The names below come from a Department of Labour and National Service list of those its Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) was sending to labour for the South Australian Department of Engineering and Water Supply (E&WS) in January 1948. According to the CES, the date they were sent to the E&WS Bedford Park camp in South Australia was 7 January. According to all their Bonegilla cards, it was 8 January.
This is not the only discrepancy in the First Transport (General Stuart Heintzelman) records. For example, the newspapers reported that 18 had been chosen from the later group sent to Wolseley (then on to Bangham) in South Australia for further training in Peterborough. All the other records show 17 only. Perhaps that mistake was made by a South Australian Railways spokesman (it was sure to be a man in those days) talking to the media.
Even the number of passengers on the first refugee voyage to Australia on the General Stuart Heintzelman vary from one report to another. After 25 years, I think I have figured it out. The initial number reported to the press was 844 but it is known that one person pulled out. That’s why the number than becomes 843. Suddenly it changes to 839, but that was after 4 were not allowed to land in Australia.
One was kept on the Heintzelman because adverse (read Communist) security information had been received after departure from Bremerhaven. The other 3 were referred to an Australian doctor who boarded the Heintzelman off Fremantle by the ship’s medical team. The Australian doctor argued that they would become a charge on Australia’s health system, ending their opportunity to resettle here. (That was after a through medical examination in Germany before the selection process was finalised.)
Perhaps the 7 January date is the day the CES told the lucky 65 where they were going. In that case, they may have stayed overnight at Bonegilla after packing and actually departed on 8 January.
Just wondering why the numbers always seem a little out … why are there only 64 people on the list below?
Biographies of two of the men are on this blog already, so their names in the list below are a different colour (grey on my screen) since clicking on the names will take you to their stories. I'll add more links as more stories go up.
| LITHUANIANS | LATVIANS | ESTONIANS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aleknavicius, Juozas | Abolins, Voldemars | Aerfeldt, Olaf | |
| Antanaitis, Ksavaras | Aboltinsh, Voldemars | Trull, Adolf | |
| Artmonas, Pranas | Alvars, Raimonds | Viiding, Kaljo | |
| Babinskas, Vincentas | Kopcs, Antons | ||
| Baronaitis, Antanas | Romanovskis, Viktors | ||
| Galinis, Vytautas | Skurolis, Donats | ||
| Kairys, Ceslovas | Sprogis, Alfreds | ||
| Kalendra, Apolinaras | Steimanis, Zigurds | ||
| Karpavicius, Pranas | Skrebels, Valerians | ||
| Skidzevicius, Vytautas | Strods, Janis | ||
| Skiparis, Antanas | Strupitis, Augusts | ||
| Sliuzas, Aleksandras | Strungs, Mikolis | ||
| Sluksnys, Jonas | Suchanovskis, Aleksandrs | ||
| Smilgevicius, Kazys | Svarinskis, Konstantins | ||
| Songaila, Juozas | Svilis, Vitolds | ||
| Sopys, Vincas | Vanags, Vilhelms | ||
| Stasys, Alfonas | Veide, Modris-Tautmilis | ||
| Staugaitis, Antanas | Veips, Stanislavs | ||
| Strimaitis, Kazys | Zauls, Janis | ||
| Subacius, Feliksas | Zidenis, Janis | ||
| Syrus, Faustas | |||
| Tumpa, Romuldas | |||
| Urbonas, Jonas | |||
| Urbonavicius, Czeslovas | |||
| Uzpulevicius, Alfonsas | |||
| Valinskas, Jonas | |||
| Valiulis, Juozas | |||
| Valteris, Stasys | |||
| Valys, Juozas | |||
| Velicka, Balys | |||
| Venzlauskas, Antanas | |||
| Vidginis, Juozas | |||
| Vidugiris, Alfonsas | |||
| Vidugiris, Petras | |||
| Viknius, Petras | |||
| Vitkunas, Bronius | |||
| Volkovas, Simonas | |||
| Zakarauskas, Juozas | |||
| Zumaras, Jonas |
