The Kildišas Brothers, Jonas and Adolfas, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

The Kildišas family came from Joniškis, a town and a surrounding municipality of the same name in northern Lithuania. Of the four children in the family, two came to Australia, a married older brother with a 2-year-old child went to America with his family in 1949 and a sister stayed with her parents in Lithuania.

Jonas Kildišas

Jonas died too early, aged only 42, and 2 months after becoming an Australia citizen

Born on 11 August 1921 in Joniškis, he attended a trade school in Klaipėda.  According to the report of his selection interview for resettlement in Australia, this was after 6 years of primary school.  He was at the trade school for 4 years, learning to be a motor mechanic.  He also had worked as a farmer for 3 years, possibly after his arrival in Germany in May 1942.

At the time of his application for resettlement, he had been working as a mechanic and living at the 82 DPAC Voerde.  DPAC stands for Displaced Persons Assembly Centre — a DP camp — and Voerde was a town on the Rhine River, so in the far west of central Germany.   

Jonas Kildišas photo from his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The languages in which he said he was fluent were Lithuanian and Polish, although he must have picked up some German and English since leaving Lithuania.

From the Bonegilla camp, he was one the many men sent to Victoria’s Goulburn Valley to pick fruit. In his case, he was working for Messrs Turnbull Brothers of Ardmona.  He was one of those who gave up early, returning to Bonegilla on 23 February after little more than 3 weeks away.

He probably was unwell, because he spent the period from 27 February to 5 March 1948 in the Albury District Hospital.

Jonas Kildišas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

With another Lithuanian, Mecislovas Tutlys, he was sent to Dookie Agricultural College, near the Goulbourn Valley, on 24 June.  His Bonegilla card does not record that he was working in the Bonegilla camp from early March until then but, presumably, he was not left to his own devices after weekday English language classes.

At Dookie, they were joined by Borisas Dainutis in mid-July.   We’ve already described how hard Borisas worked to set up Lithuanian scouting in Australia.  Vytautas Sakalauskas arrived in early September and a fifth Lithuanian man, Jonas Asmonas, came three weeks later.

Jonas later worked in an electric motor workshop, married Eleonora Grabytė and settled in Melbourne.

One morning after breakfast, he thought about going for a walk, but while pulling on his jacket, he felt faint. His wife called the doctor, who diagnosed a heart attack and immediately sent him to the hospital. The attack passed, and he feel quite well. After a couple of weeks, one morning it got worse, and Jonas called a priest. Another attack had started.

Jonas died of heart disease in Prince Henry’s Hospital on 26 June 1964. He is buried in in Fawkner Cemetery.

He left his wife Eleonora and a 4-year-old son, Victor. Victor completed a Bachelor of Applied Science in metallurgy at the University of Melbourne in 1980. Now retired, he describes himself as a “self-taught, high-level, improvisatory pianist and chess player”. He is an internationally known chess player with a FIDE ranking.

Adolfas Kildišas

Adolfas was born nearly 3 years after Jonas, on 8 June 1924.  The report of his selection interview for resettlement in Australia says that he had 6 years of primary school and one and a half years in a trade school, training to be a mechanic.  That training may well have been interrupted by the Russian invasion in June 1940.

The period of time in which he had worked as a motor mechanic was 4 years, so either included some time in Nazi Germany or perhaps back home, in Lithuania.  He also had worked on a farm in Germany for 8 months.  

The application form gave Lithuanian as the only language in which he was fluent, although he must have picked up some German and English after his arrival in Germany in July 1944.

Like his brother, Jonas, Adolfas  was living at the 82 DPAC Voerde,  a Displaced Persons camp in a town on the Rhine in western Germany.   Clearly, they had been able to track each other down.

From the Bonegilla camp, he was sent to work for the South Australian Salt Company, at 191A Victoria Square West, Adelaide, along with 8 others, in January 1948.

Adolfas Kildišas from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Since South Australia has a number of places where salt has been mined historically, including places where salt production continues, we do not know where this group of 9 worked.

A likely place is Deep Creek, on the edge of suburban Adelaide, only 12 Km north of Victoria Square. Another possibility is that he was one of a party of an intended 10 about which the Adelaide Advertiser wrote on 10 January 1948. If they came by train to Adelaide, they would have to take another train back to Murray Bridge, where they were due at the nearby Mulgundawa salt works.

His Adelaide Alien Registration card has Langhorne Creek written on the back without any further information. Langhorne Creek is about 60 Km southeast of Adelaide, near Lake Alexandrina, and is best known now as the third largest wine producing region in South Australia. It is also near the Mulgundawa salt works.

However, the company working at Mulgundawa usually traded under the name of Mulgundawa Salt or Australian Saltworks, not South Australian Salt Company.

Adolfas later worked in the remote outback town of Woomera in South Australia.

He was released from his contract with the Australian Government, along with most of the others from the First Transport, on 30 September 1949.

The Alien Registration card records that he left for Melbourne in mid-1950, residing there for many years. He was a generous donor to the Melbourne Lithuanian Catholic Parish.  We don't know his occupation there but have to hope that it was something he enjoyed, perhaps work as a mechanic.

Later he returned to Adelaide where he passed away on 21 July 2021, aged 97, meaning that he lived for 55 years longer than his brother. His remains were cremated at Centennial Park Crematorium.

Four Lithuanians from the First Transport living in South Australia attended the commemoration of 70 years since the Heintzelman arrived at Adelaide's Lithuanian House on 28 November 2017
L to R:  Aleksas Saulius, Algis Pranckunas, Adolfas Kildišas and Juozas Donela

Photographer:  Daina Pocius

SOURCES

Advertiser (1948) ‘First Party Of Balts Here’ Adelaide, 10 January, p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43751686, accessed 19 January 2026.

Australian Salt Works, ‘Operations’ https://www.australiansaltworks.com.au/operations-development, accessed 19 January 2026.

Centennial Park Memorial Search, ‘Kildisas’ https://centennialpark.org/memorial-search/?firstname=&surname=Kildisas, accessed 18 January 2026.

‘Correspondence and nominal roles, done at Bremen-Grohn: transport by ship (USS GENERAL MUIR); transit countries and final destinations: USA’ DocID: 81660950, 3.1.3 Emigrations, ITS/Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81660950, accessed 18 January 2026.

International Chess Federation 'Victor Kildisas' https://ratings.fide.com/profile/3203352/statistics, accessed 19 January 2026.

Linked In 'Victor Kildisas' https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-kildisas-85013a149/?originalSubdomain=au, accessed 19 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; 475, KILDISAS [KILDISIS] Adolfas DOB 8 June 1924, 1947-1947; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005735, accessed 18 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; KILDISAS Jonas DOB 11 August 1921, 1947-1947; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005736, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1948-1976; KILDISAS Adolfas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1950; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9183330, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2572, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KILDISIS (sic) ADOLFAS, KILDISIS, Adolfas : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 851, 1947-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203625915, accessed 18 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2572, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; KILDISAS JONAS, KILDISAS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 852, 1947-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203625914, accessed 18 January 2026.

Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1964) ‘A†A Jonas Kildišas’ (‘In Memoriam, Jonas Kildisas’ in Lithuanian) Melbourne, 30 June, p 4, https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1964/1964-nr25-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 18 January 2026.

Wikipedia 'Voerde' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voerde, accessed 19 January 2026.

Our Lady of the Snows, Island Bend, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

First church for Snowy Mountains

The first church for workers in the Snowy Mountains Scheme, including some from the First Transport, was a Catholic one at Island Bend opened on Sunday, 13 January 1952. The church was named, fittingly, Our Lady of the Snows, as it was at an altitude of more than 1,200 metres in the Australian Alps.

The small church, 42 feet by 22 feet or 12.8 x 6.7 metres, was built in six weeks by two Sydney contractors, Ralph Mitchell and Ken Palmer. They were assisted by men working on the Snowy Scheme, including refugees from the Transports. The men later presented the church free of debt to the Archbishop of Canberra, Goulburn and donated all the brassware needed for the altar.

Source:  Catholic Weekly, 21 February 1952 via Trove

Artwork in the church

The artwork within the church was executed by Dr Anton Bruckner, a nephew of the famous composer.  Dr Bruckner, former Professor of Philosophy at Prague University, was working at Island Bend. During the war years he was cruelly tortured by the Nazis and sentenced to death.  He was reprieved, supposed by Hitler himself, only a few hours before the sentence was carried out, because of his relationship to the composer. 

Anton painted Da Vinci’s Last Supper to hang above the altar. He also gave the delicate lace veiling the tabernacle and edging the altar in memory of his wife and son gassed in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Catholic workers at Island Bend met the cost of the furnishings and other equipment. The total population of the camp was between 500 and 600.

Celebrating Mass

Afternoon Mass was celebrated there once a fortnight by the Rev. Father F. Bouchier, who had been appointed to Jindabyne.

The silver ciborium was the gift of Italian workmen, in memory of Vincenco Pinazza, an Italian man killed while working in Guthega.  The statue of Mary came from a hotel owner in Jindabyne, the altar vases were another gift, and the convent in Cooma donated the Stations of the Cross.

A ciborium
Source:  Merriam Webster Dictionary

Building and Painting the Church

A Lithuanian from the First Transport, Aleksas Saulius, worked as a camp manager and helped build the church. He and another Lithuanian refugee, Vladas Rackauskas, from the Mozaffari voyage which reached Melbourne on 24 March 1949, the Twentieth Transport, painted the church green.

Closing the Church

The title of the church at the highest altitude in Australia was taken in the 1960s by another church, in Perisher, which is more than 1700 metres above sea level. As the Island Bend camp closed in 1965, the year after construction of the Perisher church started, the latter now carries the Our Lady of the Snows name.

After the closure of the Island Bend camp, the first church was included in the demolition.

CITE THIS DOCUMENT AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Our Lady of the Snows, Island Bend' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/our-lady-of-snows-island-bend.html.

SOURCES

Catholic Weekly (1952) ‘Snowy River Men Build Own Church’ Sydney, NSW, 10 January 1952. P 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146747887, accessed 28 October 2025.

Advocate (1954) ‘Chapel in the Mountains’ Melbourne, Vic, 16 December, p 24 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172542268, accessed 28 October 2025.

Construction (1952) 'Australia's Highest Church' Sydney, NSW, 12 March, p.8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223547581, accessed 28 October 2025.

Sydney Morning Herald (1951) 'Professor Is A Shoe Polisher', NSW, 8 June, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18226656, accessed 28 October 2025.

Aleksas Saulius (1923-2023): A centenarian, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Aleksas Saulius died in Adelaide on 10 November 2023. This in itself is remarkable because he had been born more than 100 years before, on 6 January 1923, in Lithuania.

The First Transporters went through medical examinations in Germany in order to be included in this cohort, then had a further check on the General Stuart Heintzelman before being allowed to land in Fremantle. Indeed, three did not get to land because the medical officer deemed that they would become a charge on Australian health services.

In light of this, it is not so remarkable that the 839 who landed have produced several centenarians, perhaps more than normal for any group aged 16 to 42 in 1947.

Aleksas’ place of birth was Biržai, Lithuania. The Arolsen Archives have not digitised any records yet of his time in Germany as a refugee from the Soviet invasion of his nation. All that we know about this period is that he was living in a Displaced Persons Camp in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt, when he applied to come to Australia.

From the summary of his interview by the Australian team in the Butzbach Camp, we know that he had had only 6 years of primary school education. He probably had an agricultural background, since his Occupation Suitability was described as ‘Medium farmer’.

Aleksas Saulius, 1947, from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

After a month and a half in the Bonegilla camp, Aleksas was sent to a place called Billipapoola in New South Wales for the Forestry Commission. Neither Google Maps nor the older National Mapping 1:250,000 maps have indexed this place. Even Apple Maps, helpful with former settlements near Ebor in northern NSW, has failed this test.

The hint to the answer comes from the back of his Aliens Registration record, held by the National Archives in Adelaide. It shows his first address after Bonegilla as c/- Forestry Office, Batlow, which is in New South Wales, west of Canberra. Billipapoola Reserve is 27 Km east-north-east of Tumut or 48 Km north-east of Batlow.

Whether Aleksas’ work involved sawing down trees, moving the logs or processing them, it would have been hard and dangerous labour. He was released from his initial obligation to work as directed on 5 October 1949. That was 5 days after the date directed by the Minister for Immigration: perhaps the message was slow to travel to Batlow.

An Aliens Registration record card shows that Aleksas saw a lot of Australia before he settled down. The next address after Batlow was Uni Hostel, Parramatta Road, Glebe, a residence for students of the University of Sydney. Then comes Dalween Private Hotel in Sydney from 10 June 1950 and, about 4 weeks later, c/- HS Atherton, Bli Bli, a rural town in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast region. (HS normally would stand for High School, but the Atherton Tableland is at least 1500 Km north of the Sunshine Coast: maybe HS Atherton was the the initials and surname of another employer.)

Never mind because, only 9 days later, Aleksas had moved to a Brisbane address. Five days after that, he started working with the South Coast Hospital Board in Brisbane. We are now at 17 July 1950. The next cryptic entry probably indicates that a file of papers on Aleksas had been forwarded to the Chief Migration Officer (CMO) for the State of Queensland, also located in Brisbane, at the end of November 1950.

Nine months later, that file had to return to the CMO New South Wales, because Aleksas had started work with the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric Authority at Island Bend via Cooma. We know that then he became the manager of one of around 120 camps built for other employees, the one at Spencers Creek.

In the absence of a digitised photo specifically of the Spencers Creek camp,
here's a generic one of Snowy Mountains Scheme workers heading out of camp to work: 
Let's hope that, in winter, they had accommodation which would be more resistant to blizzards 

Source:  Kidsnews

Renoldas or Reno Česna, generally known in Australia as Ron, was another Snowy Mountains Hydro employee who made a project in retirement of collecting all that he could on fellow Lithuanians also employed on the Snowy. His collection includes a December 1952 letter of commendation from a Bega High School teacher who had led a party of students on a visit which involving a stay at the Spencers Creek camp.

Mr KG Loft wrote that, ‘Personally, although I have had plenty of experience with children’s camps, I must say that I have never had so enjoyable a camp with young people … We would appreciate if you could convey our thanks to these officers in particular … Mr Alex Saulius, the camp attendant who made camp such a pleasant place.’

We know that Aleksas was generous also with his money, as there are many records in both the Australian-Lithuanian newspapers, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), and Teviškes aidai (Echoes of Homeland) of his donations to causes such as the construction of new churches and scouting.

He was particularly generous in donating funds for the construction of what was then the only church in the Snowy Mountains, Our Lady of the Snows in the Island Bend camp. At an altitude of more than 1200 metres above sea level, it qualified as the highest church in Australia. Before its opening on Sunday, 13 January 1952, the whole of the church had been painted white by Aleksas and a fellow Lithuanian refugee, Vladas Rackauskas.

The title of the church at the highest in altitude in Australia was to be taken in the 1960s by another church, in Perisher, which is more than 1700 metres above sea level. As the Island Bend camp closed in 1965, the year after construction of the Perisher church started, the latter now carries the Our Lady of the Snows name.

Aleksas next reported changes of address and workplace to the Department of Immigration, under its Aliens Registration requirements, on 28 July 1955. His new address was in an inner Adelaide suburb, Lockleys. His workplace was even closer to the inner city, in Mile End. He advised that he was a labourer with the Perry Engineering Company.

Aleksas next reported changes of address and workplace to the Department of Immigration, under its Aliens Registration requirements, on 28 July 1955. His new address was in an inner Adelaide suburb, Lockleys. His workplace was even closer to the inner city, in Mile End. He advised that he was a labourer with the Perry Engineering Company.

We know that Perry Engineering manufactured mechanical presses for the Chrysler, Ford and Holden car factories in Australia in the 1950s. Before WWII, it had focussed on building locomotives, including for South Australian Railways. Through this job, Aleksas was with the employer of many of the men from the First Transport. It may have been a fellow Lithuanian who found the job for him.

Another month later, he started work with the South Australian Electricity Trust, also as a rigger.

Aleksas became an Australian citizen on 11 February 1957 in West Torrens, Adelaide. He no longer was required by law to report every change of employment. As a citizen, however, the law required him to vote in Federal and State elections. He still needed to advise the Electoral Commission of changes of address, particularly if an election was in the offing.

On 1 July 1964, he married Giuseppina Ritarossi at Hectorville, also in Adelaide. He was 41 years old, while she was 35. She had arrived on the Galileo Galilei two weeks before in Melbourne, sponsored by Aleksas as his fiancée.

Giuseppina as a fiancée

Source:  National Archives of Australia

As far as we know, Aleksas never got to be a farm labourer – unless he helped the nearby Batlow orchardists with some apple picking when at his first, Billipapoola job.

From this point on, until his death, there is no more mention of Aleksas in the digitised public record. We can assume that this was because he focussed on being a husband and father. Aleksas and Giuseppina had a daughter and a son.

At the time of Aleksas’ passing on 10 November 2023, there were 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Giuseppina had died 20 years earlier, on 10 April 2003, aged 73.

Aleksas in older age

Source:  MyTributes

CITE THIS DOCUMENT AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Aleksas Saulius (1923-2023):  A centenarian' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/10/aleksas-saulius-1923-2023-centenarian.html.

SOURCES

Catholic Weekly (1952) ‘Snowy River Men Build Own Church’, Sydney 10 January p 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146747887 accessed 5 April 2024.

Česna, Renoldas, collected papers in the Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide.

Find a Grave ‘Giuseppina Saulius’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194737055/giuseppina-saulius, accessed 4 April 2024.

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; 662: SAULIUS Aleksas DOB 6 January 1923, 1947-1947, https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3121118, accessed 4 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878: Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-71; SAULIUS A: SAULIUS Aleskas [Aleksas, Alesksas] born - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as Aleskas, 1947-1957; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12050411, accessed 4 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878: Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1923-71; ITALIAN - SAULIUS G: SAULIUS Giusepina born 1929 - Nationality: Italian - Arrived Melbourne per Galileo Galilei 15 June 1964 Also known as RITAROSSI, 1964-1964; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30829366, accessed 28 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881: Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; SAULIUS, ALESKAS: SAULIUS Aleskas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1976; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9199823, accessed 28 October 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881: Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; SAULIUS, GIUSEPPINA: SAULIUS Giuseppina - Nationality: Italian - Arrived Melbourne per Galileo Galilei 15 June 1964 Also known as NEE RITAROSSI, 1964-1976; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7275267, accessed 4 April 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571: Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; SAULIUS, Aleksas : Year of Birth - 1924 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1036, 1947-1948; https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203703963, accessed 4 April 2024.

Wikipedia ‘Perry Engineering’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Engineering, accessed 4 April 2024.