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

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

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

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

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

Povilas Laurinavicius' photo in his immigration selection papers

Source:  NAA:  A11772, 174  

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

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

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

Povilas Laurinavicius' 1947 photo on his Bonegilla card

Source:  NAA: A2571, LAURINAVICIUS POVILAS 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Povilas' death notice

Source:  Draugas, 17 November 1969

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

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

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

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

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

Source:  Tasmanian Stamp Auctions

Namefellows

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

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

Sources

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

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

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

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

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947 (1947-47); 174, LAURINAVICIUS Povilas DOB 18 May 1908 (1947-47) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1834754 accessed 16 May 2025.

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

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

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

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

"General Stuart Heintzelman” men to Tasmania’s West Coast, January 1948, by Jonas Mockunas

Updated 8 and 9 May 2025.

The West Coast is an isolated, rugged and very sparsely populated part of Tasmania. Much of it is wilderness and home to ancient natural wonders, including cool temperate rain forests which are now listed as National Parks and World Heritage sites. The climate can be equally rugged, with over 2000mm of rain per annum and snowfalls in winter. 

Despite its isolation, human activity is now quite evident, with roads linking towns and providing access for locals and tourists. Mining in particular has impacted the environment at many locations.

Remains of the Hercules haulage line between Williamsford and Mt Read, near Rosebery

Source:  Mockunas collection

THE EZ COMPANY AT ROSEBERY

The small town of Rosebery was established in the late 1890s after gold was discovered nearby.  It became the mining base for the Electrolytic Zinc Company (EZ Co).  The processed zinc ore transported by the Emu Bay Railway to Burnie on the north coast of Tasmania and then to the company’s Risdon Zinc Works in Hobart for smelting.

In the late 1940s the mining industry around Rosebery was prospering and the EZ Co wanted to explore new territory. The opportunity of using newly available migrant labour to open up these areas was attractive. The first group of young migrants who had fled the Baltic States as refugees during World War II was sent from the Bonegilla migrant camp in early 1948 to assist with this task. 

THE MIGRANTS ARRIVE 

The First Transport of Baltic displaced persons to Australia arrived at Fremantle aboard the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman in late November 1947; the 839 Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian men and women were then transported to the Bonegilla migrant camp near Wodonga, beside the River Murray in northern Victoria. 

Apart from a contingent of women who very soon after arriving at Bonegilla were sent to fulfill their 2-year work commitments in Canberra, large-scale job allocations of these ‘Balts’ did not begin until the New Year.  Gabecas recorded that, after a very hot summer at Bonegilla, twelve of the men who had requested job placements somewhere cooler were selected for labouring work in Tasmania.  They would subsequently discover Tasmania’s West Coast to be considerably wetter and cooler than the mainland.

The men left Bonegilla on 13 January to board a ship from Melbourne to Burnie, but a waterfront strike caused a change of plans.  Instead they were flown to Wynyard on the north coast of Tasmania by the EZ Co. They were given a meal at Wynyard Airport and put on the railcar heading south - there were no roads linking Rosebery with the outside world at the time and the narrow-gauge Emu Bay Railway provided the only access. They arrived at their new workplace in the western forests in the middle of the night and company records show they were put to work the next day, 19 January 1948.

Fortunately for us, one of these men, Aleksandras Gabecas, also known as Alex Gabas in Australia, has left a record of his memories with images of those days to enrich the story we can tell today.  As part of the 50th anniversary of the First Transport to Australia, the Lithuanian weekly newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, published photographs with captions and articles by Gabecas over several editions.

Some of the passengers on board the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman
en route to Australia, November 1947;
Aleksandras Gabecas is in the front row with a guitar

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 17 April 2013

An announcement in the local press of their impending arrival

Source:  Burnie Advocate through Trove

THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Their work for EZ Co involved assisting the company’s exploration program: cutting tracks for surveyors and samplers, followed by wider tracks for bulldozers and heavy equipment. Each day the men would journey a few miles to their worksites where they would clear, dig, blast and burn their way through the forest. They worked a 40-hour week. 

The company supplied their food and tools and took them back to Rosebery every second Friday to collect wages and do some shopping.  Several also frequented the pub.  Saturdays and Sundays were free days, often spent in Rosebery or Zeehan.

While the EZ Co sought to provide all the fundamentals, on occasion the men had to resolve some of the material shortcomings during their shopping trips to town. For example, gumboots were not provided at first as they were in short supply, so some of the men purchased their own in Rosebery as the ground at their worksite was often a quagmire.  

Similarly, for the first fortnight the men had to work in the lightweight clothes that had been issued to them in Bonegilla.  After the first shopping trip, they got into a routine where they would buy a new shirt for the weekend in town and wear it to work for the next fortnight. 

Despite these initial shortcomings, in Gabecas’ view they were fairly well off compared with some of the other migrants: after deductions, the men were paid a wage of 5 pounds and 15 shillings per week.

THE BALTIC BUSHMEN CITY

The men initially lived at a railway siding which they named Baltic Bushmen City and erected an official-looking sign to proclaim their new home. The City was the base for further exploration work in the hinterland; officially known as Pinnacles Siding, it was located near Boko Siding, about 12 miles (19km) north of Rosebery. 

Some of the men with their Baltic Bushman City sign, mid-1948

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 2 December 1996

Gabecas wrote that it consisted of several tin sheds and a few tents set on a hillside in a landscape that was a welcome contrast to the scorched Victorian countryside. Each sleeping hut had 2 bunks, adequate blankets and a fireplace.  Meals were prepared by an EZ cook.  Lighting was by carbide and hurricane lamps. 

A second worksite, a much more basic tent city, was located 5 kilometres away.  Here they were able to prepare meals to their own (European) tastes.  

EZ tents in the bush

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė, 2 December 1996

Gabecas seemed to enjoy the adventure of the new experience, noting that the only drawback was the standard of accommodation.  A descendant of another Balt, Rosie Emerson, had these somewhat sharper observations:

"My father was one of these men who was sent from Bonegilla, to Rosebery in 1948 … these men lived in tents in the harsh Tasmanian climate. My father told how he’d wake up freezing and wet if he happened to roll into the side of the tent...

"There was a Christmas break when Dad went to Melbourne where he met my mother. He refused to return to the harsh conditions and completed the second year of his contract with the government in Melbourne at a brick factory, with much improved living conditions. 

"He used to meet my mother under the painting of Chloe in Young & Jackson's each weekend before they’d head of to dance the night away, a far cry from living in ice- covered tents."

THE WEST COAST BALTS, JANUARY 1948

Name	Age	Nationality
Blaubergs, Otto	30	Latvian
Gabecas, Aleksandras	25	Lithuanian
Jablonskis, Juozas	35	Lithuanian
Krausas, Romualdas	21	Lithuanian
Krizanovskis, Edwards	20	Latvian
Krumins, Alberts	25	Latvian
Kubiliunas, Jonas	22	Lithuanian
Kudras, Kirils	26	Latvian
Marazas, Antanas	23	Lithuanian
Maslauskas, Karolis	24	Lithuanian
Martišius, Saliamonas	27	Lithuanian
Roduss, Augusts	37	Latvian

LATER ARRIVALS

After about 6 months in the forests, these men were transferred to Rosebery to finish the remainder of their contracts. They worked for EZ Co on the surface as the unions had initially barred migrants from working underground. By that time, other Balts had also arrived to take their place, often after their first job placement in fruit picking. 

Three Lithuanians from the First Transport were sent to Rosebery after their Victorian orchard work, leaving Bonegilla again on various dates in March and April 1948.  They were Viktoras Kuciauskas, Zigmas Paskevicius and Juozas Leknius.  Those known to have arrived a little later, from apple-picking in south-east Tasmania's Huon Valley, were Leons Mikelans and Izidorius Smilgevicius.

Around 80 Balts worked at Rosebery from the late 1940s and into the 1950s. After the men were released from their work contracts, most moved to Hobart or the mainland.

A small number stayed at Rosebery, having by then secured better paying jobs working underground in the mines. A few worked in the Farrell Mine at Tullah, while others undertook track-cutting and cartage on a contract basis.

One of the latter, Latvian Eizens Princis (Eugene Prince) married a local girl and stayed in Rosebery until retirement.

ANN'S NOTE

For anyone not acquainted with Melbourne folklore, Young & Jackson's is a centrally located hotel on a corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, across Flinders street from the main railway station for suburban lines.  Chloe is a 1875 painting by French artist, Jules Lefebvre, which has hung in Young & Jackson's main bar since 1909.

While Rosie Emerson's father, Ziggy Paskevičius, may have waited for his sweetheart under Chloe, Rosie's mother would not have been allowed into the main bar under the customs prevailing in 1949.  They were more likely met outside or in another part of the Hotel.

"Under the clocks" is another well-known Melbourne meeting place, the clocks being across Flinders Street from Young & Jackson's.  Above the entrance to Flinder Street Station, they show the departure time of the next train for each line.  Rosie's mother may have preferred that spot.

SOURCES

Advocate (1948) ‘Balts to Work on West Coast’ Burnie, Tasmania, 12 January, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69067798, accessed 5 May 2025.

Emerson, Rosie (2020) Comment on post regarding the above news item in the Advocate, in the General Stuart Heintzelman/First Transport Facebook private group https://www.facebook.com/groups/505412590020835/search/?q=rosie%20emerson, accessed 5 May 2025.

Holmes, Michael (2017) Tasmania’s Vanishing Towns: not what they used to be Hobart, The author, p 3.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1988) ’Ankstyvųjų metų albumas’ [‘An album of the early years’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 20 June, p 12 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1988/1988-06-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1996) ’Pažadėtoj žemėj Australijoje’ ['The promised land Australia’ in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 5 August, p 7 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-08-05-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1996) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (II)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (II)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 2 December, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1996/1996-12-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (III)’ 'The First Transport: in photographs (III)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 20 January, p 8 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-01-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (IV)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (IV)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 12 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-12-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (V)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (V)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 19 May, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-19-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025

Mūsų Pastogė [Our Haven] (1997) ’Nuotraukose: pirmasis transportas (VI)’ ['The First Transport: in photographs (VI)’, in Lithuanian] Sydney, NSW, 23 June, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-06-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 5 May 2025.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle: Fifty years of Baltic immigrants in Tasmania, 1948-1998, Hobart, , pp 42-45.

Wikipedia, 'Chloe (Lebvre)' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlo%C3%A9_(Lefebvre) accessed 5 May 2025.

Arthur Calwell's "They're Coming" Press Release of 7 November 1947, by Ann Tündern-Smith

On 7 November 1947, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman had been sailing from Bremerhaven for more than eight days.  Australia's Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, decided that it was time to tell the public through the newspapers and radio that the very first migrants from Europe sponsored by the Government were coming.  All were refugees from the Soviet re-invasion, in 1944, of the 3 Baltic states:  Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  Click on each page for a larger, more legible version.

Click on any of the pages above to open a larger, more legible version
Source:  Bound copy of Calwell's speeches and press releases in the
Department of Immigration Library

Fast communication by radio, telegram, telex and cablegram was possible already, so the press release could have been accurate.  The inaccuracy starts with the 860 passengers, when it should have been well known to officials in Australia that the actual number to depart on 28 October was 843.

There was 18 passengers younger than Algis Baranskis.  While 11 of them also had had 18th birthdays, 3 were still aged 17, 2 were 16, one was 15 and one was 14.  The youngest were with older family members or trusted friends.  Maybe the Minister wanted to appear responsible by not discussing those under 18, but his chosen example was neither the youngest nor the oldest of the 18 year olds.

The incorrect spelling of names was to persist for years, maybe lifetimes, but let's make known corrections here.  In the order of their appearance in the press release, we have first Captain Valentine Pasvolsky, not "Pascolsky".  As discussed earlier, he did not have charge of sailing the ship, but shipboard life for its passengers.  The person in charge of sailing the ship was Captain CM Pedersen.

"Brundazaite Constamcija" should have been Konstancija Brundzaite, using Western name order.  It looks like some of the passengers were providing their names to enquirers using what now is known as Hungarian name order, because it still is used in Hungary.  There's a typing error in "Constamcija" as well as an assumption that other languages use a C to represent a hard initial sound when they are far more ordered in their orthography than English.  Brundzaite was misspelled also.

"Rage Birute" was subject to the same misunderstanding of name order.  In Western name order she should be known as Birute Rage.  And no, her last name is not pronounced like an English synonym for "anger".  It is two syllables, for a start.

The men generally got off better, but it should have been Povilas and Petras Baltutis, not "Povillias and Petra Balutis".  "Ludas Krasaoskas" should have been Ludas Krasauskas.

Borisas Dainutis was only slightly mangled as "Borisis Dainutis".  We have his biography in preparation.  Sergejs and Nikolajs Bergtals suffered similarly as "Sergeis" and "Nikolais".  We're working on biographies for them too.

"Miss V. Mets" or Valeria Mets, later known by Australians after her marriage to one of them as Val Blackburn, seems to be the only passenger whose name was spelled correctly, perhaps because of its shortness.

Here's how the Minister's press release was used one day later, in the Sydney Morning Herald.  The number of passengers has been corrected.  There was no arrival date predicted in the press release, but now it has become 26 November.  Perhaps the Minister's office sent out a telex message of amendment, which has not been stored with the two copies of the press release that I have seen.

The Minister's press release, as published on the next day, 8 November 1947

Source:  Sydney Morning Herald through Trove

Let us hope that the other details supplied in the Minister's press release are more accurate than the spellings.

Reference

Wikipedia, 'Surname' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surname accessed 16 April 2025.

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

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

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

 

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

Maydena's location in Tasmania

Source:  Wikipedia

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

 

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

 

Latvians

 

Adams Mikas

Andrejs Preisis

Roberts Miezitis

 

Lithuanians

 

Albertas Medisauskas

Henrikas Juodvalkis

Jonas Gudelis

Jonas Tamosaitis

Julius Molis

Jurgis Mikalonis

Vladas Mikelaitis

Vytautas Narbutas

Vytautas Salkunas

 

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

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

Source:  Pulse Tasmania

Sources 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

Jonas Jakaitis (1919-2010), Australian Citizen, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinskienė

Jonas Jakaitis was one of the 62 men from the First Transport, General Stuart Heintzelman, sent to Bangham in South Australia to work for the SA Railways.  He became an Australian citizen at the same 1953 Adelaide ceremony as his fellow SAR worker, Hugo Jakobsen.  At the time, they were photographed together for posterity by the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper.  What else do we know about him?

Hugo Jakobsen (left) and Jonas Jakaitis (right) at their 15 April 1953 citizenship ceremony

Source:  Adelaide Advertiser, 16 April 1953

Rasa Ščevinskienėhas found an index to the South Australian Railways (SAR) records which shows that, having started with the others at Bangham on 15 January 1948, Jonas left the SAR on 11 July 1952.  He had been released from his work contract earlier though, on 30 September 1949.

From the Adelaide News newspaper of the day after Jonas obtained Australian citizenship with Hugo, 15 April 1953, we know that Jonas now described his occupation as ‘motor mechanic’. 

Jonas was born in Lithuania on 4 July 1919.  Rasa has discovered a 1942 census of Lithuania online, which tells us that he was the oldest of four children fathered by Juozas Jakaitis.  Jonas and his sister Ona, born in 1924, had a mother who had died when they were young. 

Naturally Juozas looked for another mother for his children and married again, in March 1930.  With Agota, he had two more children, Augustinas, born in 1930, and Marijona, born in 1937.

The family lived in the tiny village of Ziliai, which is 7 kilometers from a much larger settlement of Kiduliai.  Ziliai now is about 11 kilometers from the post-WWII border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, between Lithuanian and Poland.  Jonas always stated that Kiduliai was his birthplace, probably because his mother was more likely to find a midwife or other assistance there.

The census took place in April 1942.  It recorded that Jonas, aged about 23, and Ona, aged about 18, were already in Germany.

However, Jonas’ selection documents for migration to Australia say that he arrived in Germany in June 1944.  While this certainly is earlier than the more usual September-October 1944, it is not 1942.  Perhaps Jonas and Ona had returned to Ziliai when circumstances seemed better, only to decide to leave again.

The selection papers record that Jonas had had the basic 4 years of elementary school and was suitable to be a ‘medium labourer’ in Australia.  His occupation at the time of interview, on 24 September 1947, was ‘motor mechanic’ and he had been working at this occupation for the previous 13 months.  He previously had been a driver in Lithuania for 2 years.

His Lithuanian, of course, and German language skills were regarded as fluent, while his English was marked ‘fair’.

Jonas Jakaitis identity photograph from his selection papers

Source:  NAA:  A11772, JAKAITIS Jonas DOB 4 July 1919

Up to the point of his naturalisation ceremony on 15 April 1953,  a card kept in the Adelaide Office of the Department of Immigration records his changed of employer and residential address.  This was required under the Alien Registration Act 1947.

 

From this record, we can see that his first and last reported employment was with car manufacturer, General Motors Holden (GMH), where he was employed as a labourer.  He worked as a machinist at Pope Products from 19 November 1949 and several smaller companies for nearly 5 years.  He obtained the specialised position of fitter and turner with the South Australian Brush Company, better known as SABCO, from 16 August 1952 but only for two months.  He then moved back to GMH, again with the job title of labourer, but maybe because the pay was better.

 

That 19 November 1949 employment date with Pope Products and the later employment information conflict with the SAR record of Jonas staying in its employment until 11 July 1952.  A human error will have occurred with one of the records.  Of the two, the Department of Immigration record is likely to be the more accurate since Jonas would have had to report each change in address or employer in person.

 

We know little about the rest of Jonas’ life in Australia except that, in 1960, he donated £1 to a collection in support of Adelaide’s Lithuanian House.  The Reserve Bank of Australia says that what £1 would buy in 1960 would cost more than $35 now.  Perhaps we could think of Jonas’ donation as putting forward $50 now.

Jonas left a widow, Adele Milita, when he died on 1 April 2010 aged a remarkable 90 years.  His funeral took place on 12 April.  He is buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Enfield Memorial Park.  

With a previous family name like Adele Milita Gleichforsch, his widow probably was a Baltic German but she also had been born in Lithuania.  Her German background would explain why a card kept by a Lithuanian Catholic priest lists her and the two older children of the family as ‘Eveng’ or Evangelical Lutheran.

The third child was born 8 years after the previous one.  Given that the oldest was born in 1946, when we understand Jonas to have been single, this could well be a melded family, with Adele bringing into it the two older children from a previous marriage.

Adele also lived to a robust age, 92, dying on 5 July 2015.  The Find A Grave Website photograph of Jonas' plaque in the Enfield Park shows a blank besides his name.  The exact place of burial is not recorded.  Adele’s place of burial is recorded as being within the Catholic section, despite her Lutheran faith.  In all probability, Jonas and Adele now rest side by side.

SOURCES

Advertiser (1953) 'Thrilled To Become Australians' Adelaide, 16 April, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48284822 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

[Church card], ‘Jakaitis, Jonas’, held by Australian Lithuanian Archives, Adelaide.

 

Find A Grave, ‘Adelle Milita Gleichforsch Jakaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202129584/adelle_milita_jakaitis accessed 9 April 2025.

 

Find A Grave, ‘Jonas Jakaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154554810/jonas-jakaitis accessed 9 April 2025.

 

Government of South Australia, State Records (2021) ‘Index, GRS 10638, Record of employment sheets – South Australian Railways’

https://www.archives.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/830188/GRS_10638-index-I-L.pdf  accessed 9 November 2024.

 

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-47; 93, JAKAITIS Jonas DOB 4 July 1919, 1947-47 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005526 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-56; JAKAITIS JONAS, JAKAITIS, Jonas : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number – 493 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620759 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-76; JAKAITIS JONAS, JAKAITIS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-53

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187517 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

National Archives of Australia:  Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-65; JAKAITIS J, JAKAITIS Jonas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-53 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4077737 accessed 10 April 2025.

'Personal file of JAKAITIS, IONAS, born on 4-Jul-1919, born in KIDULIAI', 3.2.1. / 79213085 / ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79213085 accessed 10 April 2025.

 

Reserve Bank of Australia, ‘Pre-Decimal Inflation Calculator’, https://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualPreDecimal.html accessed 9 November 2024.

 

Šeimos Surašymas 1942 Metais (Family Census in 1942) (Search Results for Jakaitis Jonas) https://eu3.ragic.com/genealogija/census/3/13586.xhtml accessed 9 November 2024.

 

The Advertiser (1953) ‘Thrilled to Become Australians’ Adelaide, 16 April, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48284822 accessed 9 November 2024

 

The News (1953) ‘13 Migrants to Become Aussies’ Adelaide, 15 April, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134289724 accessed 9 November 2024.