Railton, 1948: Goliath Portland Cement Company from Endrius Jankus' collection, by Ann Tündern-Smith

First published on 15 July 2023, updated on 2 December 2023, 23 February and 25 November 2024, and 26 January 2025.

During his 11-12 months working for the Goliath Portland Cement Company in Railton, Tasmania, Endrius Jankus collected photographs taken by another of the refugees.  Presumably, he purchased these at the going rate, around 5 pence per photograph, as calculated from information he provided in his translated diary entry, published here in the Bonegilla 1947-1948: Another Two Weeks, from New Year's Day (January 1-13) blog entry.  Probably, it was 6 pence or half a shilling for an individual photo, with a reduced rate for bulk purchases.  So here are the photos.

A group of Goliath Cement workers in 1948; From the left, Mindaugas Sumskas, a local, Povilas Niaura, Vaclovas Kalytis, Endrius Jankus, Kazys Vilutis
and (in front) Aleksandras Zilinskas

Smoko while loading a rail wagon of cement
Front: Povilas Niaura; Middle: Mindaugas Sumskas, Aleksandras Zilinskas, Tony Viknius; Rear: unknown, Endrius Jankus with a dark face, Kazys Vilutis, unknown

Lunchtime at the cement factory
 Standing: Povilas Niaura and a local; seated: Endrius Jankus, Aleksandras Zilinskas, unknown, Henrikas Surkavicius, Mindaugas Sumskas

Another 1948 lunch group at the Goliath factory:  Left to right, Endrius Jankus,
Povilas Niaura, Vaclovas Kalytis, Henrikas Surkavicius, Antanas Viknius, 
Kasys Vilutis, Mindaugas Sumskas, Vytautas Stasiukynas

Four of the men have a smoke before a concert at Railton:
Left to right they are Endrius Jankus, Aleksandras Zilinskas,
Kazys Vilutis and Vaclovas Kalytis
(You can view larger versions of any photographs above by double-clicking on them)

The Bonegilla cards of 18 men show that they were sent directly to the Goliath Company at Railton.  Endrius Jankus' card shows that he was sent to Tasmania for fruit picking but we know from the photographs above and other evidence that he then moved onto Railton.  There might be others like that, such as Vaclovas Kalytis and Aleksandras Zilinskas. Comparing names from various sources, I have come up with a list of 22, consisting of 3 Estonians, 5 Latvians and 15 Lithuanians:

Napoleonas Butkunas

Endrius Jankus

Vaclovas Kalytis

Mykolas Kartanas

Armands Laula

Johannes Liiberg

Povilas Niaura

Edmundas Obolevicius

Juozas Peciulis

Jonas Razvidaukas

Harolds Ronis

Alfred Saik

Antanas Simkus

Vytautas Stasiukynas

Evalds Stelps

Mindaugas Sumskas

Henrikas Surkevicius

Endel Uduste

Helmuts Upe

Antanas Viknius

Kazys Vilutis

Ojars Vinklers

Aleksandras Zilinskas

As recounted in Paul (Povilas) Niaura's story, the initial accommodation was in Goliath's single men's camp.  At first, they moved into the existing huts, but new ones for the new arrivals soon were built.  Ray Tarvydas says that, after wood and tools for making furniture were provided, it was Anton Viknius who showed the others how to do it.

Ramunas adds that, at first, most worked in the factory or the quarry, where the work was harder but the pay better.  Henrikas Surkevicius was promoted to the analytical laboratory after 3 months.  A document from post-WWII Germany made available by the Arolsen Archives shows that this is not a surprise:  his occupation was recorded there as 'Chemiker' or 'chemist'.

What is surprising is that a younger brother apparently left a gold mine in Canada to join Henrikas at Goliath Cement!  On his Bonegilla card, Henrikas recorded his next of kin as a brother, Teodoras, whose address was Picle (sic) Crow Gold Mines, Picle Crow, Ontario.  Teodoras has his own Bonegilla card showing his arrival in Australia on 24 March 1949 on the Mozaffari and his departure from Bonegilla on 6 June 1949 for Goliath Portland Cement Co Pty Ltd, Railton, Tasmania.

Perhaps Henrikas thought that his brother was headed for the Pickle Crow Mines but this turned out to be a plan which lapsed.  Arolsen Archive documents show Teodoras in Germany in 1946 and his 1949 Mozaffari voyage brought Displaced Persons from Germany who had travelled by train to Naples in Italy.

Someone has typed onto Teodoras' Bonegilla card 'none' in the Address of Next of Kin field, but his older brother in Australia was still working at Goliath.  Papers which appear to be working documents created by Ramunas Tarvydas have been acquired recently from the Goliath office through Stephen Niaura, son of Povilas (Paul).  Ramunas has recorded that Henrikas left Goliath on 30 June 1950.  His younger brother arrived one year earlier, on 8 June 1949, and stayed for more than the contracted 2 years, not leaving until 2 October 1952.

One of Ramunas' papers shows that 5 of the men 'absconded' during February 1949, so after only 9 months of labour at Railton.   Another 6 'left of own accord' during March and subsequent months.  These numbers do not include Endrius Jankus.  The labour expected of them could well have been way too hard after the wartime and post-war years of deprivation.

As per Endrius Jankus' story, the Commonwealth Employment Service may have tracked down the absconders and early leavers, to insist that they were not free to chose where they wanted to work.  They had been brought to Australia to fill vacancies which the Government had decided were in the national interest.  Finding where they were sent next probably will be difficult after the destruction of personal employment files, unless their absconding finished up on a policy file still held by Australia's National Archives.

By 2 October 1948, the local Burnie newspaper was reporting on a Railton function to celebrate one of Lithuania's national days.  Tarvydas writes that the singing was led by Vaclovas Kalytis and the women joining in the national dances were locals who had been taught the steps by Lithuanian men in the list above.  Kalytis kept the music going at other gatherings with his piano accordion.

Lithuanian migrants celebrate a national day,
with help from their Latvian, Estonian and Australian friends

Source:  Burnie Advocate, 2 October 1948, p 3

Arthur Calwell's Information Department considered the celebration so important that
it was included in the first draft of its newsletter for migrants, the New Australian

Source:  NAA, CP815/1, 021.148 

A later Lithuanian national day celebration to which the public was invited is described in more detail by Genovaitė Kazokas in her PhD thesis on Lithuanian Artists in Australia 1950-1990.  She wrote, "In September, 1949, the fifteen Lithuanian men working in Railton celebrated Lithuanian Day by organizing a Lithuanian folk-art exhibition, the first ever held in Tasmania, and by performing national songs and dances.  Invited guests included local clergy and Mr. Davies-Graham, the manager of the Railton Cement Works where the Lithuanians were employed.*

"Young local Tasmanian women, trained by the Lithuanians, partnered the men in folk dancing and the small male choir was trained and conducted by Vaclovas Kalytis. The programme also included a talk on Lithuanian history by Napoleonas Butkunas. 

"The male choir was invited to sing at several Catholic churches in the district.  The official Catholic newspaper published a complimentary report on the men's cultural abilities and activities.

"In an unusual move, motivated largely by his recognition of their cultural backgrounds, Mr. Davies-Graham recommended that several of the Lithuanians should be allowed to complete their work contracts in situations that would allow them to utilise their professional qualifications. As a result, one was appointed as an analytic chemist, another transferred as an agriculturist, and others to veterinary positions."** 

It's not a surprise, especially when we consider the folk dancing classes, that the newly arrived Baltic men challenged the local young men for single women.  Tarvydas reports that Aleksandras Zilinskas was supposed to have had two local girlfriends at the same time.  Their former boyfriends challenged Zilinskas to a fight, which he won.  That caused the local lads to gather others to their cause and march on the Baltic men's huts.  They had to be separated by the local policeman, who told them all to shake hands or "I'll bash your heads in".  The policeman prevailed.

We don't know who Aleksandras married but we do know that Mindaugas Sumskas was successful in marrying one of the local ladies.  She was Beverley Barker, daughter of Freda Barker, a widowed schoolteacher living in Railton.  Endrius Jankus remembers that Freda, "... opened her doors to us.  Her knowledge and advice helped many of us especially with problems in English and with government officials".

Another surprise, knowing Baltic habits, is that five of the men were non-drinkers.  A notable example was Edmundas Obolevicius, who was thought to be saving money to return to Europe.  This desire to return was a second reason why he was exceptional.

Tarvydas adds that, "Two more Baltic groups came to Railton later that year, and the last one in 1949".  The small town (2021 Census population still only 1,079) must have seemed very cosmopolitan in the years when it had its additional Baltic population.

We know that Povilas (Paul) Niaura stayed in Railton and that Endrius Jankus travelled to find his own work but returned to Tasmania.  I know that Henrikas Surkevicius and Mindaugas Sumskas moved to mainland Australia.  I've met with Armands Laula in Melbourne and Helmuts Upe in the hills to the east of Perth.  Any news of what happened to the remaining 14 will be received gratefully.

Footnotes

* Lithuania's National Day in February 16.  The only Lithuanian celebration is September might be for the autumn (in Lithuania) or spring (in Australia) equinox.  Napoleonas Butkunas participation in a 20 September 1949 celebration in Tasmania is at odds with the Aliens Registration record showing him reporting to the Melbourne Office of the Department of Immigration on 19 August 1949.  A September 1949 equinox celebration also would have occured 20 days after the First Transporters were to be released from their 2-year contracts.

** Henrikas Surkevicius' promotion to the analytical laboratory has been noted already.  Any advice on who was allowed to resume their agricultural or veterinary careers would be most welcome.

References

Advocate (Burnie, Tas), 'Migrants celebrate national day', 2 October 1948, p 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69190232, accessed 13 July 2023.

Harasym, R, 'The Pickle Lake Story', Sunset Country, Ontario, Canada, https://visitsunsetcountry.com/history-pickle-lake-ontario-canada, accessed 12 July 2023.

'Henrikas Surkevicius' in Lists of names of the town of Freiburg/Breisgau, Arolsen Archives DocID: 70850177, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70850177, accessed 12 July 2023.

Kazokas, Genovaitė Elena (1992) ‘Lithuanian Artists in Australia 1950-1990, Volume II’, Hobart, University of Tasmania, thesis. https://doi.org/10.25959/23205632.v1

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; Surkevicius, Henricas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1041, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203899949, accessed 13 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; Surkevicius, Teodoras : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - MOZAFFARI' : Number – [unknown], 1949-1949; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203899948, accessed 13 July 2023.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Information, Central Office; CP815/1, General correspondence files, two number series, 1938 - 1951; 021.148, Immigration - From Minister [correspondence with Immigration Publicity Officer], 1947 - 1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=263676, accessed 23 February 2024.

Tarvydas, Ramunas, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania, 1948-1998, 1997, Hobart, The author, pp 46-8.

Povilas Niaura (1919-2006): A Settled Settler, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 2 January 2024. 

Povilas Niaura recovered enough from the terrors of the war in Lithuania and Germany to settle happily in Tasmania. Sent to work at Goliath Portland Cement Co Ltd in Railton, he stayed with the company for the remainder of his working days. The company lent him and other workers a brick-making machine to build their own homes, so clearly the company was one which looked after its employees when they were loyal in return.

Povilas reached Railton on 28 April 1948 with 19 others from the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, exactly 5 months after reaching Australia. The group contained 13 Lithuanians, 4 Latvians and 3 Estonians. They had been sent to Victoria to pick fruit first.

The addition of these 20 men to the workforce of the main local industry was so important that the town put on a gala welcome for them.

Povilas Niaura in 1947, aged 26

Source:  NAA, A2571, Niaura, Povilas

Goliath Portland Cement is the reason for the continued existence of the town of Railton, although this also is a service centre for the surrounding agricultural and forestry community. It is only 23 Km south of the city of Devonport, on Tasmania’s north coast. Goliath took over the smaller Tasmanian Cement Pty Ltd in 1928, leading to Railton’s prosperity.

The new arrivals were accommodated in what Ramunas Tarvydas calls ‘the single men’s camp’. He adds, ‘At first the accommodation was shared, but soon the company built new huts for all the men. The huts had timber framing and were clad in their own “fibro” sheets. Inside was a folding iron bed, mattress and a couple of blankets. The company gave the men timber to make their own furniture, but no tools; eventually they relented on that point.’

Sixteen of the 17 Latvians and Lithuanians are in this photo,
perhaps taken by the seventeenth;
Povilas is the tallest man standing on the right

Source: Tarvydas, From Amber Coast ...

Tarvydas continues, ‘At first most of the Balts worked either in the factory or in the quarry, where the pay was five shillings per week more but the work harder. One of the more hazardous jobs, in hindsight, was making the asbestos-cement products, although [researching in the mid-1990s] no Balt seems to have suffered any long-term effects.’

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) has said that, ‘Goliath made everything from asbestos sheeting to a giant asbestos fairy penguin in its factory from 1947 to 1986’. Tarvydas adds that the company made ‘corrugated roofing, guttering, fascias, vats, etc.’

In the Railton district, Povilas met Margaret Jean, married and had two children, Stephen and Denise. Their cemetery plaques indicate that grandchildren too. Until 1948, the Niaura family name was not to be found in Tasmania. Now there are 8 adults in the family as well as great grandchildren.

Povilas, or Paul, the English equivalent of his Lithuanian name, worked for Goliath Cement for 36 years. He retired in 1984 at the age of 65. Despite attending English language lessons in the Bonegilla Camp and perhaps trying again with the lessons broadcast by the ABC, he never managed to read and write the language. 

This lack of fluent English limited his rise to more senior positions in the Company, but it did not stop it from trusting him to be sent to installation jobs.  They were a great improvement on his initial task, operating a jack hammer in the limestone quarry.

The most memorable of the roofing jobs was on a grandstand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in preparation for the 1956 Olympic Games.  There were times when he was away for weeks at a time, more often away than he was at home.

Son Stephen now has spent nearly as long with Goliath Cement as his father did. Stephen has clocked up 32 years. He now is a control room operator for the company, supervising from mining the limestone to the end products. His younger sister works with the Tasmanian Government-owned company which runs the ferries to and from Devenport in Tasmania, across Bass Strait to Geelong in Victoria.

One of the 6 grandchildren, Jason is a Pilates instructor and graphic designer, originally a hairdresser. Another, Bradley, is a former carpenter who is now regional manager of Fairbrother, a commercial and industrial construction, joinery and facilities management company operating in Tasmania and regional Victoria. The others are, respectively, James, another carpenter, Danielle, a school teacher, Katrina, a real estate agent and Rachel, a nurse. All contribute significantly to their local communities, to Tasmania and to Australia.

Paul was born to a farming family in Anykščiai, Lithuania, on 4 September 1919. His mother died when he was young so his father remarried. Along with Elžbieta (Elizabeth), his one full sister, he found himself living with something like 6 step-sisters and step-brothers.

Growing up on a farm, his skills were utilised by the Germans when they occupied Lithuania between the summers of 1941 and 1944. He was nearing 25 years old when the Soviet forces started their return. His oldest step-sister told him that he should run or else he would be shot by the Soviets. He took this advice. Like others exposed to a year of Communism under the Soviet rule in 1940-41, he would have wanted to get out. He could, as his food-production abilities would have led to the Germans to want to take him on their retreat.

He loved the farming life, so saved before marriage to buy 5 acres in Railton, where he built his house with Goliath’s brick-making machine. At first he rented out the house while continuing to live in the single men’s quarters. After he and Margaret Jean met and married, the 5 acres provided a semi-rural home for them and the two children.

The house that Paul built
with cement bricks courtesy of Goliath Portland Cement and its brick-making machine

Source: Stephen Niaura

The family had its own dairy cow and geese. Paul loved his geese. Regardless, they would be fattened and sold for the Christmas feasting of others. Every so often, the surplus milk could be churned into butter, which could be bartered for groceries at the local store. Paul’s son, Stephen, still keeps geese on the Railton land.

Stephen Niaura's geese

Source:  Stephen Niaura

The barn that Paul built to store feed for his animals on the 5 acres

Source: Stephen Niaura

Paul's cowshed, with the bail for milking the house cow on the left;
now a home for chickens

Source: Stephen Niaura

After the children were born, Paul still had enough money to buy 50 acres at Sunnyside, less than 10 minutes’ drive southeast of Railton. He raised beef cattle there, with help from Stephen when he was old enough.

Paul became an Australian citizen in August 1959.

When Lithuania’s impending independence became obvious again from the late 1980s, Paul wished that he could go back to see his remaining family. The question of cost arose, so he was urged to sell the 50 acres to raise the money. Having done this, however reluctantly, he spent some weeks in his homeland.

Before he returned to Australia, the family gathered to tell him that part of the land which had been restored to them by the Lithuanian Government was his. He assured them that he was handing it back to them to use as they saw fit.

Denise and her daughter have also been able to spend time in Lithuania visiting relatives. Neither had learnt much of Paul’s language from him, but they stayed with a great nephew of Paul’s, a Lithuanian who spoke English, having visited the United States and United Kingdom.

The house Paul built in Railton is still in the family though the 5 acres decreased when some had to be sold to pay for the cost of connecting to the town’s new sewerage system.

Paul Niaura in December 1997, at a reunion of Tasmanian 'First Swallows',
the name Lithuanian passengers from the First Transport gave themselves

Source: Hobart Mercury, 2 December 1997

If Paul had developed any signs of mesothelioma from his work with asbestos, it would have cut short what became an extremely long life. He was 87 years old when he died on 18 November 2006. He was buried in the Mersey Vale Memorial Park in Quoiba, a southern suburb of Devonport.

Grave Marker for Paul Niaura

Source: FindAGrave.com

Paul’s early plans to buy land for farming led to Aussie drinking mates christening him ‘Cocky’. The School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the Australian National University thinks that this nickname arose in the 1870s, as an abbreviation of cockatoo farmer. Back then, it was a disparaging term for small-scale farmers, probably because of a habit of using a small area of land for a short time and then moving on, like cockatoos feeding.

‘Cocky’ stuck with Paul to his memorial plaque. This features his geese, though, looking especially pampered, rather than cockatoos. The Cocky nickname has transferred to his son Stephen, who initially was ‘Cocky Junior’.

Margaret Jean lies besides him. She was only 73 years old when she died less than 3 years after him. This means that there was a 16-year age gap when she married the tall (5 feet 10 inches or 178 cm on one form and 6 feet 1 inch or 185 on another) and handsome foreigner in the 1950s.

Grave marker for Margaret Niaura

Source: FindAGrave.com

I thank Stephen and Denise Niaura for their assistance with this biography.

Sources

Australian Broadcasting Commission, ‘New factory owner managing asbestos tragedy’, ABC News, 8-12 May 2010, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-05-08/new-factory-owner-managing-asbestos-tragedy/427088, accessed 21 January 2023.

‘Certificates of Naturalization’, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 26 November 1959, p 4167, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240887808, accessed through Trove, 20 March 2023.

'Fairbrother', https://www.fairbrother.com.au/, accessed 2 January 2024.

'Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms, C', School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences, https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/andc/meanings-origins/c#:~:text=Cocky, accessed 2 April 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; NIAURA, Povilas : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 795, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203689468, accessed 2 April 2023.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1184, Registration papers for non-British migrants, lexicographical series, 1949 - circa 1966; Niaura P, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1777815, accessed 2 April 2023.

Niaura, Denise, personal communications, March 2023.

Niaura, Stephen, personal communications, February-March 2023 and January 2024.

‘Paul “Cocky” Niaura’, Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/234461136/paul-niaura/photo, accessed 2 January 2024.

‘People whose last name is NIAURA’, LocateFamily.com, https://www.locatefamily.com/N/NIA/NIAURA-1.html, accessed 21 January 2023.

‘Railton: Quiet country town south of Devonport’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 February 2004, https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/railton-20040208-gdkqow.html, accessed 21 January 2023.

Rimon, Wendy, ‘Goliath Cement’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History, 2006, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/G/Goliath%20Cement.htm, accessed 21 January 2023.

Tarvydas, Ramunas, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, pp 46-8.

Whitfield, Meg, ‘Railton firie recognised for more than 30 years service’, The Advocate, (Burnie, Tasmania), 25 May 2021. Also https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/7266622/railton-firie-recognised-for-more-than-30-years-service/?cs=3674, accessed 26 February 2023.

Wikipedia, ‘Lithuania Independence Restoration Day’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania_Independence_Restoration_Day, accessed 27 February 2023.