Stasys Domkus (1920-1998): A Tasmanian First Swallow, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

First Swallows

The Lithuanians from the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, who settled in Tasmania from early 1948 onwards, called themselves “the First Swallows”.  Not just in Lithuania, swallows are widely regarded as the heralds of spring and the return of warmer weather, so they symbolise renewal, hope, and new beginnings.  In Lithuania, their nesting in house eaves is believed to protect the home against fire and evil spirits.

Stasys Domkus qualified as a First Swallow, having been sent to Tasmania on 5 April 1948.  This was after he had spent more than 2 months picking fruit in the Victorian orchard of W Young, whose Ardmona business was called Kelvin Orchards.

Stasys Domkus, 1947, in a photograph from his selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Stasys works in Tasmania

Stasys’ Bonegilla card does not tell us what he was to do in Tasmania but Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, says that his first job there was more fruit picking, at a place called Premaydena.  Tasmania being the Apple Isle, the fruit in this instance surely was apples.

Stasys may have stayed at Premaydena for several years, since Tarvydas lists his next employment as EZ Risdon from 1952 to 1955.  What he was doing in Premaydena when all the apples were picked we do not know.  Perhaps he was helping generally around the orchard which employed him or several orchards, because there always is more work to be done.

EZ Risdon is shorthand for the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australia at suburban Risdon in Tasmania’s capital city, Hobart.  The EZ Risdon factory had opened in 1918, at a time when there was a shortage of zinc throughout the British Empire.  The metal was necessary then for the production of weapons.  While the ore came from Broken Hill in northwest New South Wales, the plant was in Tasmania because of the availability of cheap hydroelectricity.

Stasys moved on to the Cadbury’s chocolate factory, staying there for the rest of his working life.

Stasys' family and citizenship

Around that time, on 17 November 1956, Stays married Kristina Petraitytė in the Hobart Cathedral.  The reception was in the spacious home of her parents.  The house was full of guests, young and old danced and sang Lithuanian songs.  The wedding lasted two days.

The Domkus family, parents and 2 sons, Antanas and Juozas, participated in Lithuanian community meetings, picnics, and church.  Stasys was secretary of the Hobart Lithuanian community for many years.

Stasys took his oath of allegiance to become an Australian citizen before the Lord Mayor of Hobart on 19 March 1958.

Tragedy struck when Juozas died in a car accident in 1992, followed by Kristina dying of cancer in 1996.  Kristina was much younger than Stasys, and only 58 when she died.

Juozas Domkas' plaque, which must have been prepared after his mother died in 1996

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Kristina Domkas' plaque in Cornelian Bay Cemetery

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Stasys' death and funeral

Stays spent his last couple of years in The Gardens retirement village.  He died on 13 July 1998, aged 77.  Ramunas Tarvydas, wrote in an obituary that at least a hundred friends and acquaintances, Lithuanian and Australian, gathered to farewell him.  To honour a former soldier, his casket was draped in the three-coloured Lithuanian flag.

After the singing of the Lithuanian national anthem, the casket was escorted from the church by other First Swallows, Irena Jurevičienė (née Naujokatiene), Česlovas Juškevičius, Henrikas Juodvalkis, Povilas Auksorius, Jurgis Valius and Vladas Mikelaitis.

His body was cremated in Cornelian Bay Crematorium.  In addition to his son, Antanas, Antanas' wife and their two children, Kristin and Kendall, he left behind his mother-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law.

Stasys Domkas' plaque in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Ramunas wrote, “Stasys buvo švelnaus būdo, su humoru, sąžiningas, malonus visiems”. That’s Lithuanian for "Stasys was gentle, humorous, honest, and kind to everyone."

Life in Lithuania and Germany

Ramunas also wrote that he was born in 1920 in Kuršėnai, approximately halfway between the larger towns of Šiauliai and Telšiai in Lithuania.  The actual date of birth was 20 October 1920.  In addition to their one son, his parents had 3 daughters.  The record of his interview by the selection panel for resettlement in Australia says that he received 5 years of schooling, which was one year more than the Lithuanian minimum.

After he finished his schooling, he volunteered to join the Lithuanian army.  When the Soviets occupied Lithuania, his unit became part of the Red Army.  Later it became part of the German Army, which undoubtedly is how he found himself retreating to Germany in 1944.

At least, this military story is the one recorded by Ramunas Tarvydas in the obituary for Stasys, 50 years after his arrival in Australia.  A different story appears on an Australian form titled Particulars of Displaced Persons wishing to Emigrate to Australia completed on 24 September 1947.  There, a typist has recorded that Stasys was born in Tauragė, more than 100 kilometres away from Kuršėnai.  Tauragė is also the birthplace stated on 2 forms for the Department of Immigration completed in Australis.

Stasys had been working as a labourer for the previous 5 months in Germany.  Prior to that, he had worked for 7 years in a meat export factory in Lithuania.  Might this have been the Maistas factory in Šiauliai where another man about to board the First Transport, Algirdas Undzenas, had been one of the directors?

Working in a meat export factory might explain also why the Australian selection panel’s report of its interview with Stasys said that he had been “forcibly evacuated by the Germans for labour”.  It also said that he had arrived in Germany in September 1944, which was even as the Soviet forces returned to his homeland.

The Arolsen Archives has one document on Stasys which tell us only his Displaced Persons number in addition to his name, birthdate and Roman Catholic religion.  There is also a list of Lithuanians in the German town of Amberg, but it gives no birthdates, meaning that we do not know if it is naming our Stasys Domkus or a namefellow born 3 years later.  At the time of his interview for resettlement in Australia, Stasys was living in a camp in Buchholz, one of the places where the Australians interviewed.

In conclusion

Regardless of which version of his later years in Lithuania and his move to Germany is closer to the truth, Stasys was an ideal settler who contributed to Australia through his work here and his roles in the local Lithuanian community.

Footnote

Stasys' younger son, Antanas, is now known from the Find A Grave Website to have lived an unfortunately short life.  The plaque below shows that he died shortly after his 53rd birthday.  His wife, Michelle, died only 5 weeks later.

At least the mention of grandchildren on Antanas' plaque shows that there is another generation of descendants growing up in Tasmania.

Antanas Domkus' plaque in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Sources

Find A Grave 'Anthony John Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212900430/anthony-john-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Joseph Phillip Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212982261/joseph-phillip-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Kristina Birgita Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212987160/kristina-brigita-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Michelle Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212900446/michelle-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

Find A Grave 'Stasys Domkus' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/224769074/stasys-domkus, accessed 21 February 2026.

‘Folder DP0842, names from DOMITAR, Radolf to DON, Moszka (1)’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 66913253 (Stasys DOMKUS), ITS Digital Archive/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66913253, accessed 20 February 2026.

‘Folder 10: DP Listen Amberg’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 81961491, ITS Digital Archive/Arolsen Archives DocID: 81961491, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81961491, accessed 20 February 2026.

‘k.p’ (1956) ‘Hobart Lietuviškos vestuvės’ (‘Hobart Lithuanian Wedding’, in Lithuanian) Teviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, Vic, 29 November, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1956/1956-nr42-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 20 February 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; 66, DOMKUS Stasys DOB 20 October 1920, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005502, accessed 20 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P3, Personal case files, annual single number series with 'T' (Tasmania) prefix, 1951-; T1971/2200, Domkus, Stasys, 1957-58 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9590631, accessed 20 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; DOMKUS STASYS, DOMKUS, Stasys : Year of Birth - 1920 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 466, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203655944, accessed 20 February 2026.

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, p 162.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1998) ‘Tasmanija’ (‘Tasmania’, in Lithuanian) Teviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, Vic, 4 August, p 8 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1998/1998-08-04-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 20 February 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Amberg’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amberg, accessed 20 February 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Risdon Zinc Works’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risdon_Zinc_Works, accessed 20 February 2026.

Jonas Zaremba (1912-2006): Another who left — for New Zealand, by Rasa Ščevinksienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Leaving Australia for a Third Country

We have a good idea why others who left Australia for third countries moved on.  Viktoras Kuciauskas, for example, knew that he had met the love of his life while visiting family in the United States, and moved there to be with her.

Vytautas Stasiukynas could not find employment in his field of veterinary science, so left for Colombia, South America.  There he was employed immediately as a vet by the brother of the nation’s president.

Povilas Laurinavičius left Australia for Chicago, United States, around 1964, aged about 56, to spend the rest of his life with family there who he had been unable to sponsor to live in Australia in 1948.

Jonas Motiejūnas had been able to work as an engineer in Australia but perhaps had better prospects when he moved with his wife and young family to the United States in 1959.

Vladas Navickas seemed unable to settle down in any one place until he found San Francisco in 1959.

Veronika Tutins left in 1960 with her husband, Eduards Brokans, who had a younger, much better educated brother who probably was doing better in Pennsylvania than these two were in Australia.

We do not know why Jonas Zaremba left for New Zealand in in the early 1950s. We can see that he settled in well there.

Jonas Zaremba in 1950-51, when corresponding with the NSW Branch 
of the Department of Immigration

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Jonas' life in New Zealand

New Zealand already had a Lithuanian Society, founded in 1949, but reorganised into the Lithuanian Community of New Zealand in March 1951.  From 1950 to 1958, the newspaper Naujosios Zelandijos Lietuvis (The New Zealand Lithuanian) was published, and from 1952 to 1960, a Lithuanian Sunday school was in operation.

In 1956 Jonas Zaremba was elected to the board of the New Zealand Lithuanian Community.

Later that decade, he moved from Wellington to Auckland, where he married a New Zealander named Loris Ailene Grinter.  They had no children, and his wife passed away on 11 July 1997, aged 80.

As long as his health allowed, he lived alone in his home.  He died on 30 April 2006, aged 94, at the Mercy Parklands Hospital and was buried next to his wife in the Waikaraka Park Cemetery in Auckland.

Jonas Zaremba had been an active member of the Lithuanian community and a devoted Catholic.

The Zaremba's gravestone in the Waikaraka Cemetery
in Ōnehunga, Auckland, New Zealand

Source:  Patricia Hargreaves for Find A Grave

Jonas' life in Lithuania

He was born on the first day of 1912, in the village of Baskai, near Giedraičiai, in the Moletai district of Lithuania.  His parents were Petras Zaremba and the former Ona Šimenaitė.  They had been married in the Giedraičiai church on 30 August 1909, and already had one child, Petras, when Jonas was born.

Jonas’ father owned a farm, probably explaining why he was exiled to Igarka in the Krasnoyarsk territory of Siberia on 22 May 1948.  He died in exile in 1953. World War II and its aftermath broke up the Zaremba family.

Jonas attended school in Švenčionėliai.  He volunteered for the Lithuanian Army in 1933, so at the age of 21.  Although his father had a farm, Jonas did not want to be a farmer.  He had a passion for horses though, so was assigned to a cavalry regiment.  He participated in recruit training and won prizes in equestrian competitions.

He served with General Plechavičius.* Due to the to and fro of World War II, he ended up serving in the armies of four different nations.

Jonas in Germany

The Arolsen Archive has not digitised any records of Jonas Zaremba yet.  We meet him in Germany first in the Australian selection team’s interview record from September 1947 in the Buchholz DP camp.  At this time he was living in a DP camp in Gross Hesepe, with the Geeste municipality in Lower Saxony.  Geeste is less than 5 kilometres from the border with the Netherlands, so Jonas has gotten almost as far west, away from the Soviets, as it was possible to be in Germany.

The interview record noted that he had arrived in Germany in May 1944, having been “deported by the Germans”.  The May date was months earlier than the September-October dates of people who had fled Lithuania when they heard that the Soviet forces were returning.  He possibly travelled in retreat with the Germany Army units into which his Lithuanian Army unit had been absorbed.

More about life in Lithuania

He had attended Lithuanian schools not only for the basic 4 years of primary education, but also for another 4 years of secondary education.  The selection panel noted that he spoke Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and ‘fair’ German.

Despite his disinclination to be a farmer, he admitted to 10 years’ experience as a farm worker in Lithuania.  He may have been acknowledging assistance with the family farm before he joined the Lithuanian Army.

His experience in training horses was noted, no doubt with interest.

He had not been working for the previous 2 years, presumably since World War II ceased wherever he was then in Germany.

Jonas Zaremba in 1947

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Jonas' work in Australia

After arrival in Australia and time in the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre in northeast Victoria, probably attending English classes and practising this new language with his fellow refugees, he was sent to his first job.

Like one-quarter of the men on the First Transport, the General Stuart Heintzelman, he was sent to pick fruit. His first Australian employer was Messrs Dundas Simson of Ardmona.

He put up with this outdoor labour for 3 weeks, returning to the Bonegilla camp on 22 March. As he was already 35 years old, more than 10 years older than the average age of the group, this first work in over 2 years may well have been more than his body liked.

One week later, on 29 March, he was sent to Tasmania. At this stage, we do not know what manual labour was expected of him there. All we can say is that he was not working at Railton’s Goliath Portland Cement factory, he was not logging timber from Maydena, cutting tracks through the bush for the EZ Company near Rosebery nor shovelling coal for the Electrona Carbide works.

Whatever he was doing in Tasmania, he put up with it for 9 months, then decided it was time to ask to do something else. He arrived back at Bonegilla on 4 January 1949, stayed another 5 weeks, then found himself travelling to Sydney on 14 February. The third employer was the Metropolitan Water Sewage and Drainage Board.

Why did Jonas leave Australia?

It is highly likely that the third job involved digging ditches. No wonder he wanted to leave for New Zealand, especially if he heard from Lithuanians there already about less arduous work. Another possible attraction was that New Zealand was about as far in the world as one could get away from the Soviet Union, even further away than Australia.

As he undoubtedly stayed loyal to his commanders in the Lithuanian Army during the turmoil of World War II, perhaps 10 months of his service had been under Soviet command. This might well explain his trek to the far west of Germany at the end of the War, as well as his move to New Zealand.

FOOTNOTE *General Plechavičius' role in the lives of some First Transporters, Henrikas Juodvalkis, Juozas Nakas, Elena Kalvyte's husband Jonas Augutis, and Stasys Šeduikis, has been mentioned already.  Wikipedia has his English-language biography.   

CITE THIS AS Ščevinksienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Jonas Zaremba (1912-2006):  Another who left — for New Zealand' 

SOURCES

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Jonas Zaremba’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203912105, accessed 17 February 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Jonas Zaremba’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166231013/jonas-zaremba, accessed 17 February 2026.

Lithuanian State Historical Archives ‘Giedraičių RKB gimimo metrikų knyga, 1908-1913’ (‘Giedraiciu Roman Catholic Church birth registry book, 1908-1913’, in Lithuanian) p 140, record 9 https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=1450/1/20, accessed 17 February 2026.

Lithuanian State Historical Archives ‘Giedraičių RKB santuokos metrikų knyga, 1900-1918’ (‘Giedraičiai Roman Catholic Church Marriage Registry Book, 1900-1918’, in Lithuanian) page 127, record 27 https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=1450/1/30, accessed 17 February 2026.

Lietuvos Nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo Biblioteka, Visuotine Lietuvių Enciklopedija (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia) ‘Naujósios Zelándijos lietùviai‘ (‘Lithuanians in New Zealand’, in Lithuanian) https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/naujosios-zelandijos-lietuviai/, accessed 17 February 2026.

Memorial Krasnoyarsk ‘Список депортированных из Литвы в Красноярский край (по данным Центра исследования геноцида и резистенции жителей Литвы)’ ('List of deportees from Lithuania to the Krasnoyarsk Territory (According to the Center for the Study of Genocide and Resistance of Lithuanians)', in Russian and Lithuanian) https://memorial.krsk.ru/DOKUMENT/People/_Lists/Litva/Z.htm, accessed 17 February 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1956) ‘Lietuviai pasaulyje’ (Lithuanians in the World, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 25 April, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259366103, accessed 17 February 2026.

My Heritage ‘Discover People Named Rita Grinter’ https://www.myheritage.com/names/rita_grinter, accessed 17 February 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; 339, ZAREMBA Jonas DOB 1 January 1912, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118044, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, New South Wales Branch; SP244/2,  Correspondence of the Chief Migration Officer relating to restricted [general] migration [class 2], 1950-1950; N1950/2/15078, Jonas Zaremba [photograph attached] [Box 153], 1951-1951 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7299113, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia:  Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; ZAREMBA JONAS, AREMBA, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1912 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 735, 1947-1949, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203912105,  accessed 18 February 2026.

Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania, Electronic Archive Information System ‘Giedraičių RKB lietuvių ir lenkų tautybių parapijiečių sąrašas’ (‘List of Lithuanian and Polish parishioners of Giedraičiai Roman Catholic Church’, in Lithuanian) p 13 https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267685000/268145021/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=13, accessed 17 February 2026.

Palubinskas, Minvydas (2006) ‘In Memoriam, A†A Jonas Zaremba’ (‘In Memoriam, RIP Jonas Zaremba’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 2 August, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2006/2006-08-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 17 February 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Geeste, Emsland’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeste,_Emsland, accessed 17 February 2026.

Povilas Laurinavičius, Another Who Left Australia, by Daina Pocius, Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskiene

Povilas Laurinavicius worked on his Lithuanian parent’s farm until August 1944. He then was conscripted into the Luftwaffe, the German air force, and taken to Westfalia in Germany.  He was expected to help build fortifications for the Luftwaffe.

He was born in Riga, now the capital of Latvia, on 18 May 1908.  This was during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II when, as in the Soviet era, workers moved wherever they were needed regardless of internal boundaries.

Personal records for members of the extended family are among those of the Palėvenė church, suggesting that the Laurinavičius farm was near this small town in northeast Lithuania.

Povilas’ migration selection record for Australia shows that he had 4 years of primary education and 4 years of secondary.  Again, he was more educated than many of the Lithuanian men selected for the First Transport.  He had no knowledge of English but he did know Lithuanian, Latvian, and something of Russian, Polish and German. 

Povilas Laurinavicius' photo in his immigration selection papers

Source:  NAA:  A11772, 174  

He had 15 years’ experience as a farmer and would be suitable for heavy labouring work.  He had wanted to migrate to Canada.

At the time of interview by the Australian team in October 1947, Povilas’ occupation was described as Lumber Worker.  He had been doing this work for the previous 2 years, that is, from around October 1945.

Heading towards 40 years of age, Povilas was one of the older DPs selected for resettlement in Australia after travelling there on the First Transport.  After arrival,  he was one of the 185 men sent to pick fruit in the Goulburn Valley on 28 January 1948.  He returned to the Bonegilla camp after only 2 weeks, so clearly the experience had not gone well for him. 

Povilas Laurinavicius' 1947 photo on his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A2571, LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS 

Then he was assigned to be part of the first group sent to work at Broken Hill Proprietary Limited’s Iron Knob mine in South Australia.  They left the Bonegilla camp on 19 February.

Povilas applied to have his sister, Bronė Minkevičienė, brother-in-law, Vytautas Minkevičius, niece, Regina-Marija, and another female relative come to Australia.  Research by Rasa Ščevinskiene has shown that the other female relative, Alina Bonasevičius, was his brother-in-law’s older sister.

There’s nothing on the sponsorship file apart from the application, which Povilas signed off on 3 November 1948.  The absence of any other paper or comment on the file is strange, but the date of application was only 11 months after he came to Australia.  He had not been in Australia for long enough to lodge a successful sponsorship. 

He needed only to try again after 28 November, marking 12 months’ residence.  Nothing on the file suggests that he was told that or attempted it.

A search for Povilas’ brother-in-law in the Arolsen Archives reveals that the sister, brother-in-law and niece left Germany on 8 August 1951 to resettle in the United States.  They left on the General Muir, a sister ship to the General Stuart Heintzelman.

Povilas’ sponsorship application tells us that he had moved on from Iron Knob to what probably was safer employment and better paying also.  He was still in rural South Australia but at Woomera, working for the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Works and Housing.  He was earning nearly £11 per week (£10/19/10). This was at a time when the minimum wage was only £5/19/-.

We know from the story of Romualdas Zeronas that the pay at Iron Knob was £6/8/- each week. 

An index card recording Povilas’ changes of address and workplace, which had to be reported to the Department of Immigration by any resident alien under the Aliens Registration Act, advises that Povilas’ move to Woomera was on 27 May 1948.  He was released from his contractual obligation to work in Australia for 2 years on the same date as the vast majority of the other Heintzelman passengers, 30 September 1949. 

His next move was to Glenelg in suburban Adelaide, where he lived and worked at the Pier Hotel from 23 January 1950.  The mysterious initials M.W. suggest another change of employer when he changed his residence to Gilles Street, Adelaide, on 4 April 1950.

The Pier Hotel, Glenelg, was clearly on the coast, as was his next move, to Semaphore Road, Semphore, only 4 weeks after moving to Gilles Street, on 1 May 1950.  His records were transferred to the Melbourne office of the Department of Immigration from the Adelaide office on 10 October 1951, marking a move from the State of South Australia to the State of Victoria.  We do not have access to the Victorian records yet.

There is one Victorian record in Mūsų Pastogė, though. In its 23 June 1958 edition, this newspaper included him in a list of people who had donated £1 each to support the elderly, sick and injured Lithuanians who were still in Germany.

Cards indicating a move to Tasmania and then New South Wales are available from the National Archives of Australia, however.  They show that on 4 April 1960, he was living on Weld Street, South Hobart and working as a wharf labourer—hard physical work for anyone but especially a man now aged nearly 52. 

By 9 March 1962, he had moved to Elizabeth Street in the middle of Hobart.  Presumably he was working still as a wharf labourer.  The records were transferred to NSW on 26 June 1962, probably after a move to that State.

Povilas left Australia around 1964 and moved to Chicago, Illinois. He was aged only 61 at the time of his death, on 16 November 1969, he was living at 6159 South Artesian Avenue, Chicago.

Povilas had been in America for only five years before his death.  He was mourned by his sister Bronė (Bronislava), her daughter, Regina, and Alina Bonasevičius, of Chicago—the very people he had tried to sponsor to Australia back in 1948.  Another sister, Joanna, and her family were still in Lithuania.

Povilas' death notice

Source:  Draugas, 17 November 1969

Bronė’s husband, Regina’s father, the Vytautas Minkevičius who Povilas had started to sponsor for migration to Australia, had died in New York State on 30 May 1953.  This was less than two years after arriving in the States and he was aged only 53.

His sister, Alina Bonasevičius, had been living at the same address as Povilas according to her death notice in Draugas, around 16 months after it carried the notice for Povilas.  It looks as if Povilas decided that, if rest of the family were settled peacefully in America, he would join them there instead, at 6159 South Artesian Avenue.

Povilas may have died early and overseas, but his name is stamped in Australian philatelic history. Tasmanian Stamp Auctions, in 2023, offered an envelope addressed by Povilas from the Bonegilla camp to ‘Mr’ David Jones (the department store, of course) at the corner of Castlereagh and Market Streets in central Sydney.  The envelope had been damaged when someone had torn off the stamp roughly, but someone else had recognised the value of its clear Bonegilla and nearby Wodonga postmarks.

The envelope had been in private hands, rather than the rubbish bin, for 75 years!  We cannot tell for how much it was sold, but can see that the starting price was $11.00.

Povilas' envelope, a registered letter sent from Bonegilla camp on 16 February 1948

Source:  Tasmanian Stamp Auctions

Namefellows

The only Arolsen Archives records currently available are for another Povilas Laurinavičius, born after ours, on 7 July 1909.  This Povilas Laurinavičius looked different, wore glasses, was a qualified and experienced lawyer, and resettled in the United States after his trip there on the USAT General M L Hersey, leaving Germany on 1 September 1949.

We found also that papers for a later DP immigrant to Australia, Povilas Laurinaitis, date of birth 8 April 1922, had been placed first on the selection papers file for our Povilas Laurinavičius (NAA: A11772, 174).  We have notified the custodian of those papers, the National Archives of Australia.

Sources

Draugas (1969), ‘A.†A. Povilas Laurinavičius’ [‘RIP Povilas Laurinavičius’, advertisement, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 17 November, p 5 https://draugas.org/archive/1969_reg/1969-11-17-DRAUGASm-i7-8.pdf accessed 17 May 2025.

Draugas (1971), ‘A.†A. Alina Bonasevičius’ [‘RIP Alina Bonasevičius’, advertisement, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 5 March, p 7 https://draugas.org/archive/1971_reg/1971-03-05-DRAUGAS.pdf accessed 24 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (1958) ‘Pinigai gauti’ [‘Money received’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, 23 June, p 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge /archive/1958/1958-06-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A261, Application forms (culled from other file series) for admission of Relatives or Friends to Australia (Form 40) (1953-61); 1948/592, Applicant - LAURINAVICIUS Povilas; Nominee - MINKEVICIUS Vytautas;Bronislarma; Regina- Marijan; BONASEVICIENCE Alima; nationality Lithuanian (1948-48) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7861148 accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive 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 (1947-47); 174, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas DOB 18 May 1908 (1947-47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1834754 accessed 16 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series (1946-76); LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 (1947-51) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9180525 accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1183, Registration cards for non-British migrants/visitors, lexicographical series (1944-76); 16/317 LAURINAVICIUS, LAURINAVICIUS, Povilas born 18 May 1908 - nationality Lithuanian (1947-62) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=60155147 accessed 17 May 2025.

National Archive of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] (1947-56); LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS, LAURINAVICIUS, Povilas : Year of Birth - 1908 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 571 (1947-48) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203619595 accessed 17 May 2025.

Tasmanian Stamp Auctions (2023) '(CN1961) VICTORIA · 1948: cover with damaged front bearing a clear strike of RELIEF No.3 used at Bonegilla Immigration and Training Camp and a nice strike of the rubber boxed WODONGA datestamp (3 images)' https://www.tsauctions.com/listing/cn1961-victoria-1948-cover-with-damaged-front-bearing-a-clear-strike-of-relief-no3-used-at-bonegilla-immigration-and-training-camp-and-a-nice-strike-of-the-rubber-boxed-wodonga-datestamp-3-images/15125?fbclid=IwAR0BAnFLvsaiQtpdk8UmkXRRjTDaiv6BdO9qk-pSzIWdyzIq-C0y0XJaP_8  accessed 24 May 2025.

"General Stuart Heintzelman" men to Maydena, Tasmania, by Ann Tündern-Smith

The first mill in the world to produce newsprint from eucalyptus hardwood was opened in the Tasmanian town of Boyer by Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd (APM) in 1941.  During World War II, it was able to keep ten Australian daily newspapers supplied with their paper, so serious wartime rationing of the major means of news distribution was not needed. 

There was some rationing however, which led the press to be opposed to the Federal Government minister responsible for it, the Minister for Information.  He was Arthur Calwell, later to become Australia’s first Minister for Immigration at his own request.  The Australian media owners’ dislike of Calwell is a story for another time, perhaps.

 

Maydena was formerly called Junee and was a small settlement which provided access to Adamsfield osmiridium mining in the 1920s.

Maydena's location in Tasmania

Source:  Wikipedia

Starting in 1947, APM redeveloped the town as a base for logging eucalypts in the nearby Florentine Valley.  It was 50 Kilometres west of Boyer, where the APM workers turned the eucalyptus timber into newsprint.

 

Twelve of the First Transport refugees helped APM operate from Maydena, from January 1947.  They were 9 Lithuanians and 3 Latvians, listed below.

 

Latvians

 

Adams Mikas

Andrejs Preisis

Roberts Miezitis

 

Lithuanians

 

Albertas Medisauskas

Henrikas Juodvalkis

Jonas Gudelis

Jonas Tamosaitis

Julius Molis

Jurgis Mikalonis

Vladas Mikelaitis

Vytautas Narbutas

Vytautas Salkunas

 

Some have their life stories on this blog already.  Hyperlinks have been added to take you to them and more will be added as more life stories go up.

Mountain biking has become a popular sport in the logged forests around Maydena

Source:  Pulse Tasmania

Sources 

Calwell, Mary Elizabeth, personal communications, 2000-25.

 

Companion to Tasmanian History,  ‘Australian Newsprint Mills‘, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Australian%20Newsprint%20Mills.htm accessed 30 January 2023.

 

Engineers Australia, ‘Boyer Newsprint Mill, New Norfolk, 1941-‘, https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/heritage/boyer-newsprint-mill-new-norfolk-1941 accessed 30 January 2023.

 

Mathis, Esme (2024) 'The Adamsfield mining rush’, Australian Geographic, 16 October https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2024/10/the-adamsfield-mining-rush/ accessed 15 April 2025.

Wikipedia, 'Maydena' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maydena accessed 15 April 2025.

 

Vladas Mikelaitis (1925 –2006): 'A Good Bloke'

Updated 14 April 2025.

The tribute below was contributed to the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsū Pastogė (Our Haven), by Rože Vaičiulevičius and published on 26.7.2006.  Its author is unknown, but I am happy to offer credit where credit is due if the author is found.

Vladas Mikelaitis was born in southwest Lithuania in the district of Šakiai on 12 July 1925. He was one of five children. His parents were Pranas and Ona Mikelaitis. His father was the village blacksmith. 

He attended Valakbudis Primary School and, as a youngster, worked on the farm. 

When WWII broke out, he worked in the cooperative shop as an assistant. when the Germans were retreating from the east in 1944, he was taken to East Prussia to dig trenches for the retreating soldiers. 

At the end of the war in 1945, he lived in the displaced persons camp in Oldenburg, in the Wehnen camp. 

On the 28th November 1947, he arrived in Australia on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman which transported the very first post-WWII refugee migrants to Australia. He was sent to the Australian Newsprint Mills in Maydena (Tasmania), where he worked on a 2-year compulsory contract.

Vladas Mikelaitis, front of Bonegilla card

Source: National Archives of Australia

In 1951 he was married to Kateryna Tscherkasky. He lived at Battery Point for a short time where his daughter, Ona, was born. He moved to Karanja in the Derwent Valley at the time Marytė was born. He lived there for 12 years. 

While living at Karanja, Vladas built a house in West Moonah. He was a weekend builder. For 2-3 years he would work all week in Maydena, then travel to Hobart every weekend to build the house. He then moved to West Moonah in 1966. 

Vladas was transferred from Maydena to Boyer in 1975 and worked in the warehouse there until his retirement in 1986. He then moved to Glenorchy where he spent the remainder of his life. 

The Maydena workers felled the eucalypts which were turned into newsprint in this mill
at Boyer, Tasmania

Source:  University of Tasmania

He travelled back to his homeland of Lithuania on 3 occasions to visit family. On the first 2 times he went on his own, the third time with Kateryna and together they also visited her homeland — the Ukraine. Vladas never forgot his family and kept contact regularly by phone and letters. 

Vladas was a very active member of the Lithuanian community. He was involved with the Lithuanian Sports club “Perkūnas” and was part of the organising committee of the 24th Australian Lithuanian sports carnival held in Hobart in 1973. In the 80’s, Vladas was part of a volunteer group who edited, produced and distributed a local publication called the “Baltic News”. 

He loved the Australian bush and the country life. He enjoyed fishing, rabbiting, going to the football, working in his vegetable garden and gathering with friends to socialise. He enjoyed his Aussie beer and in Karanja on a sunny day would sit under the shade of the trees in his beer garden watching his veggies grow. He also had a “smoke house” in Karanja where he would smoke eels that he had caught. 

Vladas owned a home movie camera. He recorded holidays and movies of his grandsons when they were growing up. He amused the children by playing the movies in reverse. He had 4 grandsons and spent time with them in the garage teaching them to use a hammer and nails. 

In his later years his failing eyesight restricted him in many things, but he still enjoyed AFL football. He would be seen sitting inches away from the TV screen. At half time he would slip out to the garage for a quick cigarette. 

Vladas Mikelaitis at a reunion for the 50th anniversary of arrival in Australia
Source:  Hobart Mercury, 2 December 1997

He was a man of simple wants and needs. He was hardworking, honest and a man of integrity. His Aussie mates knew him as a “Good Bloke” who enjoyed a beer, a good yarn, AFL football and, of course, he drove a Holden. Vladas embraced life and both cultures with open arms.

May he REST IN PEACE.

Vladas rests with his wife in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart

Source: Find A Grave, photo by McNooza

I thank Daina Pocius, Archivist at the Australian Lithuanian Archives in Adelaide, for bringing this tribute to our attention.

Notes:  1. Vladas became an Australian citizen on 20 August 1957 while living at Karanja.  Source: 'Certificates of Naturalization', Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 22 May 1958, p 1640, viewed 26 June 2023, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240892247.  On the FindaGrave Website, a helpful volunteer (Tanya V) has recorded that he died on 14 June 2006, so less than one month away from his 81st birthday.

2.  Double-click on the images to see enlarged versions of them.