These are excerpts from a speech by Viltis Salytė-Kružienė on 6 July 1997 at Melbourne Lithuanian House for Lithuanian National Day. This article appeared in the 4 August 1997 issue of the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, from which we are using it and its illustrations with kind permission.
Two portraits of Viltis Kružienė
1997 (left) and 1947 (right)
Source: Mūsų Pastogė, 4 August 1997
1997 (left) and 1947 (right)
One cold day in Germany in October 1947, my sister came to me and asked if I would like to travel to Australia for work. If I agreed, the train would leave for Frankfurt at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, and in Butzbach, near Frankfurt, the Australian commission would be waiting for us, and then maybe in a week or so we could sail to new shores.
There wasn't much time to make up our minds. Although we didn't know much about Australia, we still needed somewhere to settle down for a permanent life. We wouldn't be able to stay in Germany. And who would want to return to the Bolshevik occupation? There was no question of returning to Lithuania in 1947. And so began my odyssey of travel together with other Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians.
In 1947, we sailed to sunny Australia on the American military transport ship General Stuart Heintzelman.
The ship's passengers were mostly young men and women. There were 630 Lithuanian men and 18 women on board.¹ Most of them had recently graduated from school, and their memories were still alive with the bright memories of their teachers who, while educating them, told them that they should live not only for themselves, but also for others, and most importantly, be a useful person for their homeland.
While sailing on a ship, a group of enthusiasts decided to publish a one-off newspaper in Lithuanian. The Latvians and Estonians did the same. The newspaper was called The Baltic Viking. Its introduction read:
A general meeting was convened in the ship's dining room, and a temporary board was elected, which would represent us if necessary.²
First, in early November, a gathering was organised on the ship to commemorate All Souls' Day.³ Although we did not have a priest, we prayed from the Lithuanian prayer book for all the dead and sang a few hymns together. Every Sunday, mass was held, and hymns were sung.
Scouts for men and women were organised. During the trip, meetings were held and a festive bonfire with an interesting program was held on the deck of the ship. A folk-dance group and a men's choir were also organised. The ship's captain invited the Lithuanian choir to sing for the American crew. One Lithuanian woman dressed in national costume presented him with a modest Lithuanian gift.
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| The Lithuanian scouts on the Heintzelman hold a bonfire ceremony (perhaps without lighting the fire) Source: Mūsų Pastogė, 4 August 1997 |
Once a week we would receive 10 packs of American cigarettes or some sweets. The women received Elizabeth Arden cosmetics, everyone else received toothpaste and toothbrushes. Today, such gifts mean nothing to us, but back then it was different.
Four weeks passed in a flash. Early in the morning of November 28, the ship approached the Australian coast. Everyone who had just gotten up ran to the deck to see what Australia looked like.
When entering the port of Fremantle, nothing could be seen. The shore was far away, no land, no towers, only rocks, rocks and more rocks. Standing on the deck, I looked at the waves of the sea, and began to doubt whether it was worth going to that shore. Maybe, as someone said, there were only deserts and black bears and kangaroos running around.
However, when the ship stopped in the port and we saw people waiting for us on the quay, the picture changed. Those waiting were the same as us. The mood improved, and when the customs officers hurriedly checked our luggage, we began to go ashore.
The ship brought 849 emigrants to Australia. Out of all, only two people were not allowed to alight: a Latvian woman who was suspected of being politically unacceptable, and a man who developed a mental illness during the trip. The man was Lithuanian.⁴
The buses took us to the intended camp, which was called Graylands, while the rest of the Lithuanians were accommodated in the Swanbourne camp, which was about a kilometer away from the first one.
Before getting on the bus, a strange woman gave me a large paper bag full of still warm cakes with jam. That touched me very much, and I thought, how good those Australian people are! I kept thinking about that woman for a long time. Why did she want to please the emigrants who had only just arrived?
In the camp, semi-circular tin barracks, painted white with lime, could be seen from a distance. The weather was beautiful. Neither hot nor cold. After getting ready, we were called to lunch. Before going to the dining room, everyone was given leaflets in which the Minister of Immigration, Mr Calwell, greeted the arrivals.
The second thing that surprised me was that when I entered the dining room, the tables were covered with white tablecloths, and at the ends of the tables stood vases high with oranges. And we had not seen them for many years! After eating a good lunch, we went to our rooms to rest.
The refugees brought from Europe on the ship General Stuart Heintzelman, DPs, Displaced Persons, were replaced by German prisoners of war from the state of Victoria returning to their homeland.⁵
Four days later, in Perth, we boarded the Australian warship Kanimbla, which looked much worse than the American one. However, the Australians seemed much friendlier to us than the Americans. We travelled all week to Melbourne.⁶
True, before sailing to Melbourne, we were questioned at the Greylands camp, and the answers were written down by Australian scribes. They listened how well everyone could "speak English." My knowledge of English was marked "satisfactory."
While sailing on the Kanimbla, the Australians published a daily newspaper. The ship's management invited me to read the text of the newspaper in English translated into Lithuanian, so that even those who did not speak English at all could read what was written in that newspaper. The Latvians and Estonians did the same.
A week later we reached Melbourne. The journey continued on the same day. We went by train to a camp called Bonegilla. The train stopped somewhere in the fields, the Australian soldiers picked us up with our luggage and brought us to the barracks in trucks.7
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| The train for the women is about to leave Port Melbourne for Bonegilla Contrast this photo with the more frequently use one taken by a Melbourne Sun photographer (below)
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Oh God, the barracks had not been inhabited for about a week. The floors were dirty, there were cobwebs everywhere. There were three beds with mattresses in the room. We put our suitcases outside and went to ask for cleaning supplies. After bringing water, we washed ourselves in our new home, made the beds with clean sheets and warm blankets. We felt like we were in a hotel.
While we were getting ready, many journalists and photographers arrived at the camp. They photographed our every move. The next morning, journalists and photographers followed us from early morning. Soon we received newspapers and magazines with our photos.
The next day, it was announced over the loudspeaker that everyone would have to go to school and learn some Aussie expressions, which would be very useful in everyday life at first, as well as the so-called "Australian way of life".
It was 8 December.8 As I was walking through the campgrounds, I met an acquaintance from Estonia who invited me to go with her to an agency that recruits clerks for various office jobs. Since I could not only speak English but also type, I got a job as a typist and translator at the Employment Office in the camp.
I completed my compulsory labour contract in Bonegilla. My other female companions were assigned to work as waitresses or housekeepers. The men were assigned to manual labour and were sent all over Australia as ordinary labourers.
That was the beginning of my life in Australia...
CITE THIS AS Salytė-Kružienė, Viltis (trans. Pocius, Daina) (2025) 'Beginning life in Australia', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/08/beginning-life-in-Australia-by-Viltis-Salyte-Kruziene.html.
