Petras Juodka (1919-1978): A Troubled Start in Australia, by Rasa Ščevinksienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

We have written a little about Petras Juodka in the blog entry for Domas Valancius.  After maybe two weeks of fruit-picking in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley for Anton Lenne, he had returned to the Bonegilla camp.  Less than one week later, on 19 February 1948, he was sent to Iron Knob in South Australia.  There he met Domas and trouble.

The Port Augusta District Employment Officer travelled to Iron Knob following a phone call from the Registrar of the Broken Hill Proprietory Limited company, to talk with Broken Hill’s Iron Knob foreman.  Two First Transport arrivals, Domas and Petras, were said to have ‘given quite a lot of trouble on and off the job’.

Disorderly Behaviour

Both had been before the Iron Knob court where they had been fined for disorderly behaviour in a public place.

Petras Juodka around 1947

Source:  Bonegilla Migrant Experience

The foreman told the Employment Officer that Domas was ‘of an argumentative and repulsive nature’.  Domas was considered the leader with Petras a follower, despite Petras having been before the local court one more time than Domas.  The foreman thought that Petras would settle down if separated from Domas.

The local policeman said that he thought it would be necessary to transfer both of the men ‘as there appeared to be a feeling amongst others that there was trouble ahead.’

The Employment official and the foreman then interviewed the two men together.  The Employment official recorded that Petras ‘was very repentant, but (Domas) did not appear to care what happened to him’.

The company agreed to give the men one week’s notice and told them that they would have to pay their own fares to Adelaide in order to visit the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) there.  Their ‘services were terminated’ on 23 September.

Domas had caught the express train eastwards on the night of 25 September.  He had stated that he was returning to the Bonegilla camp.  This would have left Petras on his own in Adelaide, unless he knew how to contact friends from the First Transport.

From Iron Knob to Harbours Board

Petras reported to the CES as directed and was found employment with the SA Harbours Board.  He started there on 27 September, according the Alien Registration card record kept by the Adelaide office of the Department of Immigration.

Someone has made sure that the card also recorded some of the trouble he got into while in Iron Knob. P olice Gazette 39 of 1948 recorded an appearance before the Iron Knob Police Court on 14 September 1948, when he was fined 30 shillings plus 10 shilling costs, a total of 40 shillings or £2, for disorderly behaviour.

The second court appearance is not recorded but a large file from the Department of Immigration’s Adelaide office contains Petras’ original application for citizenship.  Having been told the penalties for not being completely truthful, he recorded all 6 court appearances between 1948 and 1953, plus their consequences.

The first Iron Knob Iron Knob Police Court appearance had been on 21 June 1948, when he was fined 27 shillings and 6 pence (27/6 or £1/7/6) for being drunk.  This would have been in a public place.

More court appearances and fines

He did not calm down in Adelaide, at least, not initially.   Police List 8 had him fined £7 for indecent exposure, which would have been urinating in public, thanks to an appearance in the Adelaide Police Court.

The Adelaide Advertiser newspaper reported the appearance as well, saying that it was on 10 July 1950.  His occupation was given as sawyer.

In his application for citizenship, Petras admitted to having to pay an extra 7/6 for court costs on this occasion.

In the Port Adelaide Police Court of 14 August 1950, according to Police List 9, he was fined a further 10 shillings for being drunk, which also would have been in a public place.

He was still working for the Harbour Board in September 1949 when, in excellent handwriting, he filled out a form labelled Application for Release from Period of Exemption.  In more than 25 years of researching the First Transport arrivals, this is the first time that Ann has seen such a form on one of National Archives’ files.  The form was dated 27 September 1949 and, like most of the other arrivals, Petras was granted his release 3 days later.

Petras Juodka's completed Application for Release from Exemption form;
the result of a successful application was a Certificate of Authority to Remain in Australia
click once on image for a more legible version 

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The Alien Registration card record kept by the Department of Immigration in Adelaide then has an undated transfer to General Motors Holden (GMH), Woodville, and a total of 5 residential address for the period from April 1950 to February 1951.

He then had 2 changes of employment, to the Shell petroleum company in April 1951 and back to the Harbour Board about 2 weeks later.  In July 1952, he was back to GMH as a machine operator.

A Re-entry Permit

The Adelaide Immigration office’s file shows that, in June 1952, Petras applied for a re-entry permit, that is, permission to come back into Australia if he left.  His reason for the application was that he wanted to be away for 2-3 years to get his seaman’s ticket on a foreign ship before joining the Australian merchant marine.

Petras' 1952 photo for his Application for a Re-entry Permit

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The Department did issue a Re-entry Permit to Petras, but it never was used.  Perhaps an Immigration official took the time to explain to him that any time outside Australia would be deducted from the 5 years required to obtain Australian citizenship.  The next papers on his file are the several pages of his citizenship application form, completed on 14 January 1953.

Dairy Farming But More Trouble

In early December 1952, he had had a change of scenery.  He had left urban Adelaide to became a labourer on a dairy farm operated by H Brown at Nangkita, on the Fleurieu Peninsula.  Nangkita is still around 80 Km and 75 minutes by road from Petras’ previous address in Adelaide.  While the change of employment was noted, a change of address was not, unless it was assumed that the address of H Brown at Nangkita was sufficient.

The record of misbehaviour published by the Adelaide Advertiser does not stop though. On 14 January 1953, the date that he completed his naturalisation application, he had been found by the police hammering on a door in the suburb where he used to live, Semaphore.

When the occupant of the house told him to go away, he shouted, “I’m cold and I want shelter”.  He was fined £3 and had to pay an additional 7/6 court costs.  Presumably there would have been additional charges if the police had judge that he had been drinking.  His address was given as Nangkita.

He may well have felt that the next move, away from Nangkita, was a great opportunity, since it was to a winery.   His new employer, as of April 1953, was Hamilton Wines of Glenelg, in inner urban Adelaide.   He lasted less than 5 weeks there though, as it was back to GMH in May.

He changed his home address 5 months later, then moved to what may have become a permanent employer, the South Australian Railways, in July 1954.  At first he was employed as a porter, someone moving heavy luggage and freight, in Port Adelaide. Then came what seems to have been a longterm move, with the Railways to Port Lincoln.

Port Lincoln is around 650 Km by road from the northern Adelaide suburbs and nearly 7 hours away. Perhaps Petras had removed himself from bad influences. His date of arrival there, as recorded on his citizenship application, was 30 December 1954.

Citizenship and the Army

For some reason not explained by the papers on file, he was sent a form letter on 16 January 1953, stating that he would not be eligible to apply for citizenship unless he continued to reside continuously in Australia for another two years.

As a former Immigration official, Ann can work out that he was eligible to apply from 28 or 29 November 1953. Admittedly, he had applied early, a good sign, but was misdirected by officialdom, bad practice.

On 15 March in the same year, he wrote to the Department of Immigration to say that he was interested in joining the Army.  He had attended a recruiting office but there was told that he should be in contact with the Department of Immigration.

The reply he received said that he should present his receipt for his Declaration of Intention to become Naturalised to the recruiting centre.  The Department thought that this would be sufficient for enlistment, if the Army found him otherwise eligible.

What motivated him to want to join the Army, after a previously expressed desire to join the merchant marine?  Was he just a restless person, as suggested by the changes of employment listed on the Department’s Alien Registration card?

Yet more trouble

Later the same year, he gave a Cheltenham address in suburban Adelaide and a press operator occupation when he appeared before a court yet again.  This time the charge was offensive behaviour in a Port Adelaide hotel on 12 September.  He admitted the charge and was fined £2/10/- and ordered to pay another £1/8/6 court costs.

This was the last court appearance to be reported by Petras himself, or the police.  However, it was not the end of his appearances in the press, with the Port Lincoln Times taking over the role of the Advertiser.

A list of Petras' offences supplied to the Department of Immigration by the police

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Port Lincoln and Citizenship

On 15 March 1955, following the incorrect previous advice from the Department of Immigration, he wrote to ask what he now needed to do to obtain citizenship.  He was sent the appropriate forms and told about the requirement to advertise his intention in two newspapers circulating where he lived.

On 7 July, the Department of Immigration wrote to the CES, asking that it make someone available in Port Lincoln to interview Petras.  That interview took place during that month.

He gave his previous occupation as labourer or deckhand.  The second would explain the interest in returning to shipboard life evinced in June 1952.

At the time of the interview, he was described as a porter for South Australian Railways, living in the South Australian Railways Hostel.

The Port Lincoln Times carried an advertisement, also on 7 July, in which he was seeking somewhere to live other than his current home in the Hostel.  Of particular interest is his description of himself as “respectable sober gent”.  He must have really cleaned up his act in the 21 months since his last court appearance!

Looking for somewhere else to live
Source:  Port Lincoln Times through Trove

Yes, all of that offending did interfere with Petras’ application to become an Australian citizen.  The Adelaide office of the Department of Immigration referred the application to its Canberra head office in January 1956.  Two weeks later, Canberra wanted more details.  Adelaide replied that it was due primarily to drinking.  Petras had not been recorded adversely in the 3 years prior to February 1956 (if the 12 September 1953 conviction for offensive behaviour in a hotel was ignored).

On 7 May 1956, Petras was sent a letter which said that “… the Minister has decided to withhold the grant of naturalization (sic) to you for a period of twelve months.”  He was not told why this decision had been taken or what would make a difference at the end of the twelve-month period.

On 7 October 1956, Petras wrote to the Adelaide office enclosing another letter which he wanted to be sent to the Minister for Immigration.  No copy of the second letter is on file.  The second letter was forwarded to the Department’s Canberra office with a note that said he had not been recorded adversely since 18 November 1953.

The public record does not say anything about an 18 November charge or conviction. Nor, for that matter, does the list of 6 offences to which Petras admitted on his application or the police version above.  This ends, as does the public record on 14 (rather than 12) September 1953.

On 22 March 1957, Petras wrote again, asking to revive his application for naturalisation.

Railway Injury

Petras had moved to Port Lincoln, but not away from trouble.  The Port Lincoln Times reported on 6 September 1956 that he had been badly injured when coupling railway trucks on a jetty.  Two fingers on his right hand were crushed by coupling hooks.  The injury was treated in the local hospital.

He responded to the hospital treatment by inserting an advertisement in the same 6 September issue of the Port Lincoln Times, thanking the doctor and nursing staff who had helped him after the accident.  He started, “I am grateful to all those very good Australian people …” and ended, “… that further obliges me for a greater contribution to this country.”

Petras (Peter) thanks all who helped him
Source:  Port Lincoln Times through Trove

What we don't know is whether he was recovering from his injury or, indeed, has lost those two fingers.

Citizenship, Finally!

The last Port Lincoln Times report is the most positive.  Petras was one of 13 people to receive Australian citizenship at a ceremony led by the Mayor of Port Lincoln on 5 December 1957.  That’s 10 years to the day since he was travelling across the Great Australian Bight on the temporary warship, the Kanimbla.

Had he really given up alcohol?  He certainly had learned to moderate his behaviour, as we know of no more court appearances.  The overuse of alcohol was almost certainly connected with what he had experienced in 5 years of war, with 2 more years in an occupied but still troubled Germany no help either.

It should be possible to follow any further changes of residence through an Ancestry.com account, since Ancestry has digitised all electoral rolls for Australia up to 1980.  However, checking using all three known spelling variants of Petras' surname (see below) produced no results.  This suggests that having been granted Australian citizenship, Petras failed to accept its major obligation, to enrol for elections and vote, at both the State and Federal levels.

In Germany

On his citizenship application form, Petras had written that left Lithuania and arrived in Germany on the same day, 7 July 1944.  This probably seemed easier than explaining how it may have taken several days to travel from the Lithuanian border to Germany, avoiding bombing and gunfire from the Soviets, the Germans and the Allies.

His name appeared in a list of Lithuanians searching for others in a Lithuanian language newspaper, published in Augsburg, Germany, in January 1946.  The notice indicates that, at that time, he was living in Karolinenschloschen, Bad Aibling.

Karolinenschloschen means Caroline’s Little Palace in English.  If his DP camp really was in a former palace, it must have been an interesting place in which to live.

Bad Aibling is a spa town in the far south of Germany, between Munich and Salzburg, the latter in Austria.  He had managed to get as far away from the Soviets as he could go, without crossing mountains into Austria or Switzerland.

An American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP Registration form filled out at the very end of 1945 tells us that Petras was born on 2 March 1919, so he was 26 years old at the time.  His parents were recorded as “Johann”, probably meaning Jonas in Lithuanian, and Aniela, the latter being an equivalent of Angela.

Life in Lithuania

He had been born in Serasai, according to the AEF form, probably meaning Zerasai in northeastern Lithuania.  His place of birth on the application form for migration to Australia was recorded oddly as Rainiai-Salakas, 2 towns in the north of Lithuania which are nearly 300 Km apart by road.  Zerasai is less than 30 Km from Salakas, so more likely to be the birthplace.

His usual occupation on the AEF form was farmer.  In mid-October 1947, the Australian selection panel’s report recorded that he had only 3 years of primary schooling but 2 more years at a commercial school.  His previous occupation was not recorded on the application form, where his current occupation was said to be general labourer.

Languages

Neither form nominated English as one of Petras’ languages, although he had Polish as well as Lithuanian.  We have to hope that he attended Edna Davis’ classes on board the Heintzelman.  Problems with understanding those around him in Australia would have added to his psychological difficulties.

On the other hand, the letters that he clearly wrote himself, since all are in the same script and use the same ink colour, indicate somewhere who had learned to express himself well – if not with complete fluency – in English by the mid-1950s.

Later years

After so much publicity for Petras in his first 10 years in Australia, the record goes quiet.  That’s apart from 2 appearances in Australia’s Lithuanian-language press.  Mūsų Pastogė, in a September 1968 edition, published a letter from Petras.  He noted the approach of the 48th anniversary of Poland seizing the Lithuanian capital city, Vilnius, in October 1920, and thanked 2 Adelaide residents who he said had participated in the return of Vilnius to Lithuania in October 1939.

He signed himself as a dragoon of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, a soldier of the Lithuanian Self-Defense Units of the Homeland Protection Team, and a member of the ex-servicemen’s organisation, Ramovė.

In November 1973, he offered to finance the restoration of the missing metal Vilnius city coat of arms in the Lithuanian Land Monument in the churchyard of St Casimir's Church. St Casimir’s is the Lithuanian Catholic community’s church in Adelaide.

Death

Finally, Tėviškės aidai in its issue of 4 March 1978, carried a sentence about recent deaths in Adelaide.  This included Petra Jotka (sic), who had died on 17 February 1978. He was said to be 60 years old but, given several records of his birthdate on different forms, he would have been 58, 2 weeks short of his 59th birthday.  He had returned to Adelaide, to his previous suburb of Semaphore.

It looks like the earlier hard living had caught up with Petras.

CITE THIS AS:  Ščevinksienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Petras Juodka (1919-1978):  A Troubled Start in Australia' 

SOURCES

Note: Petras' surname has 3 variants in the sources, even in the Lithuanian language: Juodka, Juotka and Jotka.

Advertiser (1950) ‘Charge Admitted’ Adelaide, SA, 11 July, p 11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/44919776, accessed 26 January 2026.

Advertiser (1953) ‘Unlawfully On Premises’ Adelaide, SA, 16 January, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47526251, accessed 26 January 2026.

Advertiser (1953) ‘Offensive Behaviour’ Adelaide, SA, 15 September, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48928540, accessed 26 January 2026.

Billion Graves ‘Petras Juodka’ https://billiongraves.com/grave/Petras-Juodka/44357799, accessed 27 January 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, ‘Petras Juodka’ Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203731915, accessed 26 January 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Naturalization (sic)’ Canberra, ACT, 18 September, p 3099 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240882136/25977671, accessed 27 January 2026.

Find a Grave ‘Petras “Peter” Juodka’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151279180/petras-juodka, accessed 27 January 2026.

‘Folder DP1689, names from JUNOS, BARBARA to JUOZUVAITIS, Otonas (1)’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 67523592, ITS/Arolsen archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67523592, accessed 26 January 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1968) ‘Padėka‘ (‘Gratitude’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 2 September, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1968/1968-09-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 January 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; 556, JUODKA Petras DOB 2 March 1919, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005792, accessed 27 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D400, Correspondence files, annual single number series with 'SA' and 'S' prefix, 1949-1965; SA1956/8813, JUODKA PETRAS, 1949-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=31672421, accessed 27 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D401, Correspondence files, multiple number series with 'SA' prefix, 1946-49; SA1948/3/512, VALANCUS Domas - application for admission of relative or friend to Australia - KLINGBEIL Loni, 1948-53 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12455258, accessed 27 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-1965; JUODKA P, JUODKA Petras - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4078212, accessed 27 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; JUODKA PETRAS, JUODKA Petras - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Melbourne per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9181028, accessed 27 January 2026

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; JUODKA PETRAS, JUODKA, Petras : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 930, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203731915, accessed 27 January 2026.

News (1953) ‘Laborer (sic) fined £3’ Adelaide, SA, 15 January, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130926042, accessed 26 January 2026.

Port Lincoln Times (1955) (Advertising) Port Lincoln, SA, 7 July, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/266921092?searchTerm=p.%20juodka, accessed 26 January 2026.

Port Lincoln Times (1956) ‘Shunter Injured’ Port Lincoln, SA, 6 September, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/267051164, accessed 26 January 2026.

Port Lincoln Times (1956) 'Expression of Thanks' Port Lincoln, SA, 6 September, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/267051150, accessed 28 January 2026.

Port Lincoln Times (1957) ‘They Want to be Australians’ Port Lincoln, SA, 21 November, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/267059474, accessed 26 January 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1973) ‘Adelaidės kronika‘ (‘Adelaide Chronicle’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 6 November, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1973/1973-nr43-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 January 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1978) ‘Iš mūsų parapijų, Adelaide’ (‘From Our Parishes, Adelaide’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 4 March, p 8 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1978/1978-nr08-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 January 2026.

Wikipedia, Bad Aibling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Aibling, accessed 27 January 2026.

Ziburai (Lights in Darkness) (1946) ‘Paieškojimai‘ (‘Searches’, in Lithuanian) Augsburg, Germany, 19 January, p 9 https://spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-01-19-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 26 January 2026.

Artur Klaar (1919-1970): Economics student, accountant, Estonian

Updated 18 July 2024

We've met Artur Klaar already as the fellow Estonian who befriended Flaavi Hodunov in Peterborough.  It's possible that they had become friends at Bangham, at Bonegilla, on the First Transport or even earlier, when they discovered that they had both attended the same public primary school in Narva, Estonia.

Artur was also the best man at Flaavi's wedding on 26 December 1949 and the godfather to Flaavi's first-born daughter in 1951.

Artur Klaar (left) with Flaavi Hodunov on Flaavi's wedding day;
the blue eyes are authentic, according to their Bonegilla cards, but whoever hand-coloured the photo used their imagination for the auburn hair as people of Estonian descent are much more likely to have dark brown or blond hair or sometimes Viking red if they have Swedish blood

The best man and the bridesmaid before the wedding of Flaavi and Walya:
Artur Klaar with G Linke, probably Gladys

Source for both:  Collection of Tatyana Tamm

Born on 1 June 1919, Artur was nearly 8 years older than Flaavi so probably would have been in high school already as Flaavi started primary school. It was not just the same school premises and maybe teachers that they had in common, though.

They both would have remembered many other parts of the small but significant town of Narva. Perhaps the older Artur would have been able to explain things about it that the younger Flaavi had not understood.

Artur Klaar (left) with Walya and Flaavi Hodunov, probably in Peterborough

Source:  Collection of Tatyana Tamm

Their paths had separated after the primary school. Flaavi probably did not start school until the late summer of 1935, as Estonian children still don’t start until after they have turned 7. If he finished primary school at the start of the 1941 summer, this would have been the time when the Soviets retreated ahead of a German advance into Estonia.

We know from Flaavi’s daughter, Tatyana, that Flaavi’s parents sent him to Germany as the Soviet forces invaded again in September 1944, since he had been working with German mechanics.

After finishing primary school around 1932, Artur finished high school around 1938 before becoming a bookkeeper in a bank while enrolled in an economics course at the University of Tartu.

All young Estonian men during the first period of independence (1918-40) were required to do many months of military training after they finished their schooling. Artur had not only completed this but completed an officer’s training course at the military academy. At the end of this, he was promoted to the most junior officer rank, of ensign.

Artur had completed only 1½ years of his economics course when WWII disrupted it. At this point in his story, it is relevant to consider what preceded WWII and the first independence period in Estonian history.

The first known foreign occupiers of Estonia were the Danes, who maybe arrived during the 12th century. The King of Denmark sold the Duchy of Estonia to German crusaders, the Teutonic Order, 1346. While these German occupied themselves with christianising the Estonians, they probably were amongst those who took the opportunity to settle on land which seemed theirs for the taking.

The Swedes came next, ruling over Estonia from 1561 until forced out by a Russian invasion in the early 18th century. During the Swedish period, some Swedes also bought land in Estonia, giving the country a mixture of German and Swedish nobility. The Russian occupation of Estonian was formalised in 1721. In order to keep the nobility on side, the Russians initially gave them more power over the Estonian peasants, who were living on the less salubrious parts of the noble estates.

The Russians had occupied Estonia for more than 200 years when the October Revolution gave the locals a longed-for opportunity to claim their freedom. This became official with a proclamation of independence on 24 February 1918. The Russians, now the Soviet Union, invaded again in August 1940, claiming all the Baltic States as theirs under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler broke this Pact, having decided that Germans needed Lebensraum in the Soviet Union too. German rule returned to Estonia in June 1941, but was under threat again in the summer of 1944.

This history indicates that the Estonians’ lived experience of the German nobility and the Nazis, and Tsarist and Communist Russia meant that, of the two evils, they certainly preferred the Germans. Thus joining the German Army to fight the return of the Russians was not supporting the Nazi regime but opposing the Russians. Many of the Baltic men who came to Australia on what I have called the Fifth Fleet were among those who fought against the Russians, and Artur Klaar was one.

He fought in two major battles, those of Narva and Vaivara, the latter known as the Sinimäed (or Blue Hills) and remembered by Estonians today as a battle in which the Soviet forces were defeated. He was promoted to the rank of junior lieutenant and awarded the Iron Cross for his bravery. I know that he was not the only First Transport passenger who had an Iron Cross in his luggage.

The Allies in occupied Germany decided to overlook this form of co-operation with the former Nazi regime. It often happened in circumstances where the young Baltic men had no other option, and sorting out volunteers from conscripts was not worth the effort. As time as proven, the Allies were more interested in removing Communists from the ranks of those migrating to third countries than looking into the details of apparent co-operation with the Nazis.

The report for his September 1947 interview by the Australian selection team in Buchholz refugee camp records that Artur’s knowledge of English then was slight. However, I happen to know from my own mother’s life and a good friend who was studying economics at Tartu University at the same time as her, that a knowledge of English was something of a prerequisite. I imagine that many texts were available in English only, plus English was available as a high school subject.

The report also said that Artur had 6 years experience as an accountant in a bank.  I think this is a bit of an exaggeration.  Six years from the end of high school in the summer of 1938 takes us to the summer of 1944, when the Russians/Soviets were invading again and Artur was fighting the battles of Narva and Vaivara, possibly from February.  There was also the greater part of a year spent around 1939 in compulsory military training.

Only four months later after his arrival in Australia, Artur was sent from Bangham to Peterborough because of his good language skills. That tends to support the idea that he knew some English before starting at Tartu University. His studies there, Edna Davis’ shipboard classes and classes at the Bonegilla camp all would have helped Artur hone his skills.

From Peterborough, Artur was sent to Adelaide to work in the South Australian Railways (SAR) offices. He remained with the SAR for the rest of his life.

In Adelaide, he met and married another Estonian, Silvia Tulina, on 21 June 1951. Silvia had studied medicine for 6 years at the University of Tartu between 1936 and 1942. In Germany from September-October 1944, she had made her way to Göttingen to complete her medical qualifications before travelling to Australia in 1950.

In Australia, Silvia found along with other doctors with European qualifications, that she could not practice medicine here, not without doing the whole course again.

There were so many such instances of this that Egon Kunz, himself with a doctorate from Hungary in Hungarian language, literature and social history plus an Australian doctorate in demography, wrote a book about it. Intruders: Refugee Doctors in Australia was published in 1975.

The situation for those with medical degrees from outside English-speaking nations has changed little since. It can be compared with the struggle which Vytautas Stasiukynas had to obtain employment related to his veterinary science qualifications.

Silvia Klaar was more fortunate than most. At the time she reported her change of name by marriage to the Department of Immigration, Adelaide, for its Aliens Registration records in July 1951, she advised that she was now employed as an assistant pathologist at the University of Adelaide. She was employed in similar non-clinical fields for the rest of her working life.

Artur died way too early, on 6 November 1970, of a heart attack when aged only 51. He would have been employed still by the SAR when this happened.

Silvia told me that Artur was a smoker who could not give up the habit. He also had developed high cholesterol in the days before heart by-pass operations were performed in Australia.

He merited an obituary in the Australian-Estonian newspaper, Meie Kodu, on 3 December 1970. It’s in the Estonian language, of course, but Google Translate now can be a useful starting point for any of us.

The obituary’s author, Richard Ollino, noted that Artur had enrolled again in Economics at the University of Göttigen in Germany, but abandoned this course due to his selection for resettlement in Australia.

Artur then matriculated to the University of Adelaide, but again abandoned the course when bad health interceded. Silvia said that he had passed two Adelaide University subjects at this point. Richard also wrote mysteriously of “a duty, and obligation”, which blocked Artur’s return to study.  Maybe it was his marriage, into which Silvia brought a young daughter.  In any case, three times interrupted might have left him feeling that it was not meant to be.

Richard Ollino’s obituary describes how Artur was able to contribute greatly to the Estonian community in Adelaide. In translation, it reads in part, “The problems of preserving the Estonian spirit abroad were close to his heart. He devoted his strength and energy to Estonian social activities in Adelaide in various fields.

“He was a board member of the Adelaide Estonian Society for a long time, a board member of the Adelaide branch of the Fighters' Association, and a member of the Adelaide Congregation Council of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was always ready to help where a helping hand was needed.

“However, the Estonian community in Adelaide remembers Arthur Klaar most of all for the fact that he, as a founding member of the Estonian House, laid the foundation for our Adelaide Estonian home, in which our national activities now take place.”

This sort of community activity is at least as important volunteering to support the wider community through organisations which might benefit more of those in need, whether it's the Good Neighbour Council and Red Cross like Edvins Baulis, the local hospital or the lost dogs home.  It stabilises a new community in its unfamiliar surrounds and is likely to stop those on the periphery from drifting further away into problems in a foreign language, a foreign society. 

Artur Klaar is at the rear left of this 25 January 1953 photograph
of the elected members of the committee of the Estonian community in Adelaide

Source:  Siska

Despite not completing a degree, Artur continued his membership of Fraternitas Estica, a Latin name meaning 'the Estonian fraternity'. Fraternities for men and sororities for women were a serious, lifelong commitment in Estonia’s one pre-War university and for Estonians in exile.

The fraternity certainly honoured Artur’s life, with its death notices appearing in what might have been all the Estonian community newspapers in the English-speaking world: Vaba Eesti Sõna (Free Estonian Word, America), Vaba Eestlane (Free Estonian, Canada) and Meie Kodu (Our Home, Australia) advised their readers of Artur’s passing.

Sources

Klaar, Silvia (2011) Personal communication.

Korp! Fraternitas Estica (nd) ‘Coetus 1957/1958 [1957/1958 Group]’ https://www.cfe.ee/album-esticum?show=1957#A778 accessed 23 March 2024.

Kunz, Egon (1975). Intruders: Refugee Doctors in Australia. Canberra, Australian National University Press, digital copy now available from https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/114807, accessed 16 May 2024.

Ollino, Richard (1970) 'Artur Klaar, In Memoriam' Meie Kodu, Sydney 30 December, p2 https://dea.digar.ee/page/meiekodu/1970/12/03/ accessed 17 May 2024.

Persian, Jayne (2018) ‘Egon Frank Kunz: Displaced Person’ https://australia-explained.com.au/history-shorts/egon-frank-kunz-displaced-person/ accessed 23 March 2024.

Pocius, Daina et al (2023) 'Vytautas Stasiukynas (1920 –?): The Vet Who Found Happiness in South America' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2024/01/vytautas-stasiukynas-veterinarian-Colombia.html accessed 17 May 2024.

Siska, Voldemar (nd) ‘Eesti ühiskond Lõuna-Austraalias’ [‘The Estonian community in South Australia’] https://www.folklore.ee/rl/fo/austraalia/rmt/EAI/siska.htm accessed 23 March 2024.

Tündern-Smith, Ann (2022) 'The only Australian aboard our Heintzelman voyage, Edna Davis (1906-1985)' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2022/12/edna-davis-only-australian.html accessed 17 May 2024.

Urmenyhazi, Attila (2008) 'Kunz, Egon Francis (Frank) (1922–1997)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/kunz-egon-francis-frank-14133/text25143, accessed 16 May 2024.

Miervaldis Indriksons (1918-1948): Fatal Workplace Accident by Ann Tündern-Smith

We have learned already that Miervaldis Indriksons was killed by a workplace accident at Naracoorte, South Australia, while working as directed for the South Australian Railways (SAR).

Miervaldis Indriksons, ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source: NAA: A2571, INDRIKSONS, MIERVALDIS

He was using a front end loader to fill in a dam at the railway station. The machine toppled over the edge of the dam and rolled several times. As the Border Chronicle put it, “capsized and somersaulted”. Miervaldis tried to jump clear, but caught his foot in the steering wheel. He was dragged into the dam and his back was broken.

Another newspaper report (in the Adelaide Advertiser) of the accident says that he was thrown clear, but then the machine rolled onto him.

He was taken to the local hospital but died less two hours after the accident, half an hour after reaching the hospital, from his internal injuries, on 15 September 1948. The report of the Australian interviewing panel in Germany has added to it, ‘Deceased, 11.30 am, 15/9/48’ – although the person who added the exact time did so more than 8 years later.

The coroner had decided that an inquest was unnecessary, perhaps because the cause of death was so obvious, no matter what the discrepancies in the details. These days, one is much more likely to be held in order to work out ways of such a horrible accident happening again. How about installing roll cages on all SAR earthmoving equipment or, better still, enclosed drivers’ cabins?

Miervaldis might have been driving a machine like this 1956 Ford tractor
with front-end loader attachment and no protection for the driver

Source:  Tays Auctions

Lutheran Pastor K Hartmann of Bordertown conducted the funeral the next day. The SAR arranged transport to allow his fellow countrymen to attend. The funeral also was attended by the Engineer in Charge of the broadening, EL Walpole, the man who was to speak to the Mount Gambier Rotary Club eight days later on what the broadening project involved (see previous entry).

His fellow countrymen must have been the ones who told the Border Chronicle reporter that Miervaldis had been the only surviving member of a family of eight, his parents, brothers, sisters and wife all having been killed during the War. There was believed to be a small son still alive in Europe.

Miervaldis had been born in Helsinki, Finland, on 16 January 1918. Finland had been part of Tsarist Russia, along with his family’s Latvian homeland, until declaring independence on 6 December 1917. Russia’s new Bolshevik Government recognised that independence on 31 December, only 16 days before Miervaldis was born into a time of great change.

His parents were the former Lavize Balodis and Mikelis Indreksons.

By the time he found himself in the American Zone of Germany after World War II, he was admitting to being married, with two dependents. At the time of being interviewed for possible resettlement in Australia, he was in a camp for Latvians in Lübeck, northern Germany.

His usual occupation was šoferis or chauffeur/driver and mehāniķis or mechanic. His level of education, according to the report of the Australian interviewing panel, was 6 years of elementary school. That interviewing panel recorded that he had 3 years of experience as a mechanic in Latvia.

His Bonegilla card has ‘None’ typed into the Next of Kin space: presumably the marriage had broken down since declared on 3 April 1946.

Sources

Naming the 62 Balts to Bangham (1948-49) by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 10 April and 15 November 2025.

The 62 Baltic refugees sent to Bangham via Wolseley in South Australia from the First Transport via Bonegilla were named on a 'Schedule' prepared by the Commonweatlth Employment Service and placed on their file 21 in the series MT29/1. You can click here to see the original forms.

I thank Jonas Mockunas for digging deeply into his pocket to pay to have this large file digitised.

I've added links to the names of those men who have been mentioned or discussed in previous blog entries and will update the links as more biographies get written.

THE DISPLACED PERSONS OR BALTS PICTURED

Most of the original 62 men from the Heintzelman to Bangham are likely to be in this photo

Collection of Tatyana Tamm

THE DISPLACED PERSONS NAMED

Lithuanians

• Bataitis, Viktoras
• Bielkis, Vladas
• Bimba, Jonas
• Blasevicius, Juozas
• Bliukys, Tadas
• Brazauskas, Antanas
• Budrionis, Antanas
• Bukucinskas, Kazys
• Bulke, Petras
• Caplikas, Jonas
• Dailyde or Dailide, Vladas
• Daulenskis, Kleopoas
• Deimantas, Povilas
• Donela, Juozas
• Draugelis, Jonas
• Duoba, Pranas
• Dziaugys, Jonas
• Fedaravicius, Jonas
• Grabauskas, Jurgis
• Guoba, Jurgis
• Guscia, Stepos
• Gustainis, Vytautas
• Jakaitis, Jonas
• Jakstas, Fridrikas
• Jakubauskas, Jonas
• Janonis, Zenonas
• Jarusevicius, Jonas
• Jasinskas, Vaclovas
• Jasulevicius, Justinas
• Juzulenas, Raimondas/Raimundas
• Kalikas, Domas
• Kaminskas, Benediktas
• Kanisauskas, Antanas
• Knystaustas, Antanas
• Paisiunas, Leonas
• Sinkunas, Vladas

Latvians

• Berzkalns, Zanis
• Broders, Girts
• Brunavs, Gunars
• Dukalskis, Nikolajs
• Enkuzis, Roberts
• Gilucs, Francis
• Burdikovs or Budrikovs, Ojars
• Graudins, Modris
• Iljicevs, Alfreds
• Indriksons, Miervaldis
• Irbe, Gordijs-Edgars
• Janitens, Alfons
• Jakobsons, Gunars
• Jurgensons, Voldemars
• Kaulins, Egons
• Kibilds, Nikoljs
• Kirpiconoks, Aleksandrs
• Kiselis, Janis
• Kocins, Richards
• Kolesnikovs, Janis

Estonians

• Hodunov, Flaavi
• Jakobsen, Hugo
• Kang, Eduard
• Klaar, Artur

SOURCE

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; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 9 July 2024.

Balts at Bangham (1948-49) Part 2, by Ann Tündern-Smith

We previously have looked at the work which the 62 men sent to Bangham, South Australia, for the State’s Railways (SAR) Commission were expected to do. We’ve noted also that, maybe one month arrival their arrival, 17 or 18 were sent via Adelaide to Peterborough, to train as porters and cleaners.

BANGHAM CAMP CONDITIONS

How the men had been living was described in a May 1948 report from the Commissioner for Railways, who wrote, “In the camp at Bangham, the men are living under AWU [Australian Workers Union] conditions, and the camps have to be reasonably mobile, while at the same time conforming to the conditions under the award or agreement covering AWU workers.

The Bangham tent camp is at the rear of the shelter shed;
in the foreground, it appears that the broad gauge line has been laid while the narrow gauge remains in place, with some spare rails to the left of the line;
Question:  how did the photographer get this perspective in 1948-49 without a drone?

Photograph courtesy of Tatyana Tamm

“It is not, therefore, practicable to establish more buildings at Bangham, even if we could get the material.

"The camp, consists of tents, mess rooms, ablution, and sanitary facilities, but there is no recreation hall.

“Whatever additional amenities are provided will have to be general to all AWU camps, if demanded, or we shall be accused of giving amenities to Balts which we could not give to Australians. The men in this camp work a five-day week and are at liberty to be away from the camp from 4.30 p.m. Friday until 7.30 a.m. Monday.

"It is the intention, as soon as possible, to provide a large camp at Narracoorte [sic] where men from Bangham and other isolated camps in the South-East can spend the week-end."

The Commissioner for Railways was replying to representations from the Hon LH Densley, Member of the Legislative Council, who also was a member of the Tatiata District Council.  The Commissioner’s reply was published in the Narracoorte Herald of 17 May and the Border Watch of 20 May.

While Mr Densley’s letter has not been published, the nature of the commissioner’s reply and Mr Densley’s dual memberships suggest that he certainly was a civic-minded individual.

Sanitary facilities at the camp could be condemned by the local medical officer as inadequate, the Tatiata Council’s Health Officer, Dr KD Krantz, commented on the reply.

In moving that Cr Densley be thanked for his representations in the matter, another Councillor said that an inspection of the camp could be made by the Health Inspector, and if sanitary conditions were found to be inadequate, a report could be submitted to Council.

The local Health Inspector carried out this instruction and reported back to the Council that, “Sanitary arrangements consist of a series of movable cubicles over pits on a sandy rise. Cubicles are moved on to fresh pits and old ones filled in at frequent intervals. However, washup water and some kitchen refuse was being deposited in a shallow hole near the kitchen. I instructed the camp attendant to provide refuse buckets and have the material buried each day.

“I do not consider that these men are being subjected to any undue hardships in regard to camping conditions as the amenities provided for them are equal to those provided for local men under similar conditions." This report appeared in Bordertown’s Border Chronicle of 17 June 1948.

Did the men feel that the conditions were only a slight improvement on those endured when drafted into the German Army, as many of them had been? At least there were not bombs and bullets flying around, but see below.

It wasn’t only moving the rails from the train which had brought them to the Wolseley railway yards (as discussed in the previous blog entry) which was dangerous. Even travelling to work might have more than normal dangers.

On 2 September 1948, a ganger probably had had his life saved by former medical students after a motor trolley carrying the men had stopped suddenly. The ganger was thrown heavily to the ground when a bar came lose, creating an obstruction which led to the sudden stop. After being treated on the scene, the ganger was admitted to hospital with several head injuries as well as a broken leg and ribs, according to Border Chronicle.

At this time, we do not know if this incident involved anyone from the First Transport. Tragically, a workplace accident did lead to the death of one of the First Transporters later that month.

Miervaldis Indriksons' ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA

Miervaldis Indriksons, then aged only 30, was driving a front end loader to fill in a railway dam at Narracoorte. The machine toppled and Indriksons tried to jump clear, but caught his foot in the steering wheel. He was taken to the local hospital but died two hours later from his internal injuries, on 15 September 1948.

Lutheran Pastor K Hartman of Bordertown conducted the funeral the next day. The railways arranged transport to allow his fellow countrymen to attend. The funeral also was attended by the Engineer in Charge of the broadening, EL Walpole, the man who was to speak to the Mount Gambier Rotary Club eight days later on what the broadening project involved (see previous entry).

His fellow countrymen must have been the ones who told the Border Chronicle reporter that Miervaldis had been the only surviving member of a family of eight killed during the War. There was believed to be a small son still alive in Europe.

Pastor Hartman had been keeping an eye on the Bangham men since he first visited on 14 January. He discovered that none of the 20 Protestants had a copy of the Bible in English. The next day, the Border Chronicle published his letter appealing for financial help to purchase bibles for the men, with a parallel version in their mother tongue if possible.

There were other incidents among the Bangham men involving the First Transporters. One was Petras Bulke, a Lithuanian who had to be admitted to hospital in March 1948 after accidentally swallowing some kerosene. As the Border Chronicle reported at the time, “Mr Bulke was performing a trick which involved its use”.

It looks like problems getting Petras Bulke to medical assistance had been included in Mr Densley’s letter, since the Railway Commissioner’s reply included, "The Engineer-in-Charge of the work has the responsibility for seeing that sick or injured men are conveyed to the nearest doctor, and, so far as I am aware, his duties in this respect are not neglected even when the injuries are the result of brawls after working hours.

"The particular case referred to by Dr. Krantz was of an unusual character, and the delay in conveying the men (sic) to Bordertown was due to prompt advice not being given to the Engineer at Wolseley. We do not of course, keep ambulance vehicles at each camp, but first aid out fits, and employees qualified in first aid are available at all camps."

Dr Krantz further commented to the Tatiata Council that the delay in the case of kerosene poisoning was due to lack of telephone communication. Sometimes vehicles were not available and bad roads were also an obstacle. The lack of telephones in the Bangham area made the news also in August, when a public meeting in Bordertown agreed to petition the Post-Master General to provide telephone services from Bordertown to the area.

The Railway Commissioner had mentioned brawls after hours. This was not the only public mention of violent behaviour among young men traumatised by being caught up in World War II, mostly most unwillingly.

The Border Chronicle of 29 April 1948 reported that Aleksandrs Kirpiconoks, along with a later Latvian arrival, both probably without legal representation, had pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest at Wolseley one Saturday earlier in that month. They were each fined £1 with 7/6 costs on the first charge and £2 plus 10/6 interpreter’s fee on the second charge.

A schedule from the Commonwealth Employment Service tells us that the men had been promised a weekly income of £5/19/6. This was a bit more than the basic wage at the time, reported in the Mount Gambier Border Watch as being £5/8/- in Adelaide from the beginning of the first pay period in February. This probably was a gross salary, with Pay As You Go tax yet to be deducted. As well, Railways might have been deducting more to cover the cost of the food for the men, and maybe even the cost of employing the “camp attendant”. The total of £3/17/6 to be paid by Kirpiconoks and his friend may well have swallowed up one week’s wages for both.

Also during April 1948, police were called to sort out a “disturbance” among some of the Baltic men on a freight train on which they were travelling back to the Bangham camp. Several windows were broken. The railway authorities would not allow the train to depart until the melee was sorted out. The result was two of the First Transporters, Antanas Brazauskas and Antanas Budrionis appearing before two Justices of the Peace on charges of wilful damage, for breaking the railway windows, and offensive behaviour. Again prrobably without legal representation, both pleaded guilty and were each fined £1 with 17/6 costs on the first count and £1 with 10/6 interpreter’s fee on the second. The total this time was £3/8/-, still a sobering amount of their weekly income.

In all fairness, I must point out that 9 other miscreants appeared before the Wolseley Court during the month covered by this report. Most cases involved drinking, fighting or “disorderly behaviour”. I have not found more reports of the Bangham camp residents appearing before the courts.

Another untoward incident in January 1949 involved one of the men already mentioned, Antanas Brazauskas. He was attacked in his tent by a fellow Lithuanian who he had regarded as a friend. The attacker found a rifle in Brazauskas’ tent and fired it about twenty times, it was alleged, piercing holes in the tent fabric.

Despite injuries, Brazauskas was able to stagger to the tent of two others who took him to a third tent, where he was “carefully guarded”. One of the men in the third tent, Feliksas Subacius, also was from the First Transport. The men tried to get police help, but had to wait for a day until a policeman from Wolseley arrived.

The men prepared a report to the Regional Director of Employment, Adelaide, claiming that this was not the first time that the attacker had moved against other men. “In the meantime”, they reported, “we approached our superiors and told them that our lives were endangered through the presence of the offender, and that either he or we would have to leave the camp”. The railway authorities had not removed the attacker or informed the men of their intentions by the time they had stipulated, so they had gone to Adelaide to lodge their complaint.

They had asked the Chief Engineer’s Department to give them employment somewhere else in the SAR. The men had been transferred to Terowie, more than 500 Km from Bangham and less than 25 Km from Peterborough.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

“These Baltic immigrants are, generally, reasonably well educated, and a proportion of them have a smattering of English. The latter are selected for transfer to other centres where English is taught, and they are trained for railway traffic duties. The others gradually acquire a knowledge of English from daily contact with Australian workmen.

“It is not practicable for the Railways Commissioner to supply transport to enable a Bordertown school teacher to visit the Bangham camp at nights (as) suggested nor is it practicable to provide additional amenities in these camps for the reasons given. It is considered, however, that the camp at Narracoorte, when constructed will provide relaxation at weekends.”

Relaxation at weekends probably was not what the Hon LH Densley MLC was seeking for the men in his letter referenced above, but it was the conclusion reached by the Railways Commissioner in the reply presented to the Tatiana District Council in May 1948.

Elsewhere I have read that the SAR was employing English-speaking migrants from a variety of places in the United Kingdom, leading the Baltic employees to wonder which English they were supposed to be acquiring by daily contact.

Three months later, another letter, this time to the Adelaide Advertiser from a church minister based in Bordertown, appealed for English language classes for the group at Bangham. He wrote that “constant association with these men has revealed that they have definite potentialities of becoming some of our finest Australian citizens. But, how can these potentialities develop into realities if they are debarred reasonable opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the language of the country?

“Most of these men began their work with the railways with a knowledge of English which barely exceeded ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Repeated representations have been made to responsible authorities about the camp at Bangham, with the reply that it is ‘impracticable’ to make arrangements for an English teacher to visit it.”

As noted already, the 17 or 18 men speakers of good or excellent English had left in February, while Girts Broders, the original leader appointed by the Employment authorities in Bonegilla, probably had gone too. We have to hope that there were good English speakers among the later groups or the men were somehow picking up enough English to survive from their Australian colleagues.

English lessons finally arrived at the camp in December 1948, after a petition from the SAR at Bangham. The 40 students were supplied with free notebooks and a textbook called, “English for Newcomers to Australia” when they attended their first Friday night class on 10 December. But then their lessons came to an abrupt end, as their new teacher was leaving the district. The plan, thank goodness, was to obtain the services of another teacher in the new year.

It would be good to report that this plan was actioned, but I can find no further mention of English classes for the Bangham men in the South Australian newspapers digitised by Trove, at least until the men probably had left by the end of October 1949.

Indeed, the only 1949 report is the shoot up of Antanas Brazauskas’ tent in January and its consequences. Either the Bangham camp had settled down, or the local press reporters and their editors had lost interest.

Sources

Border Chronicle (1948) 'Balt Swallows Kerosene' Bordertown, SA 25 March p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212918840 accessed 29 December 2023.

Border Chronicle (1948) 'English Classes for Balts' Bordertown, SA 16 December p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212921875 accessed 29 December 2023

Border Chronicle (1948) 'Petition for Telephonic Service to Bangham Area' Bordertown, SA 19 August p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212920470 accessed 20 April 2024.

Border Chronicle (1948) 'Sanitary conditions at Wolseley Railway Station "A Menace"' Bordertown, SA 17 June p 1

Border Chronicle (1949) 'Balts Leave Bangham Camp After Disturbance' Bordertown, SA 10 February p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212922409 accessed 15 April 2024.

Border Watch (1948) 'Basic Wage Increase' Mount Gambier, SA 20 January p 12 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78592298 accessed 20 Apr 2024.

Chronicle (1948) 'Labour Shortage Delays New Gauge' Adelaide, SA 21 October p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93211360 accessed 15 April 2024.

Hartman, K (1948) ‘Bibles for Immigrants’, Border Chronicle, Bordertown, SA, 15 January, p 7, https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212918131, accessed 16 April 2024.

Hartman, KE (1948) 'Tuition for Balts' Advertiser Adelaide 28 August 1948 p 2 194808  https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43780741 accessed 29 December 2023.

Narracoorte Herald (1949) ‘Balts Leave Bangham Camp After Disturbance: Lithuanian attacked and injured’ Narracoorte, SA 14  February p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147143280 accessed 15 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules; 21 (1947 – 1950), 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, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 7 May 2024.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947–1956; INDRIKSONS, Miervaldis : Year of Birth - 1918 : Nationality - LATVIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 761, 1947–1948, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203644069 accessed 15 May 2024.

Wikipedia, 'Les Densley' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Densley accessed 15 April 2024.