Vytautas Simniškis (1918- 1987), Leading Australian Lithuanian, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Lithuanian Leader in Australia

Vytautas Simniškis very quickly became a leader of the Lithuanian community in Australia.  Less than 5 years after arriving here on the First Transport, he became the second National President of ALB, Australijos Lietuvių Bendruomenė, the Australian Lithuanian Community, during 1953-54.

The earliest photo we have of Vytautas Simniškis is
from his 1947 selection papers for migration to Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

He stayed on the ALB board, initiating important developments for his community.  As well, from 1960 to 1983, he chaired the board of Sydney’s Lithuanian House.  During this time, he oversaw the club’s move from inner city Redfern to much larger, modern premises in Strathfield.  They have been described as “one of the most beautiful Lithuanian houses in the entire diaspora”.

Daina already has detailed this on her blog, Australian Lithuanian History.  In summary, during his ALB presidency, he was

• Responsible for developing close relationships with other exile organisations and Australian political parties;
• Raising the case for Lithuania’s independence through these organisations, nationally and internationally;
• Initiating a united Baltic committee to campaign for independence for all 3 countries.

Also while on the ALB board he

• Called together Sydney women to establish their Women's Social Care Association, in 1956: his wife was a member and served as President;
• Strengthened finances for the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven).

Daina published the Simniškis story only 6 months ago, but documents held by the National Archives of Australia for him and his wife have become available since then. Let’s see what they add to the story.

Vytautas' early life

Vytautas Simniškis was born in 2 October 1918, in Marijampolė, into a large family of a wealthy farmers.

Like many Lithuanians, Vytautas ended up in the Seedorf Camp after the end of the war in Germany.  This Camp was in Seedorf bei Zeven in what is now Lower Saxony, north-western Germany, in the British occupation zone.  It lay roughly midway between Hamburg and Bremen.  The British gave it the DP Accommodation Centre number DPAC 249.  There he used his previous clerical experience to be a warehouse manager.

According to the report of the selection panel for migration to Australia, he had reached Germany in October 1944.  His reason for coming was the usual, “Fled from Russian regime”.

He had completed 4 years of secondary education in addition to the minimum 4 years of primary school. 

In Lithuania he had been a clerk for 7 years, his qualifications for this being “trade school”.  Presumably that was his 4 years of secondary education.  He also had served in the Lithuanian armed forces for 18 months, during 1938-40.

Vytautas Starts Out in Australia

He served the Australian Government’s minimum of two years’ employment here at the brown coal mines of Yallourn, Victoria.

There had been a haircut and a shave before this photograph
was taken later in 1947 for Vytautas' Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

At the beginning of 1950, Vytautas moved to Sydney, where he put down his roots and devoted himself wholeheartedly to Lithuanian activities.  He bought a grocery store, which he modernised and expanded.  It was his livelihood until he retired.

The two years (likely to have been reduced by some months to a period ending 30 September 1948 by a decision of the Minister for Immigration) at the brown coal mines means that Vytautas should have a place in Josef Sestokas’ book, Welcome to Little Europe. Indeed, he is there, as someone “Only remembered for what he did after his time at the North Camp: Went to Sydney, opened a bottle shop (sic) and became a leader within the Sydney Lithuanian community.”

Vytautas the Administrator

From the beginning of 1952 until 1958, Vytautas was a member of the board of the Lithuanian Community of Australia, serving for three terms.  Soon after he joined, he was chosen to be President when the previous office-holder left Australia.

In 1955, Vytautas married fellow Lithuanian Tatjana Chodeckaitė.  Tatjana, born in Siauliai, had been a dental assistant in Lithuania and Germany.  She had earned her income for 10 years from needlework, including embroidery.  She was 39 years old when she arrived in Australia on the Svalbard on the 16 August 1948.  Vytautas was something like 9 years younger.

When Vytautas turned 60 in 1978, Mūsų Pastogė published a front page tribute.  Its position was not a surprise, given that he had taken on the role of publisher of this newspaper from January 1954 to September 1959.  This appears to be the period of time in which he was strengthening the finances, so he was not a publisher in name only.

The photograph used to illustrate Vytautas'
60th birthday tribute

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

The anonymous author the tribute finished by writing, in Lithuanian of course, “Calm and careful, never hot-tempered, always with 'gaspadorian' wisdom [that of the head of the household or the farm owner] and light humour, Vytautas persistently ploughed furrow after furrow in the entire soil of our social activity and grew a rich harvest. We congratulate Vytautas Simniškis on this anniversary and wish him not to let go of the plough and reins from his strong hands for a long time.”

Vytautas' Death

Sad to say, Vytautas lasted less than 9 more years, dying on 3 July 1987.  His funeral was attended by around 200 mourners 5 days later at St. Joseph's Church, Lidcombe.

The Chairman of the Sydney Lithuanian Club, Vytautas Bukevičius, spoke on behalf of his Board.  He urged those present to continue Vytautas’ work by committing to maintain the Lithuanian Club and leave it for future generations as an eternal monument.

A final photograph, to accompany Vytautas' obituary

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

The larger mourner numbers meant a long motorcade to the Rookwood Crematorium.

This time, the man who wrote the obituary in Mūsų Pastogė is known.  He was Anskis Reisgys, who had arrived on the First Transport with Vytautas and served on committees with him. Translated from Lithuanian, some of Anskis’ words follow.

“The path from the old Redfern walls to the current licensed [Lithuanian] club with new buildings was winding and full of obstacles. It was necessary to compete in the courts with bar lawyers, municipal bureaucrats, builders; to study the basic laws of this land, binding the clubs, and to listen to disputes among themselves.  Vytautas overcame all this.

“He had neither magical power nor supernatural abilities, but he had a 'gaspadorian' hand, was straight-thinking and, after patiently listening to mutual disputes, would say with a light sense of humor: '...let's get back to work, men, because we need to do it now.'  And thus, ploughing furrow by furrow, he grew a great harvest.  He was not proud of his achieved result, but quietly, quietly rejoiced in the beautiful harvest.”

Some of those words and phrases ('gaspadorian', '… ploughing furrow by furrow, he grew a great harvest') suggest that Anskis was the author of the earlier tribute also.

The misspelling on Vytautas' Rookwood Cemetery plaque
is not how he should be remembered

Source:  Billion Graves

Tatjana died just over a year later, on 11 August 1988, and her ashes are interred with those of Vytautas at Rookwood.

CITE THIS AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Vytautas Simniškis (1918- 1987), Leading Australian Lithuanian', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/05/vytautas-simniskis-1918-1987-leading-Australian-Lithuanian.html.

SOURCES

Billion Graves 'Search Results of Vytautas Simniskis' https://billiongraves.com/search/results?CollectionID=&CatalogID=&PageNumber=1&PageSize=20&GivenNames=vytautas&GivenNamesExact=false&MaidenName=&MaidenNameExact=false&FamilyName=Simniskis&FamilyNameExact=false&EventBirthYear=&EventBirthYearRange=5&EventDeathYear=&EventDeathYearRange=5&MilitaryConflict=&MilitaryBranch=&MilitaryRank=&YearRange=&ID=2f5e5799-00b2-4377-b876-449bd9096ed3, accessed 9 May 2026. 

Find A Grave ‘Vytwatas (sic) Simniskis’ www.findagrave.com/memorial/150628633/vytwatas-simniskis, accessed 9 May 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Tatjana Simniskis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150628632/tatjana-simniskis, accessed 9 May 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1978) ‘V. Simniškiui 60 metų’ (‘V. Siminiskis, 60 years’, in Lithuanian), Sydney, NSW, 10 September, p 1 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1978/1978-10-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 9 May 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; 276, SIMNISKIS Vytautas DOB 2 October 1917, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005991, accessed 9 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11841, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per Svalbard departing Bremerhaven 21 May 1948, 1948 - 1948; 312, CHODECKAITE Tatjana DOB 27 December 1909, 1948 - 1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5124221, accessed 9 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; CHODECKAITE TATJANA, CHODECKAITE, Tatjana : Year of Birth - 1909 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - SVALBARD : Number - [UNKNOWN], 1948 - 1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203670444, accessed 9 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; SIMNISKIS VYTAUTAS, SIMNISKIS, Vytautas : Year of Birth - 1917 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 672, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203711663, accessed 9 May 2026.

Reisgys, Anskis (1987) ‘A A. VYTAUTAS SIMNIŠKIS’ (‘In Memoriam, Vytautas Simnisksi’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 20 July, p. 3 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1987/1987-07-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 9 May 2026.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe: Displaced Persons and the North Camp, Sale, Little Chicken Publishing, p 94.

Woomera, South Australia, by Jonas Mockūnas

Rocket range

The idea of establishing a rocket range in outback Australia — with the impressive title of the Anglo-Australian Long-Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE) — originated soon after the end of World War II. Concerned by the lack of adequate defences to the German V-2 rockets during the war and by growing Cold War tensions in the post-war environment, the Anglo-Australian Joint Project was established in 1946 with the LRWE as a centrepiece.

A huge parcel of remote land in South Australia — the Woomera Prohibited Area — was declared in 1947, for use as a testing range for new rockets and guided missiles. At its peak, the range covered 270,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the United Kingdom, and accommodated both military and civil aerospace testing facilities. Today, the somewhat smaller prohibited area is called the RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC).

Growing up in Adelaide during the 1950s, I was vaguely aware of the rocket range, as tests were occasionally reported in the local media. I also knew that some of the Displaced Persons (DPs) who had arrived in Australia after the War had worked there, including my father and a few of his Lithuanian friends and acquaintances. It was only a few years ago that I began to comprehend the massive scale of the project, or the contribution made by refugees, largely thanks to the research of Associate Professor Andrew Saniga of Melbourne University.

Tent lines at Woomera in 1947 or 1948 in the base camp of No. 2 Airfield Construction Company,
RAAF, engaged in constructing the airfield for the rocket range

Source:  Australian War Memorial PO1984.001

DPs Employed Despite Security Questions

Once the Prohibited Area was established, the Department of Works and Housing was tasked with building a village and other infrastructure at Woomera. Labour was in short supply, so despite the security considerations at the military-controlled site, newly-arrived DPs under work contract to the Australian government were also brought in to assist with the construction phase.

Some of the ‘Balts’ who had reached Australia in late 1947 on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, the First Transport, began arriving at the Woomera worksites from April 1948, having been redirected from their initial placements in fruit picking or other jobs. The first major placement, of 50 men from the Bonegilla migrant camp, was despatched on 2 June 1948; by mid-1949 there had been over 400 DPs sent to the rocket range, and 360 were still there despite the harsh work and living conditions. 

Most likely there were few attractions in this remote environment for the new migrants other than their pay packets, which were larger than could be found for unskilled work elsewhere in Australia; the June 1948 contingent started on a wage of £7/10 per week, accommodation and meals included. By April 1949 my father, who had arrived on the Second Transport, recorded that most unskilled wages started at £11 per week.

Hundreds of DPs Employed at Woomera

In May 1949 the Security Officer at Woomera compiled a Nominal Roll of the DPs who had been employed at Woomera from April 1948 to April 1949. Numerically, the Poles were the largest group (112), followed by Lithuanians (92), Latvians (89) and Estonians (38). The Nominal Roll, together with the Bonegilla records, show at least 34 Balts from the First Transport at Woomera during the late 1940s:

Estonians Kuusk, Lembit Latvians Abolins, Voldemars Apinis, Janis Bergtals, Sergejs Bergtals, Nikolajs Kondrats, Vilis Muiznieks, Elmars Osins, Augusts Osis, Eriks

Lithuanians Balsevičius, Bronius Brazauskas, Antanas Budrionis, Antanas Dailyde, Vladas Janonis, Zenonas Kildišas, Adolfas Laurinavičius, Povilas Lileika, Algirdas Lizaitis, Algirdas Meškelis, Vilgelminas Navickas, Albinas Norkeliunas, Antanas Norkūnas, Vytautas Petruškevičius, Jonas Petruškevičius (nee Salytė), Viltis Reisgys, Anskis Rimkevičius, Eduardas Sivickas, Vincas Staugas, Eduardas Strankauskas, Jonas Valinčius, Kazys Venzlauskas, Antanas Volkovas, Simonas Zakarauskas, Jurgis Zeronas, Romualdas

[Some names in the list above have had links added to them, which will take you to the biographies of those individuals.  More links will be added as more relevant biographies appear on this blog.]

The earliest from the First Transport to arrive at Woomera was Vilgelmas Meškelis, on 25 April 1948; he had already worked picking fruit for J Nethersole and Son, at Ardmona in Victoria, before being sent to Iron Knob in South Australia after a return to the Bonegilla camp. He was followed by four others during May 1948 (S. Bergtals, Laurinavičius, Navickas and Norkūnas). Nine members of the June 1948 contingent from Bonegilla were First Transporters.

Most of the men were employed as labourers on the various construction projects, although a few were given semi-skilled or trade tasks. Elmars Muiznieks, a mechanic in Latvia, was employed in the mechanics workshop until he was dismissed (see below) and Romualdas Zeronas was employed as a cook’s offsider until he too was dismissed.

The Bergtals brothers, having had prior supervisory experience, were given more responsibility, Sergejs as a ganger/foreman, and Nikolajs as a ganger/draftsman. Albinas Navickas worked as a linesman, Jonas Petruškevičius as a stone mason, and Anskis Reisgys as a cable joiner.

Viltis Petruškevičius, née Salytė, the only woman in this group, worked as a waitress; she had opted to go to Woomera to accompany her husband Jonas after they married in April 1948.

Building the spur line to Woomera, 1949

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Conditions in the early construction camps were often relatively primitive, even for men who had spent years in Europe’s Displaced Persons camps. Many had elected to put up with the conditions as a means of saving a nest-egg towards their futures in the big cities, others enjoyed the new-found freedom in the bush including the relatively unrestrained opportunities for alcohol and/or gambling. Not surprisingly, around 6 per cent of the DPs were dismissed for various transgressions within that first year.

Escapade Led to Deportation

Perhaps one of the more colourful escapades was that undertaken by two Latvians, Elmars Muiznieks and Julius Gravans who stole a truck in Woomera in February 1949 but were soon apprehended, fined £20 Pounds in the Port Augusta Police Court, and dismissed from their employment.

Deportation Order for Elmars Muiznieks

Source:  Arolsen Archives

What may have started as a lark did not end well for these men: ignoring their work obligations to the Australian Government, they then made their way to Melbourne, but were soon arrested by the Victorian Police operating at the request of the Department of Immigration. The authorities had clearly had enough — the men were given dictation tests, in Italian and Romanian, and declared prohibited immigrants before being deported in September 1949. Ironically, the First Transport Balts were released from their work obligations to the Commonwealth at the end of September 1949.

FOOTNOTES

1. The Nominal Roll does not list all of the above names; in particular, Viltis Petruškevičius and Algirdas Lileika do not appear on the Roll and have been included because of other substantiating documentation. If searching the Nominal Roll, please be aware of other errors also, including incorrect arrival dates to Australia (several First Transport passengers are shown as arriving in November 1948, whereas the year should be 1947), and incorrect listing by nationality (for example Budrionis and Laurinavičius are both listed under the Latvian heading).

2. There are many other issues associated with Woomera that are beyond the scope of this post. Prof Saniga touched on a few of these in the 2022 exhibition catalogue, referring to the irony of ‘war-weary European migrants‘ who had been displaced from their own homelands being sent to work on a military project that had involved ‘the displacement of Aboriginal people, mainly the Kokatha, from their tribal lands’.

ANN'S ADDITIONS

In a 2025 paper, Scriver, Cooke and Saniga note that ‘At least six different Aboriginal Peoples were impacted by the LWRE. Much of what had been the country of the Kokatha People ... would thereafter be designated the Woomera Prohibited Area. 

'The extent of the impact was much greater, however, as numerous other groups would also be profoundly affected ... along the thousands of kilometres of the rocket range’s firing line that traversed their ancestral countries between Woomera and the northwest coast of Australia. 

'These included the Nakako, Pitjantjatjara, Ngatatjara, Mardu and Nyangumarda Peoples ... tracking and clearing people from the fall zones of spent rockets by the LRWE’s Native Patrol Officers, including the removal to mission reserves of women and children of the Manjiljarra/Martu Wangka and Yulparija Peoples, some of who had reputedly never left the desert previously.’

We should note that what may seem ruthless now was just part and parcel of what had happened to many people across Europe and Asia during and after World War II, especially in the Baltic and other Eastern European countries from which the DPs came. 

The Anglo side of this Anglo-Australian project, in particular, might have included survivors of the London Blitz of September 1940 to May 1941 or people whose families had been caught up in it.  The military of both nations had just been fighting against would-be invaders for 6 long years.

Those “growing Cold War tensions” Jonas mentioned at the start affected the attitudes of Anglo-Australian officials to the pre-existing populations.  They had to be moved on for the good of the whole world.

SOURCES

Brisbane Telegraph (1949) ‘Balts jailed; Left jobs’ Brisbane, May 16, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212265738, accessed 27 January 2026.

Mockūnas, Jonas (snr) (1949) [Personal diary].

National Archive of Australia: Commonwealth Investigation Service, South Australia; D1918, Investigation case files, single number series with 'S' prefix, 1938-1960; S1493/5/2, Nominal roll of displaced persons at Woomera [Long Range Weapons Establishment, Woomera, SA], 1948-1949 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=856767, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1947-1950; 21, Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia – [Schedule No. SA1 to SA31], 1948-1950 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4481, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; PETRUSKEVICIUS VILTIS LODZE, Petruskevicius Viltis Lodze - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as NEE SALYTE, 1947-1952 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9221636, accessed 18 February 2026.

'Personal file of MUIZNIEKS, ELMARS, born on 4-Jan-1918, born in VALMIERA' 3.2.1 IRO "Care and Maintenance" Program, DocID: 79506031, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79506031,  accessed 18 February 2026.

Petruškevičienė, Viltis (1950) ‘Woomera West’ Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, August 16, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259363646, accessed 18 February 2026.

Saniga, Andrew (2022) 'Woomera' in Immigrant Networks (exhibition catalogue), Melbourne (16 November 2022 to 10 February 2023).

Saniga, Andrew (2024) 'Woomera: A Landscape of Displacement and Renewal' in A. Pieris, M. Lozanovska, A. Dellios, A. Saniga & D. Deynon, Immigrant Industry: Building Postwar Australia, Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford, pp132-165.

Scriver, P. C., Cooke, S., & Saniga, A. (2025). 'Constructing/curating Woomera: a topology of displacement between northeastern Europe and Central Australia', Landscape Research, 50(7), 1173–1189. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2025.2526505, accessed 18 February 2026.

Wikipedia ' RAAF Woomera Range Complex' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Woomera_Range_Complex accessed 26 January 2026.

40 years since the arrival of the First Transport, by Antanas Laukaitis

[This tribute, in Lithuanian, was published on page 7 of the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) on 9 November 1987.]

On 30 October 1947, the American ship General Stuart Heinzelman sailed from the port of Bremerhaven in Germany, carrying the very first post-War refugees to Australia. They were only from Baltics and the majority were Lithuanians – 439 persons.

This photograph accompanied the original article, captioned “A group of Lithuanians on the ship
General Heintzelman in 1947, en route to Australia; 
first on the left in the front row is Valentinas Gulbinas” 

This ship arrived at Fremantle Harbor on 28 November.  The passengers travelled to Melbourne on an Australian warship.  There they were met by the then Labor Government Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell and other government officials.

Lithuanians had their own cultural performances, holiday celebrations and more both during the trip and upon arrival in Melbourne, and later at the Bonegilla camp.  Even the first basketball team was formed, with most players being Lithuanians.

These players included Vincas Mažiliauskas (later known as a Melbourne Varpas player), Jonas Motiejūnas, (former chairman of Varpas now living in America), Algis Liubinskas (died in Sydney, supporter of Kovas, whose son Mikas follows in his father’s sporting footsteps, famous as a Kovas basketball player and former prominent rugby player), Romas Genys (“Bodžis” from Sydney, a former famous Kovas basketball player in the days when Kovas won competitions between Australians and Lithuanians) and Zigmas Paškevičius. [Kovas is Sydney’s Lithuanian Sports Club while Varpas is the Melbourne equivalent.]

When they arrived in Australia, the first Lithuanians found a few compatriots who had been living here for a long time already.   They discovered the former Lithuanian Association of Australia, which was headed by the venerable Antanas and Ona Baužė and family.  They were the Lithuanian guardians and guideposts to the aliens in a land new to us.

The first Lithuanians who arrived were brave and determined, choosing this distant and so little-known land for their future life.  And how other compatriots who stayed in Germany waited for the first letters from Australia and resumés in the press!  Most of them needed to make a decision to go to Australia or choose another, more famous land.  Not all of the first letters and descriptions in the press were good, as everything was so new, the climate was hot and the jobs were the worst ones that Australians didn’t want to do.  Even worse, the wages were not very high compared to the working conditions.

When I came to Australia two years later and went to the desert, where the heat reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit [52 degrees Centigrade] in the summer, there were blizzards of red sand and poisonous spiders, scorpions and even snakes were hiding in the tents, apparently away from the heat.  Even I cursed this country with curses that I only knew and wanted to run away from the desert, but I could not escape.

However, there were also happier people who spoke positively about Australia.  After that, more and more of our compatriots were willing to go for a swim, without fear that kangaroos would swipe them with their tails.  They did not fear that scorpions and spiders would crawl into their beds.  They no longer thought that the Aboriginals would impale a white-skinned Lithuanian, and even better, the fair Lithuanian women, to roast them on their spears in a eucalyptus fire.*

The number of Lithuanians grew more and more.  A considerable number, especially singles, went to distant regions of Australia and stayed there, creating non-Lithuanian families who were completely separated from Lithuanian life and Lithuanians.   Quite a few, including some of our first arrivals, have found their eternal rest in Australian graves, but the traces and fruits of their work are very clearly visible.

This is the first of the arrival generation and the beginning to our communal and organisational life, which today their children and even the third generation of Lithuanian youth continue very beautifully.  It is to be hoped that the Lithuanian spark of Lithuanian life, culture and our beautiful traditions ignited by those first arrivals, which is currently lit in a big and beautiful Lithuanian bonfire, will burn for a long time in our youth and future Lithuanian generations, showing that Lithuanians are truly resistant to all kinds of foreign storms.

It is good that in Sydney we have a dozen representatives from the very First Transport.  Among them, Anskis Reisgys, the current head of the Talka Credit union in Sydney, did not get lost after going through the hardships of Australia, but acquired a teacher's license and taught for many years, participating in all activities related to our country.  Mindaugas Šumskas, another employee of Talka, is an active member of the community.  Valentinas Gulbinas, former chairman of the District, honorary member of Kovas, has worked a lot with young people and was one of the leaders when Australian Lithuanian athletes went to America and Canada.

Mykolas Petronis, a well-known former businessman in Sydney and honorary member of Kovas, is the representative of various organisations and an active member of the community.  Romualdas Genys, a player in the first Australian Lithuanian basketball team, later rose to fame.  Juozas Šuopys, who had a successful home rental business, is a great friend of Lithuanian players.  Vincas Šuopys, a printer, started painting Mūsų Pastogė in Lithuanian. As for the female representatives, we have Balanda [Dulaityte] Liubinskas, the mother of our outstanding athlete Mick, Konstančija [Brundžaitė] Jurskis and others who arrived later.

The first Lithuanian immigrants contributed a lot to the establishment and construction of the Sydney Lithuanian Club.  The sponsors and honorary members of the Kovas Sports Club include First Transport arrivals.  At Sydney Lithuanian Club on Saturday evening, 21 November, Kovas will honour these distinguished and first post-war Lithuanian immigrants to Australia during its annual ball.

They will be introduced with ceremony to our younger citizens and current athletes, who, under the guidance of the tireless coach and manager, Snaige Gustafson, will carry out the evening's program.

The athletes and managers of Sydney's Kovas Club invite everyone, not only Lithuanians of the very first, but also of later transports, their families and their guests, to participate in this ball in large numbers.  There they can remember their own youth and those first steps taken in this great and hospitable land of kangaroos. 

* Modern-day apologies to any indigenous or other readers who are offended or shocked by this expression of the ignorance of the writer and others.

SOURCE

Laukaitis, Antanas (1987)'40 Metu Nuo I-J Transporto Atvykimo' ['40 Years Since the Arrival of First Transport'] Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] Sydney, 9 November, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1987/1987-11-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 7 April 2025.