, we diligently followed, in the local newspapers, the difficult situation of our compatriots in the German camps, and wanted to help somehow, namely, to try to bring them to Australia.

"Correspondence began with requests to the then Australian Immigration Minister, Arthur Calwell, to allow Lithuanians from the camps to enter this country.  In the meantime we learned that a significant number were already leaving for England, the USA, Canada and elsewhere. The Australian government took a long time to respond, until we finally received a positive response. 

"Later we received a letter from the ship General Stuart Heintzelman with the announcement that Baltic people were coming, among them 439 Lithuanians. What joy for us! Finally, so many compatriots are arriving, and our Lithuanian community will increase, we thought! 

"At that time, local newspapers widely described their arrival as an extraordinary event. Even the Minister of Immigration, Arthur Calwell, himself met the ship in the port of Fremantle and personally congratulated us.* 

Visiting Bonegilla

"Due to the long distance, it was impossible for us to meet (the ship), so we were content to send a greeting on behalf of the Australian Lithuanian Society. It was possible to visit those who arrived at the Bonegilla camp. We decided to meet: my husband [Antanas Bauže, also deceased by 1977], Mr T Kuodis (now deceased) and I. 

"The Lithuanian committee formed by Jonas Motiejūnas, Kazys Mieldažis and Povilas Baltutis handled themselves perfectly. We spent the weekend at the camp, we were warmly welcomed, we felt great pleasure among our own people. I was kindly looked after by Miss 0. Matulionytė, now Miniotienė. 

"The time spent there remained unforgettable. At the Saturday evening party, everyone danced happily, despite the fact that many were wearing heavy boots, just issued by the camp management. 

Almost as new:  Australian Army boots dated 1945, as issued to the male DPs --
imagine dancing in these!

Source:  Blighty Militaria

"During the Sunday morning service, the men's choir led by Petras Morkūnas, who we had the pleasure of hearing at the previous day's party, impressively sang the song, "Let us Fall on our Knees", which we had not heard for a long time and which was a favourite of my late husband. 

Fruit pickers

"Later, a group of men who received their first salary while picking fruit in Victoria participated in a reunion party organized by the Lithuanian Society in Sydney's Dulwich Hill parish hall. 

"Before you know it, 30 years have passed. During that time, life has changed for many, many have created families and homes beautifully. I think your circle has also thinned, but those who met us will have pleasant memories. The First Transport, the first post-war Lithuanian immigrants, pioneers, will still remain close. 

Congratulations

"Therefore, on this occasion, I sincerely congratulate all of you on celebrating the 30th anniversary of your arrival in Australia, wishing you much happiness, health and many more years to celebrate." 

FOOTNOTE

*  It's been a common mistake to misremember the greeting by the Minister for Immigration occurring when the Heintzelman arrived in Fremantle, on 28 November 1947.  However, Minister Calwell was making a speech to Parliament in Canberra on that day.  Even today's modern, faster transport would not have allowed him to be in both Canberra and Fremantle during daylight hours on the same day, given the time his speech in the House of Representatives started, as recorded in Hansard.

Source:  Baužienė, Ona (1977) 'Pirmaji transporta prisimenant' ('Remembering the First Transport') Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, 19 December, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1977/1977-12-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 18 September 2025.

Napoleonas Butkūnas (1907-1983), Patriot, Photographer, Philanthropist, by Daina Pocius and Rasa Ščevinskienė with Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 22 September 2025.

Napoleonas Butkūnas certainly and rightly believed in the future of Lithuania.

Early Life

He was born on 22 January 1907, a native of Telšiai, from a family of wealthy farmers. It was large family, as My Heritage genealogists list 5 brothers and 3 sisters.

He had only one year of primary school, but this was followed by three years of private tutoring. He graduated from Plungė Gymnasium (senior high school) in 1928, so at the age of 21.

He entered Lithuania's military school and graduated with the rank of Lieutenant, before being promoted to Senior Lieutenant. The graduation probably was in 1930. After the 1934 coup d'état, he left the Army and work briefly as a civil servant.

Napoleonas Butkūnas in military uniform

Source:  MyHeritage

The coup was an attempt by supporters of the former Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras to overthrow the government of President Antanas Smetona.

Napoleonas was not happy working as a civil servant, so he enrolled to study at the Klaipėda Trade Institute, from which he graduated in 1938. He would have been a contemporary of Algirdas Undzenas at the Institute, although 6 years older.

An older Napoleonas Butkūnas

Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

With a World War Coming

Those 3 years of tertiary education mean that, like Algirdas, he was one of the most educated Lithuanians to later find themselves in Australia. Unlike Algirdas, he had not leapt directly into management but instead took on the role of bookkeeper in a textile factory.

He again served in the Lithuanian Army, perhaps as a reservist, from 1938 to 1941, meaning that he maintained his role during the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940-41.

His selection papers for Australia have an interesting variation on the usual ‘forcibly evacuated by the Germans’. They say that he was ‘shanghaied in the street by the Germans’. They also say that he had worked in farming and as a labourer, possibly with the German forces or once he parted from them in Germany.

Napoleonas's date of arrival in Germany is noted as a very precise 25 July 1944 on his application for Australian citizenship.  This was around 3 months before the last Lithuanians could flee their homeland as the Soviet forces invaded it a second time.

After the War

When the War ended, he lived in a DP camp in Memingen. Later, finding his brother Vaclovas Butkevičius and his family in Oldenburg in the British Zone, he stayed with them and taught for 2 years in that camp’s Lithuanian school. (The family name of Butkūnas which Napoleonas was using at the time and later is a shortening of their name, Butkevičius. He had changed his name in 1939.)

War separated Napoleonas from his wife, Marija, and daughter, Liucija, both of whom remained in Lithuania. Despite this great loss, Napoleonas remained outgoing and involved himself in many cultural pursuits in Australia.

Marija Butkūniene, Napoleonas' wife

Source: MyHeritage

and their daughter, Liucija Butkūnaitė, later Pečkienė 

Source:  My Heritage

He described himself as a widower during the selection process for resettlement in Australia. He arrived on the First Transport, on 28 November 1947. At the age of 40, he was among the oldest passengers.

Later, when he applied for Australian citizenship in 1954, he changed his marital status from  separated, which he then crossed out, to married.  Here was a loyal husband.

Life in Australia

His level of English at the time of the selection interview, probably in September or early October 1947, was described as ‘slight – learning’.  However, when the Lithuanians assembled in the Diepholz camp one week prior to departure from Bremerhaven on the Heintzelman, in late October, he was elected the interpreter for their committee headed by Jonas Motiejūnas and Povilas Baltutis.  

Moreover, Genovaitė Kazokas, in her 2003 book, Lithuanian Artists in Australia, having interviewed Napoleonas, reported that one of the subjects he taught in the Oldenburg camp was English.  It seems that the Australian interviewers got the strength of his English wrong.  If they asked him directly about it, perhaps he was being modest.

As he stayed in the Bonegilla camp until 29 January 1948, more than 7 weeks, he had the opportunity to improve his fluency by attending classes every weekday, and chatting with the Australian staff.

With one-quarter of the men, he was sent initially to pick fruit in northern Victoria. In his case, his employers were AW and JF Fairley of Shepparton. After more than two months of this, he returned to the Bonegilla camp on 7 April. He stayed for another two weeks, with the possibility of more English language classes.

Next, he was sent to work at Goliath Portland Cement company in Railton, Tasmania, on 22 April.

His cancelled Alien Registration Certificate, held by the National Archives of Australia in Melbourne, shows his first address as being in Melbourne as of 19 August 1949. That was more than one month before the date, 30 September 1949, on which he would have been released from his ‘two-year’ work contract. It has been recorded without further comment.

Active Lithuanian in Melbourne

In Melbourne, he worked initially as a storeman and became an active member of the diaspora community. By the time he applied for citizenship in May 1954, he was a self-employed professional photographer.

For a long time, he was the only photographer of Lithuanian events. He advertised in the Lithuanian press that, ‘Those important occasions such as weddings, name days, christenings, house warmings, need to be imortalised in photographs, so when you return to Lithuania you have something to show your relatives’.

Napoleonas Butkūnas, photographer, advertisement 

Source:  Australijos Lietuvis

He became a long-time contributor to and distributor of the Melbourne press. He worked for some time for the printing house of Teviskės Aidai, the Melbourne-based Lithuanian Catholic newspaper.

For more than 20 years, Napoleonas ran a bookshop in the hall adjacent to the church adopted by the Lithuanians, that of St John the Evangelist on Victoria Parade, East Melbourne. He distributed thousands of Lithuanian publications, hundreds of plaques and Lithuanian signs.  He supported Lithuanian activities and the parish with the profits from these sales.

When Lithuanian organisations were being established, Napoleonas was active everywhere. He was a founding member of the Melbourne Lithuanian Club, held various positions in the board of Kariau Ramové (the Lithuanian branch of Australia’s Returned Services League) and was briefly its chairman. He was also a frequent member of the Australian Lithuanian Community National Council, as well as the founder of the Blaivininkų Draugia (Temperance Society) and an active member of the Christian Democrats club.

In her book on Australian Lithuanians, Luda Popenhagen pinned down one of his many committees as that which founded Melbourne’s Lithuanian Club, registered with the Government in 1957. Another committee has been pinned down in the photograph below.

We think that Napoleonas is seated at the right of the front row in this photograph
of a Melbourne Lithuanian community committee

Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

As a journalist, he wrote articles on various topics. As an artist, he used to paint in oils and donate his paintings to raffles organised by Lithuanian groups.

Genovaitė Kazokas wrote that art was Napoleonas' favourite subject in high school. She added that, “His oil paintings show a sense of composition and competent brushwork. His themes are Australian landscapes rendered realistically and with conventional perspective …”

A landscape in oils by Butkūnas

Source: Kazokas' thesis Vol II

What of Lithuania’s future?  This was the type of question that Napoleon raised in conversations. ‘It is important that the Lithuanian consciousness of the diaspora lasts as long as possible, so that there are close and sincere relations between the homeland and the diaspora’, he wrote.

Napoleonas' Legacy

On 13 March 1983 at the age of 76, Napoleonas died in a Melbourne hospital. The funeral service was held at St. John's Catholic Church in East Melbourne, which had become the Lithuanian parish church. The Lithuanian choir, men's choir and a soloist, his nephew, Jurgis Rubas, sang. From the Church, a long convoy of cars escorted the casket to the Fawkner Cemetery, and from there a crowd of about 80 returned to the Melbourne Lithuanian Club for the wake.

Napoleonas bequeathed $30,000 to the Australian Lithuanian Fund. It was about half of his estate and, at that time, the biggest contribution to the Fund. It had been created through donations to develop and nurture Lithuanian cultural activities institutions around Australia. Napoleonas had said in his will, ‘Use my savings for the Lithuanian cause according to your wisdom’.

The Reserve Bank of Australia estimates that the $30,000 in 1983 would have had a buying power equivalent to nearly $118,000 in 2024. The interest it would have earned since 1983 could be taken into account too, although clearly some of the money has been spent on worthwhile projects – from the interest earned, rather than Napoleonas’ capital.

Also, in the immediate aftermath of his death, 16 people and organisations had donated a total of $125 to the Fund in his memory. The Reserve Bank estimation of the modern buying power of this amount is $490.

Discovering Australia

We know that he also cared about his new homeland, Australia, as he became a naturalised Australian citizen on 26 September 1955.

His niece, Dana Baltutienė wrote about him in the Mūsų Pastogė issue of 12 March 1984.

“My memories of my uncle Napoleon from the time in Lithuania are rather vague. I was still too young. I got to know my uncle more closely in the German camp in Oldenburg, where he then taught at a school for Lithuanian fugitives and deportees. Our family lived in a neighbouring camp, and Napoleonas visited us often.

“My uncle and I came to Australia in 1947.* He was sent to Tasmania for contract work, leaving my parents in northern Victoria. In 1951, uncle bought a house in Melbourne, in the suburb of St Kilda. At first, my parents also took shelter under that roof.

“At that time, the Lithuanians of Melbourne had already started organising community life, and our family actively got involved. Uncle, of course, had become a member of the family. We went everywhere together to dances, plays, to church on Sundays.

“When he bought a car, a new period of traveling around Victoria began in my life. Whenever my uncle was able to get away from work and I from school, we would travel together. During five years of living together in St Kilda we drove across Victoria. We travelled very simply, without any amenities. When the evening came, uncle would park the car away from the road, tie his own a hammock between two eucalyptus trees and sleep. I, meanwhile, made my bed in the bushes. As soon as the sun came up, we continued our journey. Uncle was never looking for conveniences.

“Later, after I got married, he bought a tent and a spirit stove. He extended his travels even to northern Australia. After returning, he shared his impressions with us, showing photos and slides from the trip.

“Uncle was a friendly person, a bright face in Melbourne's Lithuanian community. He lived a modest and simple life. He neither smoked nor drank nor ate meat. He had loved books since he was young, and as he got older, he became even more attached to them.

“He often wrote about various topics in our press. He nurtured the Esperanto language, submitted essays to their publications.

“After falling ill with arthritis in his legs, he returned to his youthful hobby of painting. His drawings, dominated by nature, Australian eucalyptus trees and the sun, decorate the rooms of his wife, daughter and grandson in Lithuania.”

In Conclusion

To be buying his own house in 1951, maybe less than 4 years after arrival in Australia, is amazing. Someone who did not drink alcohol, smoke or eat meat, however, would have had much lower living expenses than someone who did.

The photograph of Napoleonas used with his Teviškės Aidai obituary

Source:  Teviškės Aidai

Thanks to that large donation from his estate, Napoleonas’ legacy lives on in literature as well as his art. For instance, one of the first steps after Lithuanian freedom from Soviet control in 1991 was the publication of an anthology called Po Pietų Kryžium or Under the Southern Cross.

Money from the Australian Lithuanian Fund, including from Napoleonas’ estate, was used to print this anthology in Lithuania, at a price much less than the cost of preparing and printing a book in Australia. This was organised through the efforts of Napoleonas’ niece, Dana Baltutienė, now chairing the Lithuanian Cultural Council. When the anthology became available to Australian purchasers in 1991, it was possible to offer it for sale at only $10 a copy, a price of about $23 in 2024. Of course, it also had offered business to a newly independent Lithuanian printing house and its employees.

Footnote

* Her uncle certainly came to Australia in 1947, but Dana was hazy about her own date of arrival. A Bonegilla camp identity card has Danuta Butkevicius arriving on the Svalbard, which reached Australia on 28 June 1949. Although Dana was already 11 years old, the signature on the card is V. Butkevicius or her father, Vaclovas, who came with his wife and Danuta on the same voyage. Also on that voyage was another Butkevicius, Jonas. If he was related, there were now 3 brothers in Australia. And, for there to be a nephew with a different family name, at least one of his sisters probably reached Australia too.

CITE THIS AS:  Pocius, D, Ščevinskienė, R and Tündern-Smith, A (2025) 'Napoleonas Butkunas (1907-1983), Patriot, Photographer, Philanthropist'

Sources

Australijos Lietuvis [The Australian Lithuanian] (1951) ['Advertising'] Melbourne, 29 October, page 14 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280320837, accessed 8 September 2025.

Baltrukonienė, Alisa (1983) ‘Mirusieji, Anapilin Iškeliavo Napoleonas Butkūas’, ‘The Dead, Napoleonas Butkūnas has set off for Anapilis’ Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 4 April, p 2 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1983/1983-04-04-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 13 March 2025.

Baltrukonienė, Alisa (1991) ‘”Po Pietų Kryžium”’ [‘”Under the Southern Cross”’] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 15 April, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1991/1991-04-15-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 11 March 2025.

Butkevičiūtė-Baltutienė, Dana (1984) ‘Dėdė Napoleoną Prisimenant’ [‘Remembering Uncle Napoleonas’] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 12 March, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1984/1984-03-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 12 March 2025.

Find a Grave, 'Napoleonas Butkunas' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212474059/napoleonas-butkunas accessed 9 September 2025.

Kazokas, Genovaitė Elena (1992) ‘Lithuanian Artists in Australia 1950-1990, Volume II’, Hobart, University of Tasmania, thesis. https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Lithuanian_artists_in_Australia_1950-1990_Vols_I_and_II/23205632/1, accessed 8 September 2025.

Kazokas, Genovaitė (2003) Lithuanian Artists in Australia, 1950-1990 Melbourne, Europe-Australia Institute, pp 187-8.

My Heritage, 'Napoleonas Butkūnas(Butkevičius)' https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-1-OYYV6P5EABRTJ4FB3EB2WUN4XXQXZKY-1-16/napoleonas-butk%C5%ABnasbutkevi%C4%8Dius-in-myheritage-family-trees, accessed 11 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-; 1955/3672, Application for Naturalisation - BUTKUNAS Napoleonas born 22 January 1907, 1954-1955; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8838788, accessed 10 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla],1947- 1956; BUTKEVICIUS DANUTA, BUTKEVICIUS, Danuta : Year of Birth - 1938 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - SVALBARD : Number - [UNKNOWN], 1949-1949 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203671692 accessed 8 September 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, 'Inflation Calculator', https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualDecimal.html accessed 11 March 2025.

Popenhagen, Luda (2012) Australian Lithuanians Kensington, NSW, University of New South Wales Press, p 127.

pv (1984) 'Pašventintas Napoleono Butkūno Antkapis' ['Napoleon Butkunas' Tombstone Consecrated'] Teviškės Aidai [The Echoes of Homeland] Melbourne, March 23, p 7, https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1984/1984-03-23-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 8 September 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘1934 Lithuanian coup attempt’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_Lithuanian_coup_attempt accessed 14 March 2025.

Zubras, A (1984) ‘Jis tikėjo Lietuvos ateitimi’ [‘He believed in Lithuania’s future’] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 12 March, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1984/1984-03-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 11 March 2025.

The Three Smilgevicius Passengers on the Heintzelman, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 14-16, 24 and 26 September, and 1 October 2025.

Looking through the list of names of those who arrived on the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, we often wonder about relationships and friendships between those on board. When we see the same surname, our first thought is, are they related? Maybe they are brothers, or cousins? When Daina saw the name Smilgevicius three times, she wanted to know if there was a connection.

Izidorius Smilgevičius

Izidorius, or Izzy as he was known in Australia, was born on the 11 February 1924 in the village of Truikiai, close to the town of Plungė. Named after his father, he was a farm worker while residing in Lithuania. The population at the time Izidorius lived in Truikiai was about the same as it is today, around 150.

He was only 22 years old when he arrived in Australia. He was described on his arrival statement as having worked previously as a general labourer. He therefore was suited to continuing to work as a labourer.

Izzy's ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was among 185 Baltic men sent from the Bonegilla camp to pick fruit in northern Victoria’s Goulburn Valley, in his case, for Messrs Dundas Simson in Ardmona.

When that fruit season finished, Izzy returned to Bonegilla on 31 March 1948. With still most of his two-year contract to work, his next placement was to Tasmania, where he was sent after 4 days back in Bonegilla.

Izzy’s Bonegilla card does not say what he was to do in Tasmania. Ramunas Tarvydas, in his From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, fills in the missing information. Ramunas or Ray says that Izzy first picked apples in the Huon Valley in the southeast of Tasmania. When that work finished, the Commonwealth Employment service sent him to the northwest, to work for the Electrolytic Zinc Company at Rosebery. His working and living conditions, and his Baltic companions, are described in Jonas Mockunas’ recent entry in this blog.

An Alien Registration file for one of Izzy's fellow workers, Juozas Jablonskis, records that these two had absconded from Rosebery, along with Juozas Paskevicius and Jonas Rauba.  They had been thoughtful enough to write to the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) in Queenstown to say that they were leaving.  A few days later, in February 1949, the senior CES official in Tasmania sent a second letter to the Commonwealth Migration Officer in that State, saying that all 4 were thought to be at a specific address in East Melbourne.

The next letter from the CES to the Commonwealth Migration Officer, Hobart, states that all 4 had been found to be working for Hume Steel in Footscray while still living at the East Melbourne address.  By this time, March 1949, the CES had been dealing with enough absconders to decide that, if they found new work of a kind that happened to be in the national interest, they should be left to pursue it.  

The building products manufactured by Hume Steel would have fitted into that category.  The CES Director, Hobart, advised his Immigration counterpart that the Melbourne CES was taking no further action pending further advice.  There are no more relevant papers on the Jablonskis file so we can assume that there was no further action.

A professional portrait of Izidorius

Source:  Collection of Izidorius Smilgevičius

In Melbourne, Izidorius married Victorian-born Clara Edith Matthews, ten years his senior, and became a house painter.  He is recorded as being an early donor to the Melbourne Lithuanian Club and a member of the Melbourne Lithuanian Catholic parish.

Ann discovered a message online from Clara’s niece, Joy Spain, after she had posted the First Transport’s passenger list to the Immigrant Ships Transcribers’ Guild Website. Izzy was in a high-care nursing home and wanted to see a picture of the ship which brought him to Australia, so Joy took Ann to visit him there in 2012.  Although Joy’s message said that Izzy was in reasonable health, he clearly was bedridden but pleased to see his ship again.

Izidorius died two years later, on 6 December 2014 aged 90 years.  Clara had passed away almost 23 years previously in 1981.  They are buried together in the Warringal Cemetery, in Heidelberg, Melbourne.

Izzy and Clara Smilgevicius' headstone in the Warringal Cemetery
Source:  John William Constantine through Find A Grave

Jurgis Smilgevičius

Jurgis was born on the 22 June 1919, in the Laumakiai manor, located near the beautiful Venta River, in the Šiauliai district. Here he was taught to read and write at home. His parents died, leaving him an orphan the age of ten. His maternal uncle, Liudvikas Ragauskas, took him into his family.

His obituary in Mūsų Pastogė, the main Lithuanian newspaper in Australia, said that he finished 4 classes at the Kelmė school and another 4 at the Šiauliai Boys' school in 1937. His selection papers for migration to Australia confirm that he had finished a full 8 years of secondary education.

In 1937, Jurgis entered the Military School. In 1938, he graduated with the rank of artillery reserve lieutenant. During 1938-40, he studied electrical engineering at the Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas. When the University was closed during WWII, Jurgis moved to Germany and finished his studies in 1947 at the Technical University of Braunschweig, majoring in electrical engineering.

Here was another Lithuanian with a full 12 years of school plus a higher education. His military career and his degree in electrical engineering from Braunsweig follow the same pattern as that recently described for Jonas Motiejūnas. Perhaps they even were in the same classes.

Like Jonas, he was accepted for resettlement in Australia in October 1947, and sailed on the First Transport.

Jurgis Smilgevicius from his selection papers for Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

His uncle Liudvikas also came to Australia, on the Anna Salen arriving on 22 June 1949. Sadly, Liudvikas was only in Australia for five years before he died of a heart attack. The Communists had taken his wife and three children to Siberia, and he had been imprisoned in a Communist prison for a long time. When Liudvikas declared his intention to be naturalised in the year before he died, his place of residence was given as Sunbury Mental Hospital (where he probably was working).

Jurgis’ first job in Australia had nothing to do with electrical or any other kind of engineering. Instead, he joined the fruit-pickers in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley from 29 January 1948, working for Mr E Fairley of Shepparton. After the season ended and he returned to the Bonegilla camp on 1 April, his next employer was the Templestowe Brickworks, in Heidelberg, Melbourne, starting two weeks later.

On his 50th birthday in June 1969, Jurgis celebrated with friends in Geelong and spoke about himself and the difficulties he had encountered. The brickyard foreman would point the workers out to customers as if they special attractions — here a professor, here a doctor, a lawyer or engineer. Fortunately, it did not take long for a happy coincidence to allow Jurgis’ qualifications to be recognised, so he began working in his specialty.

He married Regina Narbutaitė, who had arrived on the Second Transport, the General Stewart, on 12 February 1948. They married on 20 December 1948 in Melbourne. It was a civil registry wedding rather than a church one, because Jurgis had to describe himself as divorced.

Jurgis Smilgevicius in 1947

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Jurgis was married before the War and had two daughters, Violeta and Liliana. They were separated by the flight to Germany. The two girls with their mother, Valentina, and grandmother, Marija, were resettled in Michigan, USA. Jurgis was able to meet Violeta when she visited Australia 30 years later. Jurgis travelled to Michigan to visit them as well.

One month after the marriage, Jurgis lodged a sponsorship to bring Regina’s 61-year-old father to Australia from Germany. He reported that he was earning £8/5/- per week at the brickworks while Regina was able to earn £5/5/- each week.

Jurgis’ income translates into only $16.50 in decimal currency, but its buying power now would be about $570, adjusting for inflation. As of November 1948, the basic wage for men was £5/19/-, so Jurgis’ income compares well as it was nearly 40 per cent higher. Regina, of course, was earning only three-quarters of the £7/-/- a man would be paid for doing her work.

The speed with which Regina and then her father followed Jurgis to Australia makes us think that this was a special friendship which had developed in a Displaced Persons camp in the British Zone, where these two had found refuge. Valentina, in the American Zone, signed an English-language letter on 4 October, her signature certified by the camp’s Executive Officer, stating that she had not lived with her husband since 1944. She further declared that she had no objections to her husband migrating to Australia and that she would “not raise any summons” against the Australian Government for supporting her family or “other matters concerning (her) husband”.

This must have cleared the way for the early migration of this still married man, after the Australian Government had made it clear that all on the First Transport were to be single people. This was to give officials greater freedom to send the new arrivals where they were most required without having to worry about their dependents.

Jurgis was one of the founding members of the Melbourne Lithuanian community and was elected to its first committee in August 1948.

There was a major housing shortage in Australia’s cities after WWII, given that those who would have been building new accommodation were fighting instead. As a consequence, rents were high. Jurgis and Regina saved hard for a deposit, which he put down on a housing block. 

He started to build a small house, a tiny house even, with an area of 14 square metres. He worked on it at weekends. Living there was hard for his wife, as running water and electricity were not connected at first. Regina gave birth to both their daughters from this unfinished house.

Jurgis and Regina's first home

Source:  Mockūnienė, Lietuviai Australijoje

On 25 August 1955, Jurgis and Regina Smilgevicius became naturalised Australians. This was reported separately for each by Commonwealth Gazette but the address in both reports was the same. The new house was at 38 Clyde Steet in the west Melbourne suburb of Newport.

Jurgis worked as an engineer for Melbourne’s trams and for the State Electricity Commission. In the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation, he was appointed in October 1958 to the position of Airway Engineer on a salary range of £903-£1,353 per annum, which the Reserve Bank calculates now would buy $35,000-$52,000. Since salaries have risen faster than inflation for the past 67 years, we can say that he definitely had a good income. Another way of looking at that income is to look at the basic wage for men in 1958, which was less than half of Jurgis’ starting salary, at £425.

In February 1972, Regina too joined the Federal Public Service, as an Assistant Postal Officer Grade 1 with the Postmaster General’s Department. Her salary was not published in the Commonwealth Gazette notifying her appointment

After retiring in 1980, they moved to Surfers Paradise. In 1981 they initiated a meeting of local Lithuanians and the formation of an eldership (Lietuvių Seniūnijus). Initially it was only a group of 10, but when it grew to over 30, 8 years later, he passed on his role as secretary.

Jurgis Smilgevicius (left) with Antanas Vailionis, Liudas Krašauskas, and Juozas Songaila

Source:  Gold Coast Lithuanian newsletter, 9 March 2003

He was reported to have been the sort of person who got on well with everyone.

Jurgis passed away on the Gold Coast on14 October 2006. His ashes are interred in the Allambe Memorial Park, Nerang, Gold Coast City, Queensland.

Jurgis Smilgevicius' plaque in a rose garden at the Allambe Memorial Park

Source:  JanetET in Find A Grave

Kazys Smilgevičius

Kazys was born in Jankaičiai village, in the district of Rietavas, Lithuania, on 18 December 1922.  The population of this village has shrunk from 123 at the time of Kazys' birth to 10 in 2011, the latest available figures.

He was a tailor and single when he arrived in Australia on board the General Stuart Heinzelman on 28 November 1947. After a short time in Bonegilla, he was one of the 64 sent to Adelaide to labour for the South Australian Government’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) at Bedford Park.

Later he worked for the E&WS at Port Lincoln and Murdinga on the Eyre Peninsula, then moved to General Motors-Holden (GMH) to work as a spot welder. As the Adelaide News in May 1949 reported that he had been living in North Adelaide for about 6 months, he probably had been able to find his GMH job in late 1948 (with Commonwealth Employment Service and Department of Immigration permission, of course).

Kazys’ time in Australia was only beginning when tragedy stuck.

Kazys Smilgevicius' death as reported in the Adelaide Advertiser of 21 May 1949

Source:  Trove

He had been in Australia for less than 18 months.

He lies buried in West Terrace cemetery with a headstone erected by the Lithuanian community. The inscription “Teesie tavo valia” usually is rendered in English as “Thy will be done”.

Kazys Smilgevicius' headstone in the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide

Source:  Catherine@SA in Find A Grave

Conclusion

After researching the three Smilgevičius men, we could see that they are not related. The common features that Daina has noted are that all three are Žemaičiai (the plural of Žemaičias, meaning someone from Žemaitija) and all three are buried in a foreign land far from their home of birth.

Žemaitija or Samogitia is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania. Located in the northwest "lowland" of the country, its capital is Telšiai and the largest city is Šiauliai. Through the centuries, Samogitia has developed a separate culture featuring with its own architecture, folk costumes, dances, songs, traditions, and a distinct language. A Žemaitis trait is stubbornness: they never give up when in trouble and stubbornly pursue a goal. That’s a perfect characteristic for thriving in a new country.

Sources

Advertiser (1949) ‘Balt found dead after accident’ Adelaide, 21 May, page 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/36367983, accessed 11 May 2025.

Age (1954) ‘Public Notices (Ragauskas Liuduikas)’ Melbourne, 14 July, p 11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/19714654, accessed 6 September 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis [Australian Lithuanian] (1949) ‘Ie Vėl Tragiška Lietuvio Mirtis [‘Here Comes Another Tragic Death of a Lithuanian’, in Lithuanian] Adelaide, 23 May, p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280321223, accessed 11 May 2025.

Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, ‘Family History Search’ https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/login, accessed 6 September 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1956), ‘Certificates of Naturalization’, 5 January, p 14 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232876169/25098341, accessed 11 May 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958), ‘Department of Civil Aviation’ 30 October, p 3712, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240882809, accessed 11 May 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1972), ‘Postmaster-General’s Department’, 17 February, p 47, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241063103, accessed 11 May 2025.

Draugė (2006) ‘A✟A Jurgis Smilgevičius, 1922.06.19–2006.10.14’ [‘RIP Jurgis Smilgevicius, 1922.06.19–2006.10.14’ in Lithuanian], Sydney, 8 November, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2006/2006-11-08-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 11 May 2025.

Fair Work Commission ‘The Minimum Wage and Fitter (Trade) Rate since 1906’ https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/resources/minimum-wage-since-1906-fitter-table-real-value.pdf accessed 12 May 2025.

Find a Grave 'Izidorius Smilgevicius', https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194474754/izidorius-smilgevicius, accessed 7 September 2025.

Find a Grave 'Jurgis Smilgevicius' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/220726332/jurgis-smilgevicius, accessed 7 September 2025.

Find a Grave 'Kazys Smilgevicius' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166040462/kazys-smilgevicius,  accessed 7 September 2025. 

Hume Steel Engineering, 'Steel and Metal Fabricator' https://www.humesteel.com.au/, accessed 14 September 2025.

Krausas, A (1953) ‘Lietuviai apsigyvena Melbourne’ [‘Lithuanians settle in Melbourne’, in Lithuanian] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 1 July, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259358418, accessed 11 May 2025.

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Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1955) ‘Pirmieji Melbourno Lietuviū Namų Statytojai’ [First Melbourne Lithuanian House Builders’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 5 October, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259364361, accessed 11 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1956) ‘Melbourno Liet. Namų Statytojai’ [‘Melbourne Lithuanian House Builders’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 7 November, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259364141, accessed 11 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1969) ‘Geelong, Inž Jurgiui Smilgevičiui 50 m’ [Geelong, Engineer Jurgis Smilgevicius’ 50th Birthday, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 7 July, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1969/1969-07-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 12 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1993) ‘Lietuviai auksininame pajūryje’ [‘Lithuanians are mining gold at the seaside’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 28 June, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1993/1993-06-28-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 12 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1955) ‘Mirė L. Ragauskas’ [‘Death of L. Ragauskas’, in Lithuanian]’ Sydney, 23 February, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259358293?searchTerm=ragauskas, accessed 6 September 2025.

My Tributes, ‘Funeral notice for SMILGEVICIUS, Izidorius (Izzy)’ https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/funeral-notices/smilgevicius-izidorius-izzy/4771888/ accessed 11 May 2025.

National Archives 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); 1949/565, Applicant - SMILGEVICIUS Jurgis; Nominee - NARBUTAS Vladas; nationality Lithuanian recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7873413, accessed 6 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations [Main correspondence files series of the agency]; 1955/44365, Application for Naturalisation - SMILGEVICIUS Jurgis born 22 June 1919; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8822042, accessed 6 September 2025.

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National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42); 37/526, SMILGEVICIUS Izidorius born 11 February 1924; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7272979, accessed 26 August 2025.

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National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch, D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series; SMILGEVICIUS KAZYS, SMILGEVICIUS Kazys - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9210856, accessed 6 September 2025.

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National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents (1948-1965); SMILGEVICIUS Jurgis - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Melbourne per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - 28 November 1947 (1919-1948) recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4161568, accessed 6 September 2025.

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National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; SMILGEVICIUS Jurgis : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 677 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203702821, accessed 6 September 2025.

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Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle : fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998.

Vikipedija, ‘Truikiai’ [in Lithuanian] https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truikiai accessed 10 May 2025.

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Vikipedija, ‘Truikiai’ [in Lithuanian] https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truikiai accessed 10 May 2025.

The Electrona Carbide Factory, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Eight First Transport Men to Electrona

We’ve just had an entry about Jonas Motiejūnas, the leader of the Lithuanian men on the First Transport, whose first job after fruit-picking was with the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company at Electrona in Tasmania.*

Along with Jonas, the others sent to Electrona were Lithuanians Kazys Alseika, Anicetas Grigaliunas and Algirdas Jonas Smelstorius, and Estonians, Sven Kiväli, Raimond Uster, Erich Väli and Kalev Veermäe. That’s 4 Lithuanians and 4 Estonians, 8 in all. At least the two ethnic groups had 3 or more years of German in common for some cross-cultural communication.

A Launceston Examiner report from 1950 says that the factory was employing 150 men. Ramunas Tarvydas, in his 1997 book, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, writes that the factory, plus the quarry at Ida Bay supplying the limestone which the factory processed, employed around 200 in 1965.

Coke – the coal product, not the soft drink – was the other input which the factory needed to manufacture calcium carbide. This carbide is a solid which reacts with water to produce acetylene gas.

Jonas Motiejūnas told Ray Tarvydas about shovelling coal, not coke. Perhaps the carbide factory’s furnaces created the conditions required to turn coal into coke during the production process.

Using acetylene for lighting was common still in mid-20th century Australia. Another major use of acetylene still is in welding.

Acetylene carbide bicycle lamp:  visit Coffs Collections for information on how it worked

Source:  Coffs Collections

The factory’s prior history

The Electrona Carbide factory had been opened in 1917 by James Gillies, a metallurgist who patented a method for the electrolytic extraction of zinc from ores. His process required lots of electricity, so he moved from New South Wales to Tasmania with the idea of using that state’s topography and plentiful rainfall to set up a hydroelectric scheme.

Weather and politics led to the Tasmanian Government taking over his hydro scheme, which became the forerunner of the State’s Hydro-electric Commission, now Hydro Tasmania. Gillies’ Great Lake Scheme, together with the Electrona carbide factory, are seen as the start of industrialisation in Tasmania.

Just as it took over his hydroelectric scheme, the Government took over the carbide factory in 1923. From 1934, it was operated by the Commonwealth Carbide Company of London. At some stage before 1948, it had been taken over again, so was operated by the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company when the first Baltic refugees arrived.

The men’s work

As a qualified engineer, Jonas Motiejūnas was in a good position to assess the nature of the work. Here is how Ray Tarvydas wrote up his assessment.

(Click on the image for a more legible version, click the cross in the upper right to return here)

It is possible that nothing had changed in the 30 years since the factory opened.

The carbide works in 1920

Source:  Rimon, Carbide Works

Motiejūnas was able to get a transfer from this dangerous work after discussion with a CES official. Tarvydas reports that another of the 8, Sven Kiviväli, was able to transfer to Melbourne after his mother, grandmother and sister arrived. Clearly these women needed a man to look after them, although Sven had just turned 19 when the rest of the family arrived in January 1949.

Tarvydas says that the 3 other Estonians decided that they too needed to leave when Sven was able to go.  Like Endrius Jankus, they probably were tracked down by the Commonwealth Employment Service and sent to new jobs (we have to hope) of the CES' choosing.

It will be interesting to see, if we can, how the remaining 3 from the First Transport coped.

* Although the Bonegilla cards for each of the 8 refer to “Australian Carbide Co, Electrona, Tas”, newspaper reports from the time show that the owner’s full name was the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company Limited.

CITE THIS AS:  Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'The Electrona Carbide Factory' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/08/electrona-carbide-factory.html

Sources

Coffs Collections 'Acetylene bicycle lamp' https://coffs.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/59599, accessed 14 August 2025.

Examiner (1950) ‘Carbide Works May Close’, Launceston, Tasmania, 18 March, p 14, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52775382, accessed 12 August 2025.

Hydro Tasmania, https://www.hydro.com.au/, accessed 13 August 2025.

Rimon, Wendy (2006) ‘Carbide Works’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/C/Carbide%20Works.htm accessed 13 August 2025. [Rimon’s description of the process and products does not tally with Motiejūnas’ description, possibly because both changed over time.]

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, pages 34-36.

Wikipedia, ‘Electrona, Tasmania’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrona,_Tasmania, accessed 13 August 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Hydro Tasmania’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_Tasmania, accessed 13 August 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘James Hyndes Gillies’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hyndes_Gillies, accessed 13 August 2025.