Eight First Transport Men to Electrona
We’ve just had an entry about Jonas Motiejūnas, the leader of the Lithuanian men on the First Transport, whose first job after fruit-picking was with the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company at Electrona in Tasmania.*
Along with Jonas, the others sent to Electrona were Lithuanians Kazys Alseika, Anicetas Grigaliunas and Algirdas Jonas Smelstorius, and Estonians, Sven Kiväli, Raimond Uster, Erich Väli and Kalev Veermäe. That’s 4 Lithuanians and 4 Estonians, 8 in all. At least the two ethnic groups had 3 or more years of German in common for some cross-cultural communication.
A Launceston Examiner report from 1950 says that the factory was employing 150 men. Ramunas Tarvydas, in his 1997 book, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, writes that the factory, plus the quarry at Ida Bay supplying the limestone which the factory processed, employed around 200 in 1965.
Coke – the coal product, not the soft drink – was the other input which the factory needed to manufacture calcium carbide. This carbide is a solid which reacts with water to produce acetylene gas.
Jonas Motiejūnas told Ray Tarvydas about shovelling coal, not coke. Perhaps the carbide factory’s furnaces created the conditions required to turn coal into coke during the production process.
Using acetylene for lighting was common still in mid-20th century Australia. Another major use of acetylene still is in welding.
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| Acetylene carbide bicycle lamp: visit Coffs Collections for information on how it worked Source: Coffs Collections |
The factory’s prior history
The Electrona Carbide factory had been opened in 1917 by James Gillies, a metallurgist who patented a method for the electrolytic extraction of zinc from ores. His process required lots of electricity, so he moved from New South Wales to Tasmania with the idea of using that state’s topography and plentiful rainfall to set up a hydroelectric scheme.
Weather and politics led to the Tasmanian Government taking over his hydro scheme, which became the forerunner of the State’s Hydro-electric Commission, now Hydro Tasmania. Gillies’ Great Lake Scheme, together with the Electrona carbide factory, are seen as the start of industrialisation in Tasmania.
Just as it took over his hydroelectric scheme, the Government took over the carbide factory in 1923. From 1934, it was operated by the Commonwealth Carbide Company of London. At some stage before 1948, it had been taken over again, so was operated by the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company when the first Baltic refugees arrived.
The men’s work
As a qualified engineer, Jonas Motiejūnas was in a good position to assess the nature of the work. Here is how Ray Tarvydas wrote up his assessment.
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| (Click on the image for a more legible version, click the cross in the upper right to return here) |
It is possible that nothing had changed in the 30 years since the factory opened.
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| The carbide works in 1920 Source: Rimon, Carbide Works |
Motiejūnas was able to get a transfer from this dangerous work after discussion with a CES official. Tarvydas reports that another of the 8, Sven Kiviväli, was able to transfer to Melbourne after his mother, grandmother and sister arrived. Clearly these women needed a man to look after them, although Sven had just turned 19 when the rest of the family arrived in January 1949.
Tarvydas says that the 3 other Estonians decided that they too needed to leave when Sven was able to go. Like Endrius Jankus, they probably were tracked down by the Commonwealth Employment Service and sent to new jobs (we have to hope) of the CES' choosing.
It will be interesting to see, if we can, how the remaining 3 from the First Transport coped.
* Although the Bonegilla cards for each of the 8 refer to “Australian Carbide Co, Electrona, Tas”, newspaper reports from the time show that the owner’s full name was the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company Limited.
CITE THIS AS: Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'The Electrona Carbide Factory' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/08/electrona-carbide-factory.html
Sources
Examiner (1950) ‘Carbide Works May Close’, Launceston, Tasmania, 18 March, p 14, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52775382, accessed 12 August 2025.
Hydro Tasmania, https://www.hydro.com.au/, accessed 13 August 2025.
Rimon, Wendy (2006) ‘Carbide Works’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/C/Carbide%20Works.htm accessed 13 August 2025. [Rimon’s description of the process and products does not tally with Motiejūnas’ description, possibly because both changed over time.]
Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle : Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, Tasmania, pages 34-36.
Wikipedia, ‘Electrona, Tasmania’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrona,_Tasmania, accessed 13 August 2025.
Wikipedia, ‘Hydro Tasmania’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_Tasmania, accessed 13 August 2025.
Wikipedia, ‘James Hyndes Gillies’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hyndes_Gillies, accessed 13 August 2025.
