Updated 3 February 2025
Born in Keturvalakiai, a small town in Marijampolė County, in southwestern Lithuania, on 8 April 1922, Vladas Mozuraitis came from a farming family with three sisters and two brothers. After completing four year of school, the normal minimum at the time, he worked with his father on the farm and quickly learned farm work. He later reported that he had undertaken farm work for ten years.
When the Soviet forces headed back to Lithuania in the late summer of 1944, he and his family withdrew to Germany. He resided in Displaced Persons camps where he learnt how to make shoes.
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| Vladas Mozuraitis Source: Australian Lithuanian Archive |
He came to Australia on the First Transport in November 1947, aged 25. Taken to Bonegilla, he stayed there until the 12 January when he was assigned to work at the Lake Bolac Flax Mill in Victoria.
After his contracted ended he moved to Geelong where he worked in the tractor factory of International Harvester Company. He also worked for Ford as a first-class machinist.
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| Vladas Mozuraitis (centre, kneeling) helps cut down a tree Source: Australian Lithuanian Archive |
A very skilful worker, he liked and understood cars.
While working in Geelong he purchased a Triumph motorcycle, which he rode 400 km to Cowra in NSW to meet a sister and her family. He gave each relative £5, a week’s wage at that time.
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| Vladas on his motorcycle -- clearly a print which someone carried around for a long time Source: Australian Lithuanian Archive |
He moved to Melbourne in 1956 to be closer to other family. By then he had purchased an Austin A 40 which he was forever improving.
In Melbourne he worked in various factories, where he liked working with people. He enjoyed fishing, attaching a rod to his bicycle to catch eels and other fish.
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| Vladas Mozuraitis in his Sunday best Source: Australian Lithuanian Archive |
When a sister moved to be closer to family in Adelaide in 1995, he moved also. He passed away on 26 September 2007 aged 85.
Sources
Arolsen Archives (1951) 'Resettled file (Mozuraitis, Vladas)' https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68348649 accessed 25 January 2025.
National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; MOZURAITIS, Vladas : Year of Birth - 1922 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 600 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203902924 accessed 28 January 2025.
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, 1947-47; 204, MOZURAITIS Vladas DOB 8 April 1922, 1947-47 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005620 accessed 2 February 2025
Verbyla, Jonas(2007) Eulogy written by Vladas' nephew, unpublished manuscript in the possession of the Australian Lithuanian Archive.
