Woomera, South Australia, by Jonas Mockūnas

Rocket range

The idea of establishing a rocket range in outback Australia — with the impressive title of the Anglo-Australian Long-Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE) — originated soon after the end of World War II. Concerned by the lack of adequate defences to the German V-2 rockets during the war and by growing Cold War tensions in the post-war environment, the Anglo-Australian Joint Project was established in 1946 with the LRWE as a centrepiece.

A huge parcel of remote land in South Australia — the Woomera Prohibited Area — was declared in 1947, for use as a testing range for new rockets and guided missiles. At its peak, the range covered 270,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the United Kingdom, and accommodated both military and civil aerospace testing facilities. Today, the somewhat smaller prohibited area is called the RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC).

Growing up in Adelaide during the 1950s, I was vaguely aware of the rocket range, as tests were occasionally reported in the local media. I also knew that some of the Displaced Persons (DPs) who had arrived in Australia after the War had worked there, including my father and a few of his Lithuanian friends and acquaintances. It was only a few years ago that I began to comprehend the massive scale of the project, or the contribution made by refugees, largely thanks to the research of Associate Professor Andrew Saniga of Melbourne University.

Tent lines at Woomera in 1947 or 1948 in the base camp of No. 2 Airfield Construction Company,
RAAF, engaged in constructing the airfield for the rocket range

Source:  Australian War Memorial PO1984.001

DPs Employed Despite Security Questions

Once the Prohibited Area was established, the Department of Works and Housing was tasked with building a village and other infrastructure at Woomera. Labour was in short supply, so despite the security considerations at the military-controlled site, newly-arrived DPs under work contract to the Australian government were also brought in to assist with the construction phase.

Some of the ‘Balts’ who had reached Australia in late 1947 on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, the First Transport, began arriving at the Woomera worksites from April 1948, having been redirected from their initial placements in fruit picking or other jobs. The first major placement, of 50 men from the Bonegilla migrant camp, was despatched on 2 June 1948; by mid-1949 there had been over 400 DPs sent to the rocket range, and 360 were still there despite the harsh work and living conditions. 

Most likely there were few attractions in this remote environment for the new migrants other than their pay packets, which were larger than could be found for unskilled work elsewhere in Australia; the June 1948 contingent started on a wage of £7/10 per week, accommodation and meals included. By April 1949 my father, who had arrived on the Second Transport, recorded that most unskilled wages started at £11 per week.

Hundreds of DPs Employed at Woomera

In May 1949 the Security Officer at Woomera compiled a Nominal Roll of the DPs who had been employed at Woomera from April 1948 to April 1949. Numerically, the Poles were the largest group (112), followed by Lithuanians (92), Latvians (89) and Estonians (38). The Nominal Roll, together with the Bonegilla records, show at least 34 Balts from the First Transport at Woomera during the late 1940s:

Estonians Kuusk, Lembit Latvians Abolins, Voldemars Apinis, Janis Bergtals, Sergejs Bergtals, Nikolajs Kondrats, Vilis Muiznieks, Elmars Osins, Augusts Osis, Eriks

Lithuanians Balsevičius, Bronius Brazauskas, Antanas Budrionis, Antanas Dailyde, Vladas Janonis, Zenonas Kildišas, Adolfas Laurinavičius, Povilas Lileika, Algirdas Lizaitis, Algirdas Meškelis, Vilgelminas Navickas, Albinas Norkeliunas, Antanas Norkūnas, Vytautas Petruškevičius, Jonas Petruškevičius (nee Salytė), Viltis Reisgys, Anskis Rimkevičius, Eduardas Sivickas, Vincas Staugas, Eduardas Strankauskas, Jonas Valinčius, Kazys Venzlauskas, Antanas Volkovas, Simonas Zakarauskas, Jurgis Zeronas, Romualdas

[Some names in the list above have had links added to them, which will take you to the biographies of those individuals.  More links will be added as more relevant biographies appear on this blog.]

The earliest from the First Transport to arrive at Woomera was Vilgelmas Meškelis, on 25 April 1948; he had already worked picking fruit for J Nethersole and Son, at Ardmona in Victoria, before being sent to Iron Knob in South Australia after a return to the Bonegilla camp. He was followed by four others during May 1948 (S. Bergtals, Laurinavičius, Navickas and Norkūnas). Nine members of the June 1948 contingent from Bonegilla were First Transporters.

Most of the men were employed as labourers on the various construction projects, although a few were given semi-skilled or trade tasks. Elmars Muiznieks, a mechanic in Latvia, was employed in the mechanics workshop until he was dismissed (see below) and Romualdas Zeronas was employed as a cook’s offsider until he too was dismissed.

The Bergtals brothers, having had prior supervisory experience, were given more responsibility, Sergejs as a ganger/foreman, and Nikolajs as a ganger/draftsman. Albinas Navickas worked as a linesman, Jonas Petruškevičius as a stone mason, and Anskis Reisgys as a cable joiner.

Viltis Petruškevičius, née Salytė, the only woman in this group, worked as a waitress; she had opted to go to Woomera to accompany her husband Jonas after they married in April 1948.

Building the spur line to Woomera, 1949

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Conditions in the early construction camps were often relatively primitive, even for men who had spent years in Europe’s Displaced Persons camps. Many had elected to put up with the conditions as a means of saving a nest-egg towards their futures in the big cities, others enjoyed the new-found freedom in the bush including the relatively unrestrained opportunities for alcohol and/or gambling. Not surprisingly, around 6 per cent of the DPs were dismissed for various transgressions within that first year.

Escapade Led to Deportation

Perhaps one of the more colourful escapades was that undertaken by two Latvians, Elmars Muiznieks and Julius Gravans who stole a truck in Woomera in February 1949 but were soon apprehended, fined £20 Pounds in the Port Augusta Police Court, and dismissed from their employment.

Deportation Order for Elmars Muiznieks

Source:  Arolsen Archives

What may have started as a lark did not end well for these men: ignoring their work obligations to the Australian Government, they then made their way to Melbourne, but were soon arrested by the Victorian Police operating at the request of the Department of Immigration. The authorities had clearly had enough — the men were given dictation tests, in Italian and Romanian, and declared prohibited immigrants before being deported in September 1949. Ironically, the First Transport Balts were released from their work obligations to the Commonwealth at the end of September 1949.

FOOTNOTES

1. The Nominal Roll does not list all of the above names; in particular, Viltis Petruškevičius and Algirdas Lileika do not appear on the Roll and have been included because of other substantiating documentation. If searching the Nominal Roll, please be aware of other errors also, including incorrect arrival dates to Australia (several First Transport passengers are shown as arriving in November 1948, whereas the year should be 1947), and incorrect listing by nationality (for example Budrionis and Laurinavičius are both listed under the Latvian heading).

2. There are many other issues associated with Woomera that are beyond the scope of this post. Prof Saniga touched on a few of these in the 2022 exhibition catalogue, referring to the irony of ‘war-weary European migrants‘ who had been displaced from their own homelands being sent to work on a military project that had involved ‘the displacement of Aboriginal people, mainly the Kokatha, from their tribal lands’.

ANN'S ADDITIONS

In a 2025 paper, Scriver, Cooke and Saniga note that ‘At least six different Aboriginal Peoples were impacted by the LWRE. Much of what had been the country of the Kokatha People ... would thereafter be designated the Woomera Prohibited Area. 

'The extent of the impact was much greater, however, as numerous other groups would also be profoundly affected ... along the thousands of kilometres of the rocket range’s firing line that traversed their ancestral countries between Woomera and the northwest coast of Australia. 

'These included the Nakako, Pitjantjatjara, Ngatatjara, Mardu and Nyangumarda Peoples ... tracking and clearing people from the fall zones of spent rockets by the LRWE’s Native Patrol Officers, including the removal to mission reserves of women and children of the Manjiljarra/Martu Wangka and Yulparija Peoples, some of who had reputedly never left the desert previously.’

We should note that what may seem ruthless now was just part and parcel of what had happened to many people across Europe and Asia during and after World War II, especially in the Baltic and other Eastern European countries from which the DPs came. 

The Anglo side of this Anglo-Australian project, in particular, might have included survivors of the London Blitz of September 1940 to May 1941 or people whose families had been caught up in it.  The military of both nations had just been fighting against would-be invaders for 6 long years.

Those “growing Cold War tensions” Jonas mentioned at the start affected the attitudes of Anglo-Australian officials to the pre-existing populations.  They had to be moved on for the good of the whole world.

SOURCES

Brisbane Telegraph (1949) ‘Balts jailed; Left jobs’ Brisbane, May 16, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212265738, accessed 27 January 2026.

Mockūnas, Jonas (snr) (1949) [Personal diary].

National Archive of Australia: Commonwealth Investigation Service, South Australia; D1918, Investigation case files, single number series with 'S' prefix, 1938-1960; S1493/5/2, Nominal roll of displaced persons at Woomera [Long Range Weapons Establishment, Woomera, SA], 1948-1949 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=856767, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1947-1950; 21, Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia – [Schedule No. SA1 to SA31], 1948-1950 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4481, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; PETRUSKEVICIUS VILTIS LODZE, Petruskevicius Viltis Lodze - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as NEE SALYTE, 1947-1952 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9221636, accessed 18 February 2026.

'Personal file of MUIZNIEKS, ELMARS, born on 4-Jan-1918, born in VALMIERA' 3.2.1 IRO "Care and Maintenance" Program, DocID: 79506031, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79506031,  accessed 18 February 2026.

Petruškevičienė, Viltis (1950) ‘Woomera West’ Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, August 16, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259363646, accessed 18 February 2026.

Saniga, Andrew (2022) 'Woomera' in Immigrant Networks (exhibition catalogue), Melbourne (16 November 2022 to 10 February 2023).

Saniga, Andrew (2024) 'Woomera: A Landscape of Displacement and Renewal' in A. Pieris, M. Lozanovska, A. Dellios, A. Saniga & D. Deynon, Immigrant Industry: Building Postwar Australia, Berghahn Books, New York and Oxford, pp132-165.

Scriver, P. C., Cooke, S., & Saniga, A. (2025). 'Constructing/curating Woomera: a topology of displacement between northeastern Europe and Central Australia', Landscape Research, 50(7), 1173–1189. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2025.2526505, accessed 18 February 2026.

Wikipedia ' RAAF Woomera Range Complex' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Woomera_Range_Complex accessed 26 January 2026.

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.

Vladas Dailydė (1914-1970): Hard working, hard living, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Vlad Dailydė worked hard for nearly 23 years in Australia until an unknown health issue brought an early end to his life. Although his family name means ‘carpenter’ in Lithuanian, he was to be found in places where hard manual labour with metals or their ores was required: on the South Australian railway tracks, Woomera, Radium Hill and steelworks in Perth.

Vladas Dailyde's 1947 photograph from his selection papers
Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was an early supporter of the Lithuanian-Australian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, donating £1/4/- in April 1950, together with Juozas Sabeckis (an arrival on the Tenth Transport, the Svalbard). With inflation, that donation is the equivalent of more than $75 now. Given that we know from the story of Romualdas Zeronas that civilians in Woomera, where he would have been working then, were earning at least £9.10.0 per week, it was a high proportion of their income.

Four years later in 1954, Vladas was working in the uranium mine at Radium Hill. The Australian Lithuanian newspaper reported that there were at least six other Lithuanians there at that time. They gathered together to commemorate 16 February, Lithuania’s Independence Day.

They were commemorating not with patriotic speeches but an opportunity to donate money to the Vasario 16 (February 16) school in Germany. This was the name was of a Lithuanian-language senior high school, a gymnasium, in Hüttenfeld. At that time the school was the only full-time high school outside Lithuania offering courses in Lithuanian history, language, and culture. It is renowned for having played a critical role as a symbol of freedom for Lithuania during the Soviet occupation and was greatly supported by Lithuanian displaced persons around the world.

A later issue of the Australian Lithuanian recorded that he was one of those who had donated £5, not only likely to be about half his weekly income then, but the modern equivalent with inflation of more than $213.

Vladas applied to become an Australian citizen while working at Radium Hill. Closer to Broken Hill than Adelaide, in the same sort of desert country, it was Australia’s first uranium mine, having operated from 1906 to 1961.

That application shows that he was able to move on from the Bangham railway camp to a better paying job at Woomera in February 1949, before his contract with the Australian Government was ended by the Minister for Immigration on 30 September 1949. He stayed at Woomera for nearly one and a half years, until July 1950.

He was in Adelaide for around one year, from July 1950 until June 1951. During that time, he worked for General Motors Holden. Then he lived and worked at Mount Gambier for 6-7 months, from June 1951 to January 1952, working with JM Clements Ltd. He returned to Adelaide, to the suburb of Nailsworth until 4 April 1952, at which point he moved to Menindee, NSW, for one month. From there he left for Radium Hill, back in South Australia, where he was still on 1 June 1956, the date on which he swore an oath of allegiance to become an Australian citizen.

There had been one blemish on his record. He had been charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm after he threw a bottle over his shoulder at another Woomera worker. It was night, so his friend probably could not see the bottle coming. The result was a gash on the forehead which needed 22 stitches to close.

Vladas pleaded not guilty but admitted guilt to the lesser charge of common assault. Mr Justice Abbott ordered that Vladas be imprisoned with hard labour for one month. He took into account that Vladas had been held in custody for 25 days already. This means that Vladas had to serve an additional 6 days only – 6 days because ‘one month’ meant a ‘calendar month’. And the ‘hard labour’ could be anything from quarry work or road-building, to workshop and farm labour under strict supervision.

Vladas faces court

Source:  Whyalla News

Fortunately for his citizenship application, a wise public servant wrote on it, “In view of the time which has elapsed since the above conviction in July ’50 and the fact that he has not come under further adverse notice, recommended that application be listed for approval”.

Vladas was one of the older men on the First Transport, having his 33rd birthday 2 days after it sailed from Bremerhaven. He was born in the small village of Širvydiškis, in the region of Utena. At the time of his birth on 1 November 1914, the village had a population count of only around 30.

He had two or three years of high school – sources differ -- which was more than average for a country resident. He spent five years in the Lithuanian Army, from 1935 until the Soviet invasion in 1940. In the Army, he had been a driver for three years.

The return of Soviet forces in 1944 saw him leave his homeland, making his way to Germany, where he arrived in October. There he found his way to a Displaced Persons camp in Hannover-Buchholz. He had been working as a driver for two and a half years until it was time to leave for Australia. The Australian medical team after carrying out their pre-migration tests, declared him fit and healthy.

After Radium Hill, Vladas moved to Perth where he became as steelworker. He participated in the Perth Lithuanian community. He never married.

On 16 November 1970, he returned from work in high spirits, had dinner, sat down and smoked a cigarette. He had a medical episode and fell from the chair. Suddenly falling off his chair is likely to have been caused by some sort of circulatory issue, like a heart attack or a stroke.

He was taken to hospital and operated on, but his health did not improve, and he passed away on 6 December.

Members of the Perth Lithuanian community were present at his funeral service led by Father Laurynas Kemėšis. Words on behalf of the community and the ex-servicemen’s group, Ramovė, were said by Andrius Klimaitis. Vladas is buried in Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.

Vladas Dailyde's photograph from his obituary

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė 

A notice under the Trustees Act in the West Australian Government Gazette of 12 March 1971 confirms Vladas’ date of death as 6 December 1970, advises that he was a steelworker and his last address was in Marchamley Street, Carlisle, and states that 26 April is the last date on which claims against his estate might be lodged. The remainder of his modest savings were left to his sister in Lithuania.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1950) 'Port August Circuit, Before Mr Justice Abbott, Remanded on Assault Charge, Adelaide, 19 July, p 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44915098, accessed 13 November 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1954) ‘Aukos Lietuvybes islaikimo reikalams’ (‘Donations for the preservation of Lithuania’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 17 May, p 8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280316071, accessed 11 November 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1954) ‘Lietuviai Australijoj’ (‘Lithuanians in Australia’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 8 March, p 8 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280313491, accessed 11 November 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Vladas Dailyde’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213720453/vladas-dailyde, accessed 13 November 2025.

Government Gazette of Western Australia (1971) ‘Trustees Act, 1962, Notice to Creditors and Claimants’ Perth, 12 March, p 764 https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/gazettes1971.html, accessed 13 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė ( Our Haven) (1950) 'Mūsų Pastogēs prenumeratoriai' ('Mūsų Pastogē subscribers’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 5 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259361880, accessed 11 November 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1970) ‘A A Vladas Dailyde’ (‘In memoriam, Vladas Dailyde) Sydney, 21 December, p 2, https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1970/1970-12-21-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 11 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-2001; 1956/10716, DAILYDE Vladas, 1955-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12147622, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla] 1947-1956; DAILIDE (Sic) VLADAS,  DAILIDE, Vladas : Year of Birth - 1914 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN.HEINTZELMAN : Number - 462A2571, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203657752, accessed 13 November 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, 1947–1947; 62, DAILYDE Vladas DOB 1 November 1914, 1947–1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005498, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42) 1937-1948; 37/116, DAILYDE Vladas born 1 November 1914; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL STUART HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 29 November 1947, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7249185, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-1965; DAILYDE V, DAILYDE Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4074152, accessed 13 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; DAILYDE VLADAS, DAILYDE Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, accessed 13 November 2025.

Reserve Bank of Australia, Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html, accessed 11 November 2025.

Vasario 16-osios gimnazija (February 16 Senior High School, in Lithuanian) https://www.gimnazija.de/, accessed 12 November 2025.

Whyalla News (1950), ‘New Australian Charged with Assault’, Whyalla, SA, 21 July, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/197619822, accessed 13 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Radium Hill’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Hill, accessed 12 November 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Sirvydiskis’ https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirvydi%C5%A1kis, accessed 11 November 2025.

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.

Romualdas Zeronas (1922-1995): Why Tiger? by Rasa Ščevinskienė with Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 30 December 2024

When my grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas, was sent to Iron Knob in South Australia to work for BHP’s predecessor, he did not travel alone. Ten other General Stuart Heintzelman passengers left the Bonegilla camp with him on 15 April 1948. One of them was another Lithuanian, Romualdas Zeronas. 

The Broken Hill Proprietary Company had pegged a claim around Iron Knob in 1897, quite soon after it was founded in the New South Wales town of Broken Hill in 1885. Mining at Iron Knob started in 1900. The iron ore was of such high quality that it is claimed that it led to the start of a steel industry in Australia. Mining ceased in 1998, but another company reopened the mine in 2010.

As for Romualdas Zeronas, he was born on 30 September 1922 in Kaunas, Lithuania, although documents from the Third Reich now in the Arolsen Archives have him born in Russia. His parents were Jonas Zeronas and the former Viktorija Sinkeviciute. He had an older brother Viktoras, born in 1920, two younger sisters, Rita and Danute, and a younger brother, Algimantas.

From Arolsen Archives documents, we can see that Viktorija and Viktoras were living separately from Romualdas in Germany. Romualdas was in Oldenburg in the northwest, while his mother and brother were in Uffenheim in the south. Jonas and the younger children are not in these records. 

From these documents we know also that Romualdas arrived in Germany on 22 April 1945. When he stopped travelling west, he had reached the British Zone. His mother and brother, in Uffenheim, were in the American Zone. They may not have realised that Romualdas was in Germany also and he may not have known where they were.

In March 1946, the Lithuanian language newspaper Ziburiai, published in Germany, had an advertisment placed by Romualdas who was looking for his wife, Genovaite Zeroniene. We have been unable to find a marriage record for them. Nor could Romualdas find Genovaite, it seems, since his Bonegilla card describes his marital status as single.

Romualdas’ mother, Viktorija, and brother, Viktoras, moved together to the United States. Romualdas travelled alone to Australia. Romualdas Zeronas left Bremerhaven for Australia with 842 other Baltic refugees on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947, arriving in Australia on 28 November 1947.

One week after arriving in the Bonegilla camp, on 15 December 1947, he started working in camp as a kitchen hand. He was no longer needed in this job after 18 January 1948, probably because so many other former Heintzelman passengers has left the camp for their first employment. 

Romualdas Zeronas’ photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

His first job outside the camp was with HE Pickworth of Ardmona, Victoria, picking fruit in an orchard. He left Bonegilla camp in 28 January with others and worked there until the end of March. These days are described in Endrius Jankus’ memoir at https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2023/01/bonegilla-1947-1948-at-last-off-to-work.html

On 1 April, he returned to the Bonegilla camp to wait for his next work assignment. On 15 April 1948 he and the ten others were sent to Iron Knob. His salary was to be £6.8.00 per week.

He left Iron Knob and on 28 May 1948 arrived at the Department of Works and Housing, Philip Ponds, Woomera, also in South Australia. He worked here as baker.

I think that Romualdas and my grandfather, Adomas, had become friends. This is because Adomas followed Romualdas to Woomera, arriving ten weeks later on 6 August 1948. I expect that Romualdas told Adomas that the pay was better in Woomera.

Huts 12 and 13 at Philip Ponds camp, 1948:
the FX Holden between the huts means that this photo was taken after 29 November

Source:  Steve Swayne on Flickr

Woomera was established as a Department of Defence testing facility in mid-1947. Civilians here earned at least £9.10.00 per week.

A nominal roll of persons employed at Woomera says that he was dismissed from here in 1948. Perhaps this former kitchen hand was not quite the skilled creator of daily bread that his employers had wanted.

After leaving Woomera, Adomas went to Adelaide, South Australia’s capital city, while Romualdas to Woodside, east of Adelaide.

Romualdas started working as cook at the Department of Immigration’s Woodside camp for new arrivals on 7 May 1949. He left this employment on 12 October 1949. Along with most other Heintzelman arrivals, he was released early from his contract to work in Australia for two years on 30 October 1949.

On 19 January 1950, he started work as cook in Leigh Creek, South Australia. This was with a South Australian Government authority, ETSA or the Electricity Trust of South Australia. We know that he moved then to the Northern Territory (NT).

Romualdas was a basketballer. At 5 feet 6 inches, according to his Bonegilla card, he did not have the height, but he must have had agility. On 7 March 1952, the Centralian Advocate newspaper had a report about basketball players and their points scored. Romualdas was third on the list. He also was fifth on the list of best and fairest player votes cast by the umpires.

The Centralian Advocate was published in Alice Springs, a vital town in the middle of Australia but still with a population of only 33,000.

His basketball team was called DCA, which I think stood for Department of Civil Aviation. It is possible that this team was based around DCA employees at the Alice Springs airport. As this was a Commonwealth Government department, the team may well have looked for other players with Commonwealth connections, such as a former cook in defence and migration camps.

The Centralian Advocate also carried reports of a player called Johnnie or Johnny Zeronis with the DCA team. Given that the population of Alice in the 1954 Census was less than 3,000 and would have been smaller still in 1951–53 when Zeronis was playing, this name has to belong to our Romualdas Zeronas – especially as one “Zeronas” spelling is preceded by the name “John”.

At the end of the 1951 season, Johnny Zeronis (or Romualdas Zeronas) had come second on the list of players with the most goals scored (Centralian Advocate,1951a).

After 1953, John, Johnny or Johnnie Zeronis or Zeronas disappeared from the Alice Springs basketball reports, possibly because he had moved again. When he granted a Certificate of Australian citizenship on 13 November 1961, his address was care of Railways, Mataranka, NT. 

Mataranka was a town even smaller than Alice Springs, best described as a village if this word was used in Australia, since its 2021 Census population was a tiny 384. The 1963 electoral roll for the Territory District of Elsey showed Romualdas still living in Mataranka, with the occupation of fettler. This was a labouring job, responsible for keeping the local railway lines in good and safe condition, in “fine fettle”.

After Romualdas left Germany, he most likely did not keep in touch with those members of his family who had left for the United States. His mother, Viktorija Zeroniene, died on 6 April 1972 in Chicago. The Lithuanian-Australian newspaper Mūsų Pastogė printed an advertisement on 20 November 1972 seeking Romualdas in connection with his inheritance after her death.

Romualdas died on 29 December 1995 and was buried in Alice Springs Garden Cemetery (Alice Springs Town Council). Sadly, his name was misspelt even in death, although this time it was his first name which suffered. Somehow he had acquired the nickname of Tiger and presumably was well known for the phrase on his plaque, “How to be like that”.

Romualdas Zeronas’ plaque in the Alice Springs Garden Cemetery, NT

Source:  Find A Grave

Sources

Alice Springs Town Council ‘Resident Info, Cemeteries’, https://alicesprings.nt.gov.au/community/residents-info/cemeteries accessed 15 December 2024.

Ancestry.com ‘Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 for Romualdas Zeronas’ https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1207/images/31242_178942__1963001-00398?treeid=&personid=&rc=&queryId=32c35b6e-3b62-48f8-b358-dcbb55432f98&usePUB=true&_phsrc=oIs566&_phstart=successSource&pId=104357994 accessed 13 December 2024.

Arolsen Archives Search ‘Zeronas’ https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/70252657?s=zeronas&t=567404&p=0 accessed 13 December 2024.

Australian Bureau of Statistics ‘Latest release, Mataranka, 2021 Census All persons QuickStats’ https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/SAL70179 accessed 13 December 2024.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience ‘Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup: Romualdas Zeronas’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203730950 accessed 13 December 2024.

Centralian Advocate (1951a) 'Basketball Trophy Winners Announced' Alice Springs, NT, 23 March p 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59842057 accessed 12 December 2024.

Centralian Advocate (1951b) 'D.C.A. Defeat Eagles', Alice Springs, NT, 16 November, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59836286 accessed 12 December 2024.

Centralian Advocate (1951c) 'Dodgers Head Basketball Premiership Table', Alice Springs, NT, 19 January p 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59839262 accessed 12 December 2024.

Centralian Advocate (1952) 'Basketball Position' Alice Springs, NT, 7 March, p 16 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59835438 accessed 12 December 2024.

Centralian Advocate (1953) ‘Basketball: Tigers Take Double’ Alice Springs, NT, 20 March https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/65172477 accessed 13 December 2024.

Commonwealth of Australia (1962) ‘Gazette, Certificates of Naturalization’, 1 November, page 3839 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241014568/25993941 accessed 14 December 2024.

FindAGrave ‘Romunaldas (sic) “Tiger” Zeronas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/205989861/romunaldas-zeronas#view-photo=197703157 accessed 13 December 2024.

Iron Knob https://ironknob.org accessed 14 December 2024.

Mūsų Pastogė (1972) ‘Paieškojimas ’ (‘Search’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 20 November p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1972/1972-11-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 13 December 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D343, Woodside immigration holding camp nominal index cards, 1947-1962; ZERONAS R, ZERONAS Romuldas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Melbourne per General M B Stewart 30 November 1947, 1949-1949 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=33073091 accessed 14 December 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946 – 1976; ZERONAS ROMAULDAS, 1947 – 1950 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30039454 accessed 14 December 2024.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1948-1950; Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia - [Schedule no SA1 to SA31], 1948-1950 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 14 December 2024 [page 49].

National Archives of Australia: Investigation Branch, South Australia; D1918, Investigation case files, single number series with 'S' prefix, 1938-1960; S1493/5/2, Nominal roll of displaced persons at Woomera [Long Range Weapons Establishment, Woomera, SA], 1948-1949 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=856767 accessed 14 December 2024 [page 33].

Naujienos (1972) [Advertising, in Lithuanian] Chicago, Illinois, 24 May, page 4, https://spauda.org/naujienos/archive/1972/1972-05-24-NAUJIENOS.pdf accessed 15 December 2024.

Population Australia, Alice Springs Population 2024, https://www.population.net.au/alice-springs-population/ accessed 15 December 2024.

Wikipedia ‘Electoral Division of Elsey’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_division_of_Elsey accessed 12 December 2024.

Wikipedia ‘Iron Knob’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Knob accessed 15 December 2024.

Ziburiai (1946) ‘Teviskes ziburiai’ (‘Lights of the Homeland’ in Lithuanian) Augsburg, Germany, 16 March, page 10, https://spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-03-16-ZIBURIAI.pdf accessed 15 December 2024.