Žilinskas three, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 28 August and 2 September 2025.

Green is a common enough family name among English speakers. Its Slavic equivalents include Zelinski, Zelinsky, Zelenskii, Zelenskiy and so on. In recent years, the whole world has become familiar with a Ukrainian version, Zelinskyy.  The Lithuanian equivalent is Žilinskas.

Onomasticians, people who study names, say that this is a toponym, a name derived from a place. The families which carry this name originated in a place which was known for its greenness.

There are over twenty people with the name Žilinskas who came to Australia from Germany after World War II, but only three who arrived on the First Transport. Later arrivals were family units but, in this instance, two men of that name were brothers.

Aleksandras Žilinskas

Aleksandras was named after his father and born on 17 June 1928 in Šiauliai. He was a farmer but recorded as a barber when in Germany, where he had arrived in 1943.  As he would have been only 14 or 15 at the time, it looks like he may have been rounded up from whatever he was doing in Lithuania to provide youthful labour for the Germans.

After the War, he had wanted to return to Lithuania if independent but indicated that he would migrate to Canada as second preference.

Aleksandras Zilinskas' ID photo from his Bonegilla card

Source: National Archives of Australia

Instead, he was part of the First Transport to Australia. He would have been only 15 when he left Lithuania, and no family is indicated in the records. Now aged only 19, he was sent to pick fruit at HE Pickworth’s orchard in the Goulbourn Valley as part of his two-year employment contract. Once the harvest was finished, he returned to Bonegilla on 1 April 1948 and was transferred to Tasmania a week later.

Initially in Tasmania he picked fruit again, maybe apples instead of pears given that Tasmania was renown then for its apples.  He worked for EG Lees for one month before transferring to the  Goliath Portland cement company at Railton from May 1948.

It is reputed that Aleksandras was seeing two girls at one time, which caused some rivalry with the local lads. He was challenged to a fight, which he won. The local policeman needed to intervene when the local boys marched into camp seeking revenge.

That's Aleksandras, second from left, joining others for a smoke before a concert during his time in Railton; left is Endrius Jankus, on the right we have Kazys Vilutis and Vaclovas Kalytis

Source:  Collection of Endrius Jankus

On another occasion Aleksandras wielded a toy pistol after an argument, hitting a local who had to have seven stitches in his head. Aleksandras pleaded guilty to assault and was fined £2, with 2/6 costs.  Given the date when he was before the court, this incident probably occurred when Aleksandras worked for the Hydro Electric Commission in Tasmania’s Central Highlands from 1950 to 1951. Here he most likely helped build dams, power stations or accommodation. 

He then worked at the Electrolytic Zinc Company at Rosebery from 1951 to 1955.

Aleksandras didn’t stay in Tasmania but moved to Queensland in 1956.  The National Archives has a file which records him first making contact with the Department of Immigration in Brisbane in August 1969.  He had applied to become an Australian citizen and was living already with Thelma Daphne Pike, known as Mrs Zilinskas.  He was working as a gardener at the time.

On 23 January 1970, before the long-serving Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Clem Jones, Aleksandras took the oath of allegiance and became an Australian citizen.

After 75 years in Australia, Aleksandras passed away on 1 November 2023, aged a respectable 95.  His ashes are interrred in the Bribie Island Memorial Gardens, Woorim, Moreton Bay Region, Queensland.

Clearly no-one proofread this plaque for Aleksandras' birthplace before it was cast

Source:  Happy Graving on Find A Grave

Juozas Žilinskas

Juozas Žilinskas was said to have been born in 1907 in the Lithuanian village of Jaunai, Kalvarija township, Marijampolė district, into a family of a wealthy farmers. According to his death certificate, his parents were George (probably Jurgis) and Marie (possibly Marija, née Cejinskas, which would be Cejinskaite in Lithuania).

He had five brothers and two sisters. One brother, Jurgis, also came to Australia on the General Stuart Heintzelman.

Juozas studied in Kybartai and Marijampolė. He later studied humanities in Kaunas and continued his studies at the universities of Rome and Paris. He taught at the Marijampolė gymnasium (senior high school) and was the director of the Kybartai gymnasium during the last years of Lithuania’s independence and the German occupation. In exile, he organised and directed the Lithuanian school in his DP camp. By this time, he could speak 8 languages.

He was 40 when he arrived in Australia, although it is suspected he was at least five years older. (The age of 40 had been specified as the maximum for those refugees lucky enough to be selected for the First Transport.)

Juozas Zilinskas' ID photograph from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

He was sent to pick fruit at the HE Pickworth orchard on 28 January 1948, returning to the Bonegilla camp on 1 April after 2 months away. The camp administration then employed him as a kitchen hand for more than 3 months, from 6 April to 25 July.

Next, he was sent to Canberra on 3 August to work for the Department of Works and Housing. In practical terms, he was making bricks at the Canberra Brickworks. If he was released from the terms of his two-year employment-where-sent contract at the same time as most others, on 30 September 1949, this would have meant 13 months of more labour for the former senior high school principal.

He remained in Canberra and found employment with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in its stores, where he worked until his death. He had a very good reputation in CSIRO due to his diligence and honesty.

One of Ann’s informants, Estonian Galja Mägi, had come to Australia on the General Stuart Heintzelman too, but on a later voyage which left Naples on 31 March 1949 and reached Melbourne on 20 April (which must have been a record time). She said that Juozas had been the first Baltic refugee to buy his own house in Canberra.

Galja Mägi and her 12-year-old son, Tõnu (later Tony) had lived with Mr and Mrs Zilinskas for the nine months before 20 December 1951, when they had been able to move into their own home. Mrs Mägi’s husband and Tony’s father, Johannes, had preceded them to Australia and was living in Canberra hostels for working men at the same time.

Galja learnt that Juozas was the eldest son in his family, so his father had wanted him to become a priest, as was a custom in those days. Try as he might, he could not commit himself to the priesthood. He nearly had a nervous breakdown over the matter. In the end, he was allowed to leave home and continue to study.

Galja said that Mrs Zilinskas, Wanda, had been a primary school teacher. She had been married before World War II to another teacher, but he had been killed by the Russians. She had fled to Germany with her sister and parents. Her father had died of typhus in one of the Displaced Persons camps. Juozas, who knew her before the War, located her and sponsored her entry to Australia.

Away from his home and work, in the Lithuanian community, Juozas could be seen everywhere and often. He did not neglect a single commemoration or community gathering. He was chairman of the very first committee for the Lithuanian Community in Canberra. From then on, he was on every committee and board.

When Juozas was a little bit over 50 years old, he developed a bad pain in his back. The doctor prescribed tablets for him and told him that he was not to go to work, or even drive, for three weeks. At the end of this time, he went back to the doctor, who wrote him a medical certificate for the period. Juozas took the certificate home and looked up the word the doctor had written for his condition in a medical dictionary. What he found there stopped him in his tracks. The dictionary said, “incurable”.

By this stage, he was having difficulty in reading. There was no nerve specialist in Canberra, only someone who came from Sydney once a month. He did not have anyone with him he could discuss his condition. He spent the evening quietly, lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. That night, he did not sleep. We need to understand how much pain he might have been experiencing despite the treatment already received.

The next day he returned to work, in the stores at the CSIRO. The stores contained sodium cyanide among many other chemicals. That day, 5 April 1961, he was found deceased in a CSIRO storeroom about 1.40 pm. The Canberra Police were notified, and the body was taken to Canberra morgue where an autopsy was carried out.

At 2.30 pm, someone turned up at Wanda’s workplace to tell her that her husband was dead. He had poisoned himself in his storeroom and collapsed on the floor. Wanda was so devastated that for six months she could not return home. She spent this time boarding with other couples.

This news of his death shocked not only his wife, other relatives and friends, but the entire Lithuanian community of Canberra and, undoubtedly, the wider Lithuanian community. 

Canberrans and Australians in general would have been shocked by the circumstances also – so much so that Juozas’ death and some others like it are the reason why Australia now has a Telephone Interpreter Service. Had it operated in 1961, Juozas might have had someone with the language and technical skills to connect him to a medical person with whom he could have discussed his situation, day or night.

Juozas was buried in Woden Cemetery, Phillip, Canberra. He was survived by Wanda, who lived another 36 years, until 1997. They had no children.

Juozas' grave

Photograph:  Ann Tündern-Smith

Wanda Zilinskas (left) with a First Transport arrival, Birute Tamulyte Gruzas

Source:  Collection of Birute Tamulyte Gruzas

At the time of his death, Juozas and Wanda had moved from the original house in Ebden Street, Ainslie, up the hill to a home closer to his Black Mountain workplace, in Cockle Street, O’Connor. This very house was celebrated in a book prepared for Canberra’s centenary in 2013 by Tim Reeves and Alan Roberts, 100 Canberra Houses.

The authors wrote that the house had been built in 1960 by a Polish Displaced Person, who had cleared a rocky, hillside block himself and ordered a Women’s Weekly plan from a local department store. He also had built the whole house himself apart from the brickwork and stonework. Perhaps because of Juozas’ recent death, the first buyer was recorded as Wanda Zilinskas, who paid just over £5,000 for it.

This was much to the builder’s satisfaction. However, it also was the home where Wanda could not stay for 6 months after her husband died.

2001 watercolour by an unknown artist of the house in which the Juozas and Wanda Zilinskas
were living at the time of Juozas' death.

Source:  Reeves and Roberts, 100 Canberra Houses

Jurgis Žilinskas

Juozas Žilinskas’ brother Jurgis, was born in 1910, also in the village of Jaunai, Kalvarija township, Marijampole district.

Jurgis finished his studies at the Marijampolė school and the Technical School in Kaunas, from which he graduated as a mechanic.

After the War, he lived in the Hanau displaced persons camp in Germany. The record of his interview with the Australian selection panel records him as one of those to have been “forcibly evacuated by the Germans”.

Jurgis Zilinskas' photograph from his selection documents

Source:  National Archives of Australia

He arrived in Australia on the First Transport in 1947. Like his brother, he left the Bonegilla camp on 28 January 1948 to pick fruit at the HE Pickford orchard. Together they returned to Bonegilla on 1 April, and together they worked as kitchen hands in the camp for 6 weeks until 25 July 1948. Then, together yet again, they set out for Canberra to labour at the Brickworks.

Jurgis is on the far right of the row of 11 Bonegilla camp employees with a 12th in front
Who are the others?  Who took the photograph?  Was it the versatile Gunars Berzarrins?
Source: this copy from the Collection of Galina Vasins Karciauskas; also in the Australian Lithuanian Archives

Like his brother, he was one of the first Lithuanians to settle in Canberra. He also was one of the first to buy a house and he provided assistance to many Lithuanians. He was a supporter of the Canberra Lithuanian Club, of which he served as President in 1954, and participated in many Lithuanian gatherings.

Here he met and married Bronė Rubikaitė. She had arrived in the middle of 1948 on the Svalbard, the Fifth Transport, and been sent from the Bonegilla camp to work as a domestic in the Cooma Hospital in southern New South Wales. As Cooma is some 90 road minutes from Canberra and there was a train service at that time, perhaps she was in Canberra to mix with more fellow Lithuanians.

Jurgis was a passionate chess player, known locally as by the translation into English of his first name, George. Ann has counted 20 reports of his chess competition results in the Canberra Times, so suggests to any readers interested in the detail that they search the National Library’s Trove digitisation service themselves.

In late 1949, he was one of 8 Lithuanians who participated in a New Australians versus the Canberra Chess Club tournament, along with 2 Latvians, a Hungarian, and Estonian geologist, Professor AA Öpik. The New Australians won resoundingly, which probably led to invitations to join the Canberra players, as George played for them later.

He was Canberra’s champion player in 1951.

Jurgis, seated second from left, playing chess

Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

Ann has been told that Jurgis was “a bit of a gambler”. He probably gambled with his health because, aged 63, he died suddenly of a heart attack on 3 August 1973. He had been working at the Canberra Brickworks for 25 years at the time of his death although, according to his death certificate, he had risen to the skilled occupation of bricklayer.

His funeral took place at St Christophers Cathedral before the cortège left for the Woden Cemetery. He was buried near his brother Juozas, who had died 8 years earlier.

Jurgis' grave with his wife, Bronė (see below)

Photograph:  Ann Tündern-Smith

A laughing Jurgis, his grave image

Photograph:  Ann Tündern-Smith

Neither of them lived to see the freedom of the Motherland, for which both had yearned.

Bronė was buried besides her husband on 5 June 1996, having died one month earlier. Her mental health must have deteriorated badly in the twenty and more years after her husband’s death. Ann has been told that she used to wander around the local shops talking to herself. Another informant has told of how she was scammed by 2 men who made use of her vulnerable state. As this is Jurgis’ story, the details of his wife’s life are better shared by someone focussed on those who came on the Second Transport.

Bronė also told this informant that she had nothing to do with Juozas or his wife as they did not like her. Juozas’ wife, Wanda, who died after Bronė, on 21 July 1997, is not buried with the others. She chose cremation, so her ashes are stored in the Sister Kenny Wall at Canberra’s Norwood Crematorium.

CITE THIS AS Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) Želinskas three https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/08/zilinskas-three.html.

Sources

Advocate (1951) ‘Toy Pistol with a Wallop’, Burnie, Tas, 25 May, page 9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69286430, accessed 16 August 2025.

AEF DP Registration Record, 'Aleksandras Zelinskas', 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) Names in "phonetical" order from SI, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69061784, accessed 16 August 2025.

Australian Capital Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages 1961, Death certificate: Jouzas Zilinskas, Canberra, certified copy held by Ann Tündern-Smith.

Australian Capital Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages 1973, Death certificate: Jurgis Zilinskas, Canberra, certified copy held by Ann Tündern-Smith.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1949) ‘Mūsų šachmatininkai Canberoje’ (Our Chess Players in Canberra, in Lithuanian), Adelaide, SA, 19 December, p28 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280322235, accessed 14 August 2025.

Canberra Times (1961) ‘Man Found Dead in Storeroom’, Canberra, ACT, 6 April, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133976454, accessed 13 August 2025.

Canberra Times (1973) ‘Return Thanks’, Canberra, ACT, 16 August, p 18 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110743068, accessed 3 August 2025.

Canberra Times (1973) ‘Funerals’, Canberra, ACT, 6 August, p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110741343, accessed 16 August 2025.

CŽB (1961) ‘Canberros Naujienos, Staigi Mirtis’ (‘Canberra News, Sudden Death’, in Lithuanian), Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 18 April, p 4 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1961/1961-04-18-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 16 August 2025.

Examiner (1951) 'Struck by Toy Pistol' Launceston, Tas, 26 May, p 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52816810, accessed 16 August 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Brone Zilinskas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230145727/brone-zilinskas, accessed 16 August 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Joozas (sic) Zilinskas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230151971/joozas-zilinskas, accessed 16 August 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Jungis (sic) Zilinskas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/230148732/jungis-zilinskas, accessed 16 August 2025.

Find a Grave, ‘Wanda Zilinskas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/263471913/wanda-zilinskas, accessed 16 August 2025.

J (1973) ‘A A Jurgis Zilinskas’ (RIP Jurgis Zilinskas, in Lithuanian), Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), Melbourne, 21 August, No 32, p 3 https://spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1973/1973-nr32-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 16 August 2025.

JŽ (1954) ‘Canberros Lietuvių Bendruomenė’ (‘Canberra Lithuanian Community’, in Lithuanian), Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 15 December, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259360319, accessed 14 August 2025.

Mägi, Galina (Galja), Personal communication with Ann Tündern-Smith, 13 August 2021.

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; 344, ZILINSKAS, Aleksandras DOB 17 June 1925 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118126, accessed 16 August 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; 344, ZILINSKAS Jurgis DOB 2 April 1910 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118048, accessed 16 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A12508, Personal Statement and Declaration by alien passengers entering Australia (Forms A42); 37/666, ZILINSKAS Juozas born 7 December 1907; nationality Lithuanian; travelled per GENERAL HEINTZELMAN arriving in Fremantle on 28 November 1947 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7249369, accessed 16 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1183, Registration cards for non-British migrants/visitors, lexicographical series; 20/595 ZILINSKAS, Aleksandras born 17 June 1928 - nationality Lithuanian https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=60159309, accessed 16 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; ZILINSKAS ALEKSANDRS (sic), ZILINSKAS, Alexandrs (sic), Year of Birth - 1928, Nationality - LITHUANIAN, Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN, Number – 1082 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203726182, accessed 16 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; ZILINSKAS JUOZAS, Year of Birth - 1907, Nationality - LITHUANIAN, Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN, Number – 1225 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203726183, accessed 16 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; ZILINSKAS JURGIS, Year of Birth - 1910, Nationality - LITHUANIAN, Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN, Number – 740 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203726184, accessed 16 August 2025.

Reeves, Tim and Roberts, Alan (2013) 100 Canberra Houses: A Century of Capital Architecture, Canberra, Halstead Press, pp 106-7.

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 48.

V (1951) ‘Lietuvis-Australijos Sostines Sachmatu Meisteris’ (‘Lithuanian-Australian Capitals Chess Master’, in Lithuanian), Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 28 November, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259360595, accessed 14 August 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Zelinski’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelinski, accessed 14 August 2025.

The Electrona Carbide Factory, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Eight First Transport Men to Electrona

We’ve just had an entry about Jonas Motiejūnas, the leader of the Lithuanian men on the First Transport, whose first job after fruit-picking was with the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company at Electrona in Tasmania.*

Along with Jonas, the others sent to Electrona were Lithuanians Kazys Alseika, Anicetas Grigaliunas and Algirdas Jonas Smelstorius, and Estonians, Sven Kiväli, Raimond Uster, Erich Väli and Kalev Veermäe. That’s 4 Lithuanians and 4 Estonians, 8 in all. At least the two ethnic groups had 3 or more years of German in common for some cross-cultural communication.

A Launceston Examiner report from 1950 says that the factory was employing 150 men. Ramunas Tarvydas, in his 1997 book, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, writes that the factory, plus the quarry at Ida Bay supplying the limestone which the factory processed, employed around 200 in 1965.

Coke – the coal product, not the soft drink – was the other input which the factory needed to manufacture calcium carbide. This carbide is a solid which reacts with water to produce acetylene gas.

Jonas Motiejūnas told Ray Tarvydas about shovelling coal, not coke. Perhaps the carbide factory’s furnaces created the conditions required to turn coal into coke during the production process.

Using acetylene for lighting was common still in mid-20th century Australia. Another major use of acetylene still is in welding.

Acetylene carbide bicycle lamp:  visit Coffs Collections for information on how it worked

Source:  Coffs Collections

The factory’s prior history

The Electrona Carbide factory had been opened in 1917 by James Gillies, a metallurgist who patented a method for the electrolytic extraction of zinc from ores. His process required lots of electricity, so he moved from New South Wales to Tasmania with the idea of using that state’s topography and plentiful rainfall to set up a hydroelectric scheme.

Weather and politics led to the Tasmanian Government taking over his hydro scheme, which became the forerunner of the State’s Hydro-electric Commission, now Hydro Tasmania. Gillies’ Great Lake Scheme, together with the Electrona carbide factory, are seen as the start of industrialisation in Tasmania.

Just as it took over his hydroelectric scheme, the Government took over the carbide factory in 1923. From 1934, it was operated by the Commonwealth Carbide Company of London. At some stage before 1948, it had been taken over again, so was operated by the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company when the first Baltic refugees arrived.

The men’s work

As a qualified engineer, Jonas Motiejūnas was in a good position to assess the nature of the work. Here is how Ray Tarvydas wrote up his assessment.

(Click on the image for a more legible version, click the cross in the upper right to return here)

It is possible that nothing had changed in the 30 years since the factory opened.

The carbide works in 1920

Source:  Rimon, Carbide Works

Motiejūnas was able to get a transfer from this dangerous work after discussion with a CES official. Tarvydas reports that another of the 8, Sven Kiviväli, was able to transfer to Melbourne after his mother, grandmother and sister arrived. Clearly these women needed a man to look after them, although Sven had just turned 19 when the rest of the family arrived in January 1949.

Tarvydas says that the 3 other Estonians decided that they too needed to leave when Sven was able to go.  Like Endrius Jankus, they probably were tracked down by the Commonwealth Employment Service and sent to new jobs (we have to hope) of the CES' choosing.

It will be interesting to see, if we can, how the remaining 3 from the First Transport coped.

* Although the Bonegilla cards for each of the 8 refer to “Australian Carbide Co, Electrona, Tas”, newspaper reports from the time show that the owner’s full name was the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company Limited.

CITE THIS AS:  Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'The Electrona Carbide Factory' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/08/electrona-carbide-factory.html

Sources

Coffs Collections 'Acetylene bicycle lamp' https://coffs.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/59599, accessed 14 August 2025.

Examiner (1950) ‘Carbide Works May Close’, Launceston, Tasmania, 18 March, p 14, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52775382, accessed 12 August 2025.

Hydro Tasmania, https://www.hydro.com.au/, accessed 13 August 2025.

Rimon, Wendy (2006) ‘Carbide Works’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/C/Carbide%20Works.htm accessed 13 August 2025. [Rimon’s description of the process and products does not tally with Motiejūnas’ description, possibly because both changed over time.]

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, pages 34-36.

Wikipedia, ‘Electrona, Tasmania’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrona,_Tasmania, accessed 13 August 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Hydro Tasmania’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro_Tasmania, accessed 13 August 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘James Hyndes Gillies’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hyndes_Gillies, accessed 13 August 2025.

Jonas Motiejūnas (1921–2004): The Lithuanian Leader Who Left, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

The Photographs

Two photographs of two Lithuanians with Australia’s first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, are used frequently to illustrate early post–World War II migration to Australia. Arthur Calwell is clearly identifiable on the right, we are told that the woman is Konstancia Brundzaitė, but who is the man with her?

This presentation captured by a photographer clearly is an important moment, but what is that moment? A memoir written by a fellow Lithuanian migrant, Kazys Mieldazys, tells us (in Lithuanian), that the Kanimbla ship carrying the First Transport refugees from Fremantle in Western Australia to Port Melbourne in Victoria “reached Melbourne on 7 December. 

"There we were greeted by the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, together with other government representatives. The leaders of the Lithuanian group, Jonas Motiejunas and Konstancija Brundzaite, handed the Minister a gift – a picture book of Lithuanian views and a sash. Later this gift was deposited by Mr Calwell in the Australian Cultural Museum (sic) in Canberra …”.

From left to right, Jonas Motiejūnas, Konstancija Brundzaitė, Arthur Calwell, unknown Australian onlookers, when Calwell received the gift of a sash and book from the Lithuanians
Source:  Australian Maritime Museum digitising of print donated by Konstancija Brundzaitė Jurskis 

This presentation occurred later, apparently, when the 
two Lithuanian leaders met Calwell again, as Jonas is in national costume this time:
judging from the background, it may have been at the 1951
travelling exhibition of New Australians' Arts and Crafts

Source:  SLIC

How did Jonas become a leader of the Lithuanian group, along with Konstancija? Kazys has written further, “We first organised ourselves at the Diepholz camp in Germany. A week before the ship’s departure a Lithuanian representative committee was established. It comprised Jonas Motiejunas, president, Povilas Baltutis, vice president, Napoleonas Butkunas, interpreter …”

Kazys added, “On All Souls Day, we honoured the dead and all those who had perished for Lithuanian freedom. J. Motiejunas was the keynote speaker. After that a prayer was recited for our homeland and a few hymns were sung …”

Young Jonas

Who was this leader among 417 Lithuanian men? He was born on 5 July 1921, in Janenai village, Sventezeris district, Seinai county, so he was 26 years old when selected. He had graduated from Lazdijai high school and completed his military service with graduation from the officer training school, in the last program before the school closed, ironically because of the War.

In 1941–1944, he studied electrical engineering in the Faculty of Technology at Vytautas the Great University, in Kaunas. He completed his studies after leaving Lithuania, in Germany’s Technical University of Braunschweig, receiving an electrical engineering degree.

He was an active athlete and exhibiting artist during his student days. He participated in the June 1941 uprising against the Soviet occupiers of his country, shortly before the Germans turn as occupiers. He was active in community organisations during this time.

Work and Marriage

After nearly two months in the Bonegilla camp, Jonas was among 28 men sent to pick fruit on the Dundas Simson Pty Ltd property at Ardmona, Victoria, on 28 January 1948. He returned to Bonegilla on 10 April. On 22 April, he was sent to work in the Australian Carbide Company’s factory at Electrona, 40 km south from Hobart, capital of Tasmania.

During his 10 days back in the Bonegilla camp in April, Jonas had met Ona Prižgintaitė by Lake Hume. She was one of the Lithuanian women on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart, which had reached Fremantle on 12 February 1948.

Their casual acquaintance quickly grew into love and respect for each other. They married on 11 July 1948 in the Catholic Church in the town of Snug, near Electrona.  Jonas later told Ramunas Tarvydas, author of the 1997 book, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, that the couple were surprised and delighted by the number of locals who attended to wish them well. 

Ona and Jonas Motiejūnas on their wedding day
Source:  Mikuliciene, Irena (2023) 
Lietuviai perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovyklose 1945–1951 m.

Meanwhile, Jonas was engaged in hard work, unloading large limestone rocks, smashing them with sledgehammers and loading them onto wagons.  He and his fellow workers shovelled coal onto the limestone, added both to furnaces, poured the resultant molten material into shallow basins to cool, then smashed the cold product and loaded it into barrels for export.  

The main product of the Electrona factory in 1948 was calcium carbide, a solid which reacts with water to produce acetylene gas. Using acetylene for lighting was common still in mid–20th century Australia. Another major use of acetylene is in welding.

As you can imagine from this summary, the work was dangerous also, as Jonas described to Ramunas Tarvydas, quoted in the next entry on the carbide factory.

Jonas was able to get a transfer to Hobart after talking with a CES official.  There he was employed more suitably as an electrical draftsman with EZ Risdon.  In his spare time, he drew house plans for other Lithuanians in Hobart. 

Accommodation

Jonas also told Ramunas that, "Electrona is a very lovely area.  We lived in houses especially built by the company.  One of the three bedrooms in the house was for us, the married couple, the other two were for four single men.  There was also a dining room, a kitchen and a bathroom.

"Our meals were excellent, first cooked by Mrs Stasytis, then by my wife, who also looked after the Lithuanians' house."

(Mr and Mrs Stasytis were Adomas and Veronika, who had arrived in February 1948 on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart.  They had been sent together to Electrona on 28 April 1948, that is, 6 days after the 8 from the First Transport.  Apart from the cooking, doubtless expected by the men, Veronika Stasytienė was destined for "factory w", whatever that meant in this dangerous environment.)

Jonas’ New Family

Ona Prižgintaitė had graduated from midwifery school and studied history at Vytautas the Great University for two years. After reaching Germany, she studied history and art at the University of Heidelberg before leaving for Australia in January 1948.

Jonas and Ona had four daughters:

• Ramunė (born 1949) – studied art in Paris, and worked as a formal wear specialist at Bloomingdale's, Beverly Hills, California.
• Eglė (born 1950) – worked as an administrator at Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia.
• Ruta (born 1952) – lived in Portland, Oregon, raising two sons.
• Birutė (born 1958) – lived in Prescott, Arizona, working as a landscape designer until she had a son and daughter; sadly, she died in 2020 from breast cancer, aged only 61.

Ona and Jonas with their three oldest daughters:
(left to right) Ramunė, Eglė and Ruta
Source:  Source:  Mikuliciene, Irena (2023) ,
Lietuviai perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovyklose 1945–1951 m.

The Family Moves

In 1954, the family moved from Tasmania to Melbourne, where Jonas got a job as an engineer on the railway. Later, he worked at the Ford Motor Company, which used to assemble cars in the Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, and southwest of Melbourne in Geelong.

On 21 April 1959, the family left Australia for Los Angeles in the United States. There Jonas worked as an engineer for various companies. His last job was at Hughes Aircraft company, where he worked 29 years until he retired in 1988. Meanwhile, Ona took care of the family.

Retirement in America

After Jonas retired, he and Ona moved to Prescott, Arizona, in order to be closer to Birute and her family. Ramune also was living in Prescott in 2020.

Jonas and Ona Motiejunas established two charitable funds in USA. Jonas said that he could only pursue his education with the help of scholarships, so he wanted to compensate for a small part of assistance he had received. The Jonas and Ona Motiejunas Scholarship Fund was started in 1990 with the Lithuanian Foundation with $10,000. The Lithuanian Foundation is a not–for–profit organisation in Lemont, Illinois, started in 1962, which still offers scholarships.

Jonas and Ona started their second fund in 1995 in order to help Lithuanian orphans with the interest earned. Their first $10,000, in the name of the Ona and Jonas Motiejūnas, was donated to Lithuanian Orphanage Committee in July 1995. The second cheque for $10,000 was written in October 1997, the third in February 1999 and a fourth in 2000. In October 1998, a cheque for $100 was acknowledged in the Draugas (Friend) newspaper. The $40,100 and possibly more of capital was admired as a beautiful sacrifice.

Jonas and Ona Motiejūnas were active Lithuanians, always participating in Lithuanian community activities. The family was seen as an exemplary, future–oriented family, harmoniously operating for the maintenance of Lithuania abroad and aid to Lithuania, and supporting that activity financially.

The family on the occasion of Ona and Jonas' 50th wedding anniversary
(left to right) Eglė, Ramunė, Ona, Jonas, Ruta and Birutė at front left

Source:  Draugas, 31 October 1998

Jonas Motiejunas died on 28 February 2004, at the age of 83, in Prescott, Arizona, having been married to Ona for 55 years. At his request, his ashes were buried in his home village of Janenai. Ona Motiejuniene died more than 7 years later, at home on 22 September 2011 at the age of 90.

Of the two Lithuanians in the 1947 photos with the Minister for Immigration, Konstancija has been the easier to identify because she remained in Australia. She donated her prints of the photos to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where the donations are recorded in her maiden name as well as her married name of Jurskis.

We don’t know why the Motiejunas family left Australia in 1959. The common reason among other cases of departure … was other family members settled successfully in the United States. Vytautas Stasiukynas, the vet who left for Colombia, is the only case so far of someone leaving Australia because of better employment opportunities elsewhere.

Perhaps either or both of Jonas and Ona had relatives in Los Angeles. Their departure was Australia’s loss.

CITE THIS AS: Ščevinskiene, Rasa and Tündern–Smith (2025) ‘Jonas Motiejūnas, the Lithuanian Leader Who Left’

Sources

‘A†A Jonas Motiejūnas’ (RIP Jonas Motiejunas, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend), Chicago,  Illinois, 17 March 2004, p 5, https://draugas.org/archive/2004_reg/2004-03-17-DRAUGAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Ancient Faces, ‘Jonas Motiejunas’ https://www.ancientfaces.com/person/jonas-motiejunas-birth-1921-death-2004/86579155, accessed 10 August 2025.

Australian Lithuanian History ‘Two Year Contracts Part IV (Final)’ https://salithohistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/two-year-contracts-part-iv-final.html, accessed 9 August 2025.

Draugas, the Lithuanian World-Wide Daily, ‘A † A Ona Prižgintaitė Motiejūnienė’ (RIP Ona Prizgintaite Motiejuniene, in Lithuanian) http://www.draugas.org/legacy/mirties2011.html, accessed 9 August 2025.

Jasaitienė, Birutė (1995) ‘Jono ir Onos (Prižgintaitės) Motiejūnų Fondas Lietuvos Našlaičiams’ ‘Jonas and Ona (Prižgintaitė) Motiejūnas Foundation for Lithuanian Orphans’ (in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 12 August, p 8 https://www.draugas.org/archive/1995_reg/1995-08-12-DRAUGASw.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Jasaitienė, Birutė (1998) ‘Darnaus Gyvenimo 50 Metu Sukaktis’ (‘50th Anniversary of Sustainable Living’, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 12 August, p 4 https://draugas.org/archive/1998_reg/1998-10-31-DRAUGASm.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Jasaitienė, Birutė (2000) ‘Jono ir Onos Motiejūnų Fondas’ (‘Jonas and Ona Motiejūnas Fund, in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 19 February, p 4 https://draugas.org/archive/2000_reg/2000-02-19-DRAUGAS.pdf, accessed 10 August 2025.

Juodvalkis, A (1990) ‘Inž. Jonas ir Ona Motiejūnai Įsteigė Stipendijų Fondą’ ‘Engineer Jonas and Ona Motiejunas Established a Scholarship Fund’ (in Lithuanian) Draugas (Friend) Chicago, Illinois, 22 February, p 4, https://draugas.org/archive/1990_reg/1990-02-22-DRAUGAS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 9 August 2025.

Lithuanian Foundation, Inc. ‘Scholarships Reports’, https://lithuanianfoundation.org/lf-reports/scholarships/ accessed 10 August 2025.

Mieldažys, Kazys (1961) ‘Pirmieji Žingsniai Australijoje‘ [‘First Steps in Australia’ translated into English by Jonas Mockunas from an article in Metraštis (Yearbook)] https://www.australianlithuanians.org/history/ww2-kazys-mieldazys/ accessed 9 August 2025.

Mikulicienė, Irena (2023) Lietuviai perkeltųjų asmenų (DP) stovyklose 1945–1951 m. (Lithuanians in displaced persons (DP) camps in 1945-1951, in Lithuanian) Lietuvos nacionalinis muziejus, Vilnius, 440 p.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; Motiejunas Jonas, MOTIEJUNAS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 601 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203902827 accessed 9 August 2025.

Rimon, Wendy (2006) ‘Carbide Works’ in The Companion to Tasmanian History https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/C/Carbide%20Works.htm accessed 9 August 2025.

Ruffner Wakelin Funeral Homes and Crematory ‘Birute Motiejunas Upchurch, August 13, 1958 — February 8, 2020’ https://www.ruffnerwakelin.com/obituaries/birute-motiejunas-upchurch

Sydney Lithuanian Information Centre ‘In Memoriam, 24th April, 2005, Kastutė Brundzaitė - Jurskis (1921 - 2005), Among the Very First Lithuanian Post World War II Migrants in Australia’ https://www.slic.org.au/News/news_240405.htm accessed 9 August 2025.

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, pages 35-36.

Kostas Bušma (1923-83): Another man in a photo by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 11 August and 9 September 2025.

Kostas Bušma is third from the right in this photograph sent to his family in Lithuania by Rasa’s grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas, in Australia. This made her interested to find out who this man was and about his fate.

The photo was most likely taken during some Lithuanian gathering or celebration, because three of the four men in it are known to be Lithuanian. It was probably taken when her grandfather lived in Melbourne.

On the left is Rasa's grandfather's girlfriend, Beryl, then Rasa's grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas, then an unknown man, then Kostas Bušma, then an unknown woman, then Julius Petkinis;
we believe that this photograph was taken in Melbourne

Source:  Collection of the author

Kostas before Australia

The man third from the right was born on 1 October 1923 in Gailiskiai village, Skuodas district, Lithuania. Kostas Bušma’s parents were Juozas and Veronika, maiden name Janutyte. This information is from his birth record in Ylakiai church. On his birth record, his first name is Konstantinas. By his time in Germany, he had shortened this name to Kostas to make it simpler.

Unfortunately, the German Arolsen Archives has no digitised documents about Kostas or Konstantinas Bušma. The record of his interview for possible migration to Australia says that he was “forcibly evacuated by the Germans”, however. Perhaps, like Juozas Abromaitis, he was seized from the street or a workplace to be sent to dig trenches for German soldiers.

The record of interview also states that he had completed the basic 4 years of primary school education in Lithuania. In addition, he had attended 2 years of trade school, studying to be a mechanic.

He had worked as a locksmith in Lithuania from 1939, so from when he was 16, until 1944. He also found work as a locksmith in Dresden, Germany, from 9 October 1944 until May 1945. Perhaps his evacuation to Germany was not as forcible as that of Abromaitis, after all, especially if he did not leave Lithuania until the July-October period like most of the others.

He had been employed as a car mechanic for 9 months before his interview. His place of employment was the REME Workshop, Wetter. REME stands for Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the branch of the British Army which maintains its equipment.

A Website established by former members of the British Army of the Rhine points out that the lowest military rank at Wetter was Sergeant, as 35 officers supervised 1745 local civilians. Since the Website goes on to talk about the local community without mentioning Displaced Persons, that military rank and those numbers may have applied when the workshop was at its peak, not necessarily in 1947. Nonetheless, the base would have been a large employer of locals in that year, probably taking on Displaced Persons in preference to the recently defeated enemy.

Kostas almost did not make the selection for the first group of Displaced Persons to travel to Australia. The interview record states that he is “temp. medically unfit”. The reason apparently is “W.R.” and a “blood test was still to come to hand”. Near the bottom of the record, “Rejected” has been covered in typed crosses and replaced by “A”. It is not possible to enquire further into the lack of fitness because, perhaps unique among all the selection documents for the First Transport, the medical papers are missing.

Kostas’ start in Australia

Kostas’ Bonegilla migrant camp card confirms that he arrived in Australia with the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947. Another early document is USAT General Stuart Heintzelman passenger list from National archives of Australia. This shows that Kostas Bušma left Germany for Australia from Lintorf DP camp in the British zone.

Kostas Bušma's identity photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  Bonegilla Migrant Experience

Kostas’ first job in Australia was with the South Australian Department of Woods. He left Bonegilla camp in a party of 33 men on 7 January 1948, sent to Mount Gambier, just over the western border from Victoria. The men started work on 9 January 1948 and were paid a £5.12.6 salary each week.

On 19 November 1948, Kostas applied for a transfer to the "Rocket Range". By this The District Employment Officer, Mount Gambier, recording the application, probably meant the Woomera range, also in South Australia. Probably Kostas had found out from other Lithuanians working there that the pay was much better as civilians earned at least £9-10 per week. He was told on 20 January 1949 that his application had not been approved.

Kostas disappears

The District Employment Officer advised his Regional Director in Adelaide in November 1949 that Bušma had disappeared from his employment on 12 February 1949 and his current whereabouts were unknown. Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration, having been advised of his disappearance on 25 February, had located him in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. He had been told to return to Mount Gambier but that effort must have been given up by June. In that month the Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration transferred his file to the Melbourne Office.

Kostas and kindness

Two newspaper reports, as well as the photo which starts this tale, show that Kostas sometimes mixed with other Lithuanians. On 10 May 1955, the newspaper Mūsų Pastogė in an article on List of Donors reported that Kostas Bušma had donated 10 shillings for Lithuanians remaining in Germany. On 11 December 1963, the same newspaper in another List of Donors reported that he had donated another 10 shillings, this time for the Australian Lithuanian Community. The size and frequency of the donations indicate a man with not much money to spare.

Kostas becomes an Australian

Kostas Busma acquired his Australian citizenship on 3 April 1960. His address at the time was 81 Robert Street in Northcote, a Melbourne suburb. At this time, we lack information on where Kostas lived between his Albert Park address in mid-1949 and his 1960 Northcote address, let alone what work he did, with one exception.

The exception is due to Kostas telling fellow workers that “England is on her last legs, and it wouldn’t be long before we take over”. The place where he said this was the Government Aircraft Factory (GAF), back when planes actually were made in Australia. Special Branch of the Victorian Police thought that the comment was worth bringing to Immigration’s attention; ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) advised that this was not a security issue.

Kostas’ work

He probably was working in the GAF’s main premises at Fisherman’s Bend, next door to the place of his arrival at Port Melbourne, 12 years earlier. He may have been helping to assemble English Electric Canberra twin-jet tactical bombers or Jindivik jet-powered radio controlled target drones. In any event, he was in much more suitable employment, as a former locksmith and motor mechanic, than when he was cutting down trees or otherwise working with timber near Mount Gambier.

Australian electoral rolls for around every five years from 1963 until 1980 confirm that Kostas continued to live in Melbourne, at addresses which were close to each other. On the other hand, 6 known addresses from 1960 onwards indicate someone who moved frequently because he was renting his accommodation.

The occupations given on the electoral rolls were machinist, process worker, body builder and body maker. ‘Process worker’ is someone doing repetitive tasks, maybe on a production line, in a factory. ‘Bodymaker’ and ‘body builder’ may refer to someone helping to manufacture cars or, in Kostas case, aeroplanes. The cars' bodies are their shells, excluding the mechanical parts. Perhaps this term was used also in plane construction.

We think that Kostas lived alone and had no relatives in Australia. There is no-one else with the same family name at any of his addresses.

Kostas’ death

His death certificate says that he died on 11-13 August 1983, aged 59. In the Melbourne newspaper Teviskes aidai, on 19 August 1983, a notice said that Kostas Bušma had died during the previous week in Melbourne, wrongly said to be aged 58.

With no-one looking for him, the police had taken him to the crematorium. A Mr Arlauskas had cared enough to report this to the community. Kostas would have been taken to a morgue, not a crematorium, as he was not to be cremated or buried until a post-mortem had been held and enquiries to locate relatives had been exhaustive.

From the death certificate, we can find out that Kostas died while living at yet another address, 24/82 Nicholson, Fitzroy, Melbourne. This was a 3-storeyed house built at the height of Melbourne’s wealth, in the 1880s. From Kostas’ unit number, 24, we can tell that it had been subdivided into at least 24 units, 8 per floor. From later evidence, it seems that these were rooms with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities.

Kostas' final address, 82 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy

Source:  Google Maps Streetview

At least the formerly grand home was in a grand position, across the road from the parklands surrounding Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building. This was built in 1879-80 to house the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880-81 and also was the home of the Commonwealth of Australia’s first parliaments, from 1901 to 1927. We have to hope that Kostas was well enough to appreciate this grandeur.

If Kostas could not see the Royal Exhibition Building from an upstairs window,
this is how he would have seen the neighbour from the front door of 82 Nicholson Street;
the commemorative World Heritage Site banner being an addition from 2004 or after

Source:  Donaldytong on Wikipedia

The death certificate says, ‘Not any’ against ‘occupation’, and this also was left blank on the 1980 electoral roll. Kostas was too young to be eligible for an aged pension, but he might have been receiving another type of income, for example, a government pension if he was too ill to work.

The death certificate also says that Kostas was buried only on 30 September 1983. This 6-week gap was because the police searching for relatives in Australia. It also was because he died when no-one else was present, so the law required a post-mortem examination and inquest into the death. The inquest was held another 6 weeks after the burial, on 14 November 1983.

The coroner declared that Kostas had died from “a traumatic sub-dural haemorrhage on (sic) the evidence adduced I am unable to say how the Deceased came to sustain the injury.” That was after examining depositions from 7 witnesses, 3 of whom were residents of the same address. One was a frequent visitor to this address and another its owner. A policeman and the doctor who conducted the post-mortem made up the numbers.

Only one of the witnesses was Lithuanian: he was Vytautas Matulaitis, the pensioner who had identified Kostas’ body. He confirmed that Kostas had an invalid pension, the type available to Australians who are too ill to work. As Vytautas lived on the opposite side of Melbourne’s Central Business District to Kostas, we have to hope that they used to meet at the Lithuanian club in North Melbourne, so with other Lithuanians also.

Vytautas swore under oath that he had known Kostas for 20 years, that is, since around 1963. Another friend must have been Mr Arlauskas, initial or first name not given, but possibly Victorian resident Juozas, who cared enough to report Kostas’ fate to Tėviškės aidai. Yet another friend, Rasa’s grandfather, Adomas Ivanauskas, had left for Western Australia and died earlier, in 1980.

Kostas’ neighbours in the rooming house added that he had few friends, presumably based on his lack of visitors to this address. They and the building owner said that he was a heavy drinker, particularly after pension payday.

His next-door neighbour had been woken by a noise outside his door before midnight on 10 August. He found Kostas there, lying on his back, snoring, on the floor with blood splashed on a nearby wall. He asked another neighbour to help him move Kostas into his own room, but that neighbour refused, so the next door neighbour went back to bed. Some hours later, after he woke again and found Kostas in the same position outside his door, he held him under the armpits to drag him back to his bed. He managed to manoeuvre Kostas onto his bed. Kostas was still bleeding from the nose.

The owner of the rooming house came 2 days later to collect the rent. Kostas didn’t answer the door but the next door neighbour came out of his room and told the owner about the incidents of the earlier night. The owner managed to break through a panel of Kostas’ door and saw that he seemed to be dead. He then called the police.

No-one had seen how Kostas received the head injury, but the police did no regard the circumstances as suspicious. That is to say, that they thought Kostas had injured himself when drunk rather than being hit by another person. This explains why the coroner concluded that he was “unable to say how the Deceased came to sustain the injury”.

Kostas’ body had been taken from the morgue for burial by the Government contractor on 28 September. This was after police enquiries could not find any relatives and his assets were regarded as not being valuable enough to pay for his burial.

He now rests in the Fawkner Memorial Park, Melbourne, in a grave marked by someone else's name.  What will have happened, we know from the fate of Rasa's grandfather, is that 2 or 3 people may have been buried in the same plot at the same time.  It looks like another of these people, Roman Kosuszok, possibly another former Displaced Person, a refugee like Kostas, was fortunate enough to have someone who cared enough to pay for a small plaque and mark the graves border with stones and wood.

Kostas is sharing a public grave in the Fawkner Memorial Park with three other people

Source:  Erin D on FindaGrave

As victims of war, they and anyone else with them deserve a better fate than this.

CITE THIS DOCUMENT AS:  Ščevinskienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Kostas Bušma: Another man in a photo' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/08/kostas-busma-another-man-in-photo.html.

Sources:

Ancestry.com, ‘All results for Kostas Busma’ https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Kostas_Busma&event=_australia_5027&keyword=Electoral+roll&searchMode=advanced accessed 5 February 2025, starts with Australia, electoral rolls 1963, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1980.

Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, ‘Deaths in the State of Victoria’, No 26004/83, Kostas Busma, obtained from https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/login, accessed 5 February 2025.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, ‘Kostas Busma’, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203671575 accessed 5 February 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1960) 'Certificates of Naturalization’ 30 June, p 2269 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240549078 accessed 5 February 2025.

Find a Grave ‘Kostas Busma' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212416517/kostas-busma accessed 11 August 2025.

Lithuanian State Historical Archives, ‘Skuodo dekanato bažnyčių gimimo metrikų knyga,1923-01-01 - 1923-12-31’ in Lithuanian [Church birth register of the Skuodas deanery, 1.1.1923 – 31.12.1923] https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/267602721/316266594/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=85 accessed 5 February 2025. [Kostas Bušma’s birth record is on page 85, record number 176.]

National Archives of Australia: Collector of Customs, Western Australia; PP482/1, Correspondence files [nominal rolls], single number series, 1926-52; 82, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN - arrived Fremantle 28 November 1947 – nominal rolls of passengers, 1947-52 [page 26 ] https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=439196 accessed 5 February 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Labour and National Service, Branch Office/Regional Administration, South Australia; D1917/0, Correspondence files, annual single number series with "D" prefix, 1945-1954; D15/49, Displaced persons - survey to determine apparent absconders, 1949-51 [pages 89, 104] recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=426077 accessed 3 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1947-50; 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 [page 100] https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 5 February 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1955) ‘Soc. Globos Mot. Dr-jos Melbourne Vajaus Vokietijoje Pasilikusiems Lietuviams, Aukotojų Sąrašas’ in Lithuanian [Soc. Guardianship of the Mother of Dr. Melbourne for Lithuanians Remaining in Germany, List of Donors]’ Sydney, 10 May, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259362346 accessed 5 February 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1963) ‘Aukos A. L. Bendruomenei’ in Lithuanian [‘Donations to the A. L. Community] Sydney, 11 December, p 2 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1963/1963-12-11-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 February 2025.

PROV, VA 2807 State Coroner's Office, VPRS 24/P0001 1983/1704 Given name : Kostas; Family name : Busma; Cause of death : Traumatic sub-dural haemorrhage; Location of hearing : Melbourne 1983-1983 https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/020E49DD-F1C6-11E9-AE98-D33BEF04B52E.

Tėviškės aidai [The Echoes of Homeland] (1983) ‘Īš Mūsų Parapių’ in Lithuanian [‘In our Parishes’] Melbourne, 19 August, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1983/1983-08-19-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 5 February 2025.

Wikipedia, ‘Royal Exhibition Building’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Exhibition_Building accessed 5 February 2025.