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

Updated 11 August 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, then 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, airoplanes. The cars' bodies are their shells, excluding the mechanical parts. Perhaps this term is 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 1980-81 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 grave in the Fawkner Memorial Park with one or two 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.

Juozas Abromaitis: The unknown man in the photo by Rasa Ščevinskiene and Ann Tündern-Smith

Rasa has worked out that Juozas Abromaitis is the middle of the three men in the photograph sent by her grandfather Adomas Ivanauskas from Australia.  The photo was most likely taken during some Lithuanian gathering or celebration, since all the men in the photo look Lithuanian.  Therefore, she was interested to find out more about this man and his fate.

From the left, Julius, now known to be Julius Petkinis, his wife-to-be, Barbara,
Juozas Abromaitis, Adomas Ivanauskas' girlfriend, Beryl, and Adomas, Rasa's grandfather

Source:  Private collection

Juozas was born on 5 January 1913 in the town of Krosna in Lithuania, making him one of the older men on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, already aged 34.  His parents were workers, Jonas Abromaitis and the former Ieva Adinaviciute.

In the Marijampole church on 16 may 1936, Juozas married Albina Dulskyte.  The record states that both were workers living in Marijampole.  During 1939-1944, Juozas Abromaitis worked in a brick factory in Marijampole.

On 27 September 1944, he was caught by the Germans while walking along a street in Marijampole and taken to Germany to dig trenches.  This is action is an example of what is summarised as "forcibly evacuated by the Germans" in the record of his interview by the selection team for Australia in October 1947.

During 1945 he lived in Dresden, moving to Kassel during 1946.

While Juozas was in Germany, he tried to find his wife, relatives and friends.  We know this from an advertisement in the newspaper Ziburiai on 18 May 1946, which said in Lithuanian, "Abromaitis Juozas, Kassel Oberzwehren, Mattenberg Camp, is looking for his wife Albina, brother-in-law Kulbokas Stasys and acquaintances."

He left Bremerhaven for Australia with 842 other Baltic refugees on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947, arriving in Australia on 28 November 1947.

Juozas Abromaitis' identity photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

His first job in Australia was with the South Australian Department of Engineering & Water Supply (E&WS) in Adelaide.  He left Bonegilla camp, Victoria, on 7 or 8 January 1948 and with 63 or 64 other men who were sent by train to Adelaide.  This was the first group of migrants sent by Australian government to work outside the camp.  The men were on wages of £5.12.6 per week and their average age was 24.  Juozas‘ 35th birthday was just before the departure date.

The Adelaide Mail newspaper of 14 February 1948 said "Sixty-five eager young Baltic migrants camped in a paddock at Bedford Park are waiting for responsible authorities to teach them.  Only two men could speak English well.  Camp interpreter Olaf Aerfeld said, 'The boys would like to mix with people and become Australians some day, but most are young and very shy.  The language difficulty is stopping them from meeting Australians'."

Another report in the Mail one week later said, "While nothing was done officially this week to help the Balts, private citizens called on the strangers in their Bedford Park camp, invited them to their homes, offered to help teach them English.  They agreed to take 30 Balts in the first class at the Teachers Training College, and to arrange more than one night class a week if necessary.  Mr. Ashton said Engineering and Water Supply Department engineers had been trying to improve the Balts knowledge of English by mixing them with Australian workers, and some already had a smattering of the language."

These newspaper reports show that not knowing the language was a big problem for the Balts.  Juozas Abromaitis was one of those who had a hard time learning English.  On 5 April 1949, the Mount Gambier Border Watch newspaper carried an article headed Town Too Strange, about Juozas Abromaitis.

"The bearded stranger who solemnly walked along Mount Gambler's Commercial Street yesterday spoke three languages but none of them English and so he found the town 'too strange'.  His name was Juozas Abromaitis, a 37-years-old Lithuanian who had come to Australia from Java and had arrived in Mount Gambier on Sunday.  He speaks Russian, Polish and Lithuanian, but when addressed in English or French shyly turns his head to one side and murmurs, 'No understand'.  Juozas Abromaitis has come to the South East to work with CF Duncan and Co, (who ran a timber mill producing match sticks from pine logs) at Nangwarry, but does not know how long he will stay there.  He thinks he will go to America.“

His arrival from Java must have been a reporter‘s mistake because Juozas did not know how to explain himself well.

An Alien Registration card from the South Australian Department of Immigration officre says that Juozas was released for his contract to work in Australia on the new date decreed by the Minister for Immigration, 30 September 1949.  The first employment recorded on this card is not with CF Duncan and Co but Australian Berry Baskets, also of Nangwarry.  That is the only employer recorded for the next 4 years, when Commonwealth Railways at Port Augusta gets mentioned.

He may have moved to western Victoria for a short while, since both Portland Junction and Wannan are written on the card, in the same handwriting as the name of another First Transport man, Albertas Gedutis.  There are no dates for this record, but it was after August 1951 and before September 1953.

The Port Augusta record is from November 1953. Juozas was in Whyalla in May 1954, recorded as living at H27, SMQ.  That set of initials stood for Single Men‘s Quarters.  Exactly 10 years later, the address becomes H27, Tanderra Hostel, so it looks like a change of name rather than a change of address.  BHP Whyalla has been recorded as the employer against the 1964 address.  BHP Whyalla appears against a 1967 record foer the same residential address.

Juozas did not go to the USA but acquired Australian citizenship on 15 May 1968.  His address at that time was still H27, Tanderra Hostel.

He died only 4 years later, on 18 August 1972, and is buried in the Whyalla Cemetery.  The South Australian Government‘s Births, Deaths, Marriages Website cannot find a death certificate for him.  He was aged 59 at the time and had been working as a labourer for the previous 24 years, so we have to assume that the cause of death was natural causes and lots of hard work.

Juozas Abromaitis' grave marker in the Whyalla Cemetery probably was purchased by
friends from the Tanderra Hostel or his work, but now is rusted beyond recognition

Source:  FindAGrave photograph by Rosie

Sources

Border Watch (1949) 'Town too strange', Mount Gambier, 5 April, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78629466 accessed 2 August 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1968) 'Certificates of Naturalization as Australian Citizens' Canberra, 22 August, page 4717 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/241058110 accessed 2 August 2025.

ePaveldas, 'Krosnos RKB gimimo metrikų knyga' ['Krosna RKB birth registry book', in Lithuanian] [Juozas Abromaitis' birth record is number 3, p 453.] https://www.epaveldas.lt/preview?id=1470%2F1%2F3 accessed 1 August 2025.

Find a Grave, 'Juozas Abramaitis (sic)' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/223298825/juozas-abramaitis accessed 2 August 2025.

Lithuanian State Historical Archives, ‘Marijampolės RKB santuokos metrikų knyga' ['Marijampole RKB marriage registry book', in Lithuanian] [Juozas Abromaitis' marriage record is 56, p 31] https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/share/?manifest=https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext-api/view/289271690/298053012/lt/iiif/manifest&lang=lt&page=31 accessed 1 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, 1947-1947; 513, ABROMAITIS Juozas DOB 5 January 1913, 1947-1947, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005753 accessed 2 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; ABROMAITIS JUOZAS, ABROMAITIS Juozas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1968, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7183234 accessed 2 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Labour and National Service, Central Office; MT29/1, Employment Service Schedules, 1947-1950; 21, Schedule of displaced persons who left the Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla Victoria for employment in the State of South Australia 1948-1950 (page 106) https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376 accessed 2 August 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947 - 1956; ABROMAITIS JUOZAS, ABROMAITIS, Juozas : Year of Birth - 1913 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN HEINZELMAN : Number – 888, 1947-1948 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8119310 accessed 2 August 2025.

Mail (1948) 'Balts Feel Free After Prison Camp Horrors', Adelaide, 10 January p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55903813 accessed 2 August 2025.

Mail (1948) 'No English Lessons For Eager Young Balts', Adelaide, 14 February, p 24 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55909057 accessed 2 August 2025.

Mail (1948) 'English Classes For Balts Arranged', Adelaide, 21 February, page 24 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55905295 accessed 2 August 2025.

'Personal file of ABROMAITIS, JUOZAS, born on 5-Jan-1913, born in KROSNA Arolsen', 3.2.1/DocID: 78864234/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/78864232?s=abromaitis&t=2815320&p=1 accessed 1 August 2025.

Unearth Whyalla 'Cemetery Search' https://www.whyalla.sa.gov.au/services/community-facilities/cemetery/cemetery-search?action=grave&id=614811 accessed 2 August 2025.

Ziburiai (1946), 'Paieškojimai' ['Searches', in Lithuanian] Augsburg, 18 May, p 5 2195.  https://spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-05-18-ZIBURIAI.pdf accessed 1 August 2025.

Gunars Berzzarins OAM (1925-2015): Chess champion, accountant, journalist, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Gunars, chess champion, arrives in Australia

Gunars Berzzarins was singled out by Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in its 8 December 1947 report of the arrival in Melbourne the previous day of ‘more than 800 sturdy, sun-tanned Baltic migrants’.  This economics student had been, the paper noted, chess champion of Latvia’s capital, Riga.  (That had been in 1943 and 1944, before the return of Soviet forces from the east made Gunars and thousands of others flee westwards.)

Gunars Berzzarins' ID photo on his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

In January 1950, soon after moving to Adelaide, he won that city’s Summer Chess Training tournament, a 6-man competition.  In 1952 he won the Adelaide Chess Masters tournament again and organised the first Adelaide Schools Team tournament.  He finished 11th at the Australian Chess Masters in Brisbane in 1951.

Why Gunars left Latvia

Another entry in this blog discusses 13-14 June 1941, the night when Baltic people known or thought to be anti-Communist were rounded up for deportation to Siberia. During that night, Riga lost some 35,000 of its population of 400,000: nearly 10 per cent.

Gunars himself lost school friends and friends of the family to this deportation. He told me that this had generated fear in the remaining Latvians rather than hatred.

After the Germans occupiers of Latvia lost the battle for Stalingrad in February 1943, they began calling up Latvians to serve in the German Army. Boys still at school could choose to serve instead in the RAD, the Reichsarbietsdienst (the Reich Labour Service). Gunars’ birth year, 1925, was to be called up in 1944.

The Soviet forces pushed into the Bay of Riga on 30 July 1944. A day or two later, Gunars and Valentins got themselves to the port city of Liepaja and managed to flee to Germany from there.

Gunars told me that it was much easier for city dwellers to leave Latvia than for rural Latvians. The latter were likely to have been living where their ancestors had lived for hundreds, if not thousands, of years so they had a strong emotional attachment to their land.

Riga, the capital city where one-third of the Latvian population lived, finally fell to the Soviet forces on 13 October 1944.

Gunars in Germany

Initially the refugees who had fled the Soviet invasion, knowing that their lives under Soviet rule would be even worse than under German rule, thought that they would be able to return to their homelands soon. For that reason, they tended to find refuge together. By 1947, however, the hope of an early return to their homelands had faded.

In Germany, Gunars became an economics student in Göttingen, whose university had become the first to resume teaching after WWII. This meant that he could live in student quarters. Valentins wanted to continue his medical studies, so made his way to Dusseldorf.  This town is still more than 3 hours to the west by train or road.

Gunars’ parents had lost everything during the Russian Revolution, so they believed strongly that what you had in your head, your education, was most important. His father worked for the Latvian public service, in its upper levels, including for its Auditor-General.

His parents also had evacuated from Riga before it fell. They found refuge in Erfurt, a city which was captured by the Americans in April 1945 but then handed over to the Soviet Union in July 1945. They had not left Erfurt before the handover, but managed to get back to Riga. Gunars’ father died in 1956, around the time that the Soviet Union under Khrushchev decided to let older people go if they wanted to leave. As Valentins was settled in the USA, his mother migrated there.

The winter of 1945-46 in Germany was grim, with no coal and little electricity. There was no light after 4 pm. He was able to continue his studies in three helpful homes, one of a man, one of a woman, and one of a couple. As a student, he was fed by UNRRA. Cigarettes and coffee had become the local currency. Shops had almost nothing to sell.

He had started to learn English when he attended the English High School in Riga, which had English language instruction in its final years. Initally he had 7 sessions of English in a 5-day week, Linguaphone records, other records of English songs and books in English.

After the 1940 invasion of Latvia by the Soviet Union, English became just another language – until English-speaking troops successfully invaded Germany, where he had found refuge.

That 1945-46 winter was so difficult that Gunars did not want to spend more time in Germany, and knew that the Germans did not want the refugees either. He wanted to go to Venezuela or another warm country. Coal miners were wanted in both Germany and England, while Germany also wanted farm labourers. Gunars was neither, studying pure economics although this topic did not thrill him.

He considered Canada as well, since it was an English-speaking country on a similar latitude to Latvia. Everyone else wanted to resettle in the United States, of course. Canada was not making any offers, however, when he saw a notice about going to Australia on the noticeboard of his student quarters. Since UNRRA was feeding the residents, he thought an UNRRA official had put up the notice.

He was interviewed by the Australian team in a camp in Hannover, sent there with other applicants in a canvas-covered truck. He stayed in another camp in Bucholz, also used by the interviewers, on his way to the General Stuart Heintzelman in Bremerhaven.

What did Gunars know about Australia before his interview? In a few words, it was the Fifth Continent, with sheep, gold and wheat. It had been half a page in a geography textbook. He asked UNRRA staff to tell him what more they knew, but they replied, “Nothing”. Still, he knew that it was an English-speaking country.

He travelled through the interview process and the trip to Australia with friends from Göttingen. They included Olgerts Bergmanis, a fellow chess and table tennis player who Gunars knew from his chess club in Riga, Indulis Nicis and the Seja brothers, Andris and Juris.

Gunars in Fremantle

Nicis’ father had left his family in the 1920s to travel, stayed in Australia and remarried. Kārlis Nicis had become secretary to the Honorary Consul for Latvia. He probably knew or knew of most of the pre-War Latvians in Australia. He also knew that his son now was coming to Australia and that there would be a stopover in Perth. He wrote to friends there, who came to the camp where Indulis and Gunars were staying to drive them around the city.

Bonegilla camp

The Commandant of the Bonegilla camp, Alton Kershaw, seemed to be fierce but was known to be a good man underneath it. His offsider, Allan Dawson, was not liked. Gunars did not remember any problems in the running of the camp. Although supposedly dry, this was not actually the case.

Gunars remembered oranges, grapes, chocolate and port wine in the camp for Christmas 1947.

Gunars worked as a storeman at Bonegilla camp for nearly two years, from one week after his arrival, from 15 December 1947, to one month after the Minister for Immigration said that the new arrivals’ obligation to work in Australia was finished, to 28 October 1949.

Do you remember the women Heintzelman passengers filling out forms with some vital statistics and the men completing forms with their shoe size even before they reached the wharf in Fremantle? Do you remember a representative of a clothing factory estimated the size of the men's clothing by watching them disembark?

That was so that surplus Australian Army clothing in the correct sizes could be supplied to them after arrival at Bonegilla. And the clothing had to be stored somewhere, as did bedding and other supplies. Gunars curated these for 22 months. It would have been much better employment for the former economics student than some of the heavy labouring to which his peers were sent.

Marianne Hammerton’s book on the history of South Australia’s Department of Engineering and Water Supply includes the remark that “The migrant labour force was not without its problems. There was no system of matching individuals to positions. The Department found it had a mixture of professionals, tradesmen and technicians working as labourers …”

I reckon it's actually Gunars Berzzarins on the LEFT,
judging from the glasses and the blond, wavy hair,
playing with OlgerTs, not Olgerfs, making his move on the right

Source:  Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 1947

Gunars was underemployed compared with his previous education but at least he was not digging ditches or felling trees. Plus he had time to play chess, as we can see in the photograph above. Gunars’ brother, Valentins, 4 years older, had taught him this game. At Bonegilla, his friend Olgerts taught him how to swim in the adjacent Lake Hume.

Latvians working in the Bonegilla camp gather to celebrate one year in Australia:
(left to right) Andris Seja, unknown, Galina Vasins, possibly Nikolajs Krukovs, unknown, Irina Vasins, unknown, Gunars Berzzarins, (kneeling in front) Antanas Norkeliunas

Source:  Collection of Galina Vasins Karciauskas

Gunars started competing publicly in Australian chess tournaments in September 1948.

To balance the quiet time with a chess opponent, Gunars played table tennis. By May 1948, he was winning A Grade table tennis matches in Albury. At this time, a team called Balts was playing in the competition, with Vacys Morkunas and Janis Belousovs as well as Berzzarins and later arrivals. They were winning. Gunars even represented Wodonga in a match against Albury, which Wodonga won, in July 1948. In September, Balts won that year’s Wodonga table tennis competition.

Around June 1949, Balts had changed its name to Bonegilla, reflecting a greater diversity of camp residents and potential players.

Gunars in Adelaide

One week after leaving Bonegilla, Gunars was working as a clerk for the Adelaide Car Service company in Flinders Street, Adelaide and had found accommodation at 6 Wheaton Road, St Peters.

He was soon making news in Adelaide, under the headline, ‘Migrants keen on “night life”’. The former Prime Minister, now leader of the Federal Opposition, had told Australia’s first Citizenship Convention in Canberra on 23 January 1950 that many of the new arrivals must miss the opportunity for a chat and a glass of wine in the evening. Gunars, as a migrant in the street, asked for a poll on 6 o’clock closing (of hotels) and suggested open-air cafes, where customers could be liquor, listen to music and even dance. These would have been radical ideas to 1950 Australia!

After ten months in Adelaide, Gunars moved to 15 Castle Street. His next job was as a salesman with the British Sales Company, in August 1952. Seven months later, he had switched to selling for the Home Appliances Sales Company. He stayed in home appliance sales for 13 months before becoming a clerk for an accountant, TS Wilson. All of these jobs were in Adelaide’s Central Business District and he was still living at 15 Castle Street.

Gunars, accountant, citizen, journalist, university lecturer

Like at least 6 of the other young passengers, Gunars was presented with the idea that accountancy was a good way for a person whose second, third or fourth language was English to make a living.

They could work in an office with numbers rather than English language words in the days before Information Technology provided a similar pathway for smart young immigrants. There are two such stories on this blog already: those of Helmi Liiver Samuels and Artur Klaar (although Artur is a special case as he was working as an accountant already in Estonia).

In Gunars’ case, he obtained a Diploma in Accountancy in 1959 from the South Australian Technical Institute, which became part of the University of South Australia. He was a part-time lecturer in office management and related subjects at his alma mater during 1972-76, in addition to his other activities.

Gunars was still at 15 Castle Street when he became an Australian citizen on 7 March 1957. This is quite unlike the other Heintzelman passengers at whom we have looked so far, most of whom moved often from one place of residence to another.

Another First Transport passenger, Emils Delins, began publishing the Austrālijas latvietis newspaper in May 1949. Gunars became an immediate volunteer contributor. The Latvietis online newspaper obituary says that he already had publishing experience, since he and two friends had published Šacha pasaule (Chess World) during 1946-47 while he was in Göttingen.

From 1950 to 1953 he wrote about chess for the Adelaide Advertiser, in English of course. Additionally, from 1952 until 1964, he was that newspaper’s basketball correspondent, this being another sport he had played when younger.

One of Gunar's chess reports, from the Adelaide Advertiser, 20 September 1951 —
his middle name was Eizens, related to Eugene in English

Source: The Advertiser, Adelaide

His story is starting to look very much like that of a previous entry, Jonas Strankauskas, from January 1950, when he participated in the founding of the Adelaide Latviešu Sport (yes, Adelaide Latvian Sport) club and became its secretary or manager for many years. I’m not aware of Strankauskas being a writer as well as a chess player and sports administrator, however.

In 1961, Gunars was elected as the head of the Latvian Sports Authority of Australia. For several years, he also worked on the boards of the Latvian Association in Australia and New Zealand and the Latvian Society of Australia. He was elected a life member of the Latvian Association and Daugava Vanagu, the international Latvian care organisation.

Gunars had his first article in English published in Australia as early as July 1949, but under a pseudonym, "Gordon Birch", which at least was in quotations marks to tell the readers it was not his real name. Whether the decision to use a pseudonym was Gunars or that of the editor of the Argus Weekend Magazine, I do not know, but suspect that the editor decided that Gunars Berzzarins would be too difficult for his (probably his) gentle readers.

The article explained to Australian readers why the displaced persons were coming to their country and dispelled some false ideas that had a risen already.

“Gordon Birch” wrote once more for English language readers, this time about sport, from one mention we have in the Lithuanian language press. Lithuanian Aldona Snarskytė was a rising table tennis star. The Sportas column of the Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) dated 30 August 1952 reports that “Gordon Birch” had a long article about her in a publication called Sports News, in which he described her life and sporting achievements.

The only article I can find to fit this description is in Australijos lietuvis itself, in its English section of 11 October 1952. A footer on the same page contains the phrase “Sports News” in Lithuanian. (At that time, the foreign language press was allowed to publish only if it included a section in the English language.)

Gunars, the travel, food and sports writer

Travelling became a hobby. He had visited all Australian states before, in 1961, he left for New Zealand. Then he travelled 34 times to all continents, usually combining the trip with a sporting event. After his return, he would write about the places visited during the trip, first in Austrālijas latvietis, later in the US newspaper, Laiks (Time). These articles were collected in two books, Svešās zemēs esot jauki (Foreign Lands are Enjoyable) published in Latvia in 2000, and Part II, published in Australia in 2007.

The cover of Gunars' first travel book

Source:  Collection of the author

He wrote and published Where to Dine in South Australia in 1976. This was his second book, the first being the story in Latvian of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Melburnā 1956: sespadsmitas Olimpiskas Speles. Just as writing about the Olympic Games surely requires some attendance at events, Where to Dine in South Australia must have required what scientists call “fieldwork”.

The next year saw a move to Melbourne, where he wrote regularly for the Age newspaper’s annual Good Food Guide. More fieldwork must have been required. He lived in Melbourne until retirement in 1987.  That was the year he co-authored The Age Cheap Eats as well.

He was asked to be the volunteer editor of the sports section in Austrālijas latvietis. He organised and led a group of Australian Latvian athletes to the first Latvian Global Championships in Garezer, Michigan, in 1985. The Pasaules Brīvo Latviešu Apvienība (World Association of Free Latvians) awarded him the Krišjānis Barons prize for special achievements in sports journalism in 1987.

He attended 7 Olympic Games, 7 world basketball championships, 5 European basketball championships, the Davis Cup in tennis, plus various athletics and cycling competitions. Some of his sports reporting was collected in a book called Draugos ar sportu piecos kontinentos (Friends with Sports on Five Continents) published in 2003.

Latvia proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union in May 1990 and regained its de facto independence in August 1991. From 1990, Gunars visited his homeland a number of times, writing up his observations in Austrālijas latvietis. They were collected into his sixth book (not counting the Age Good Food Guides or The Age Cheap Eats), Rīgas piezīmes 1990- 2003 (Riga Notes 1990-2003), published in 2004.

All this travel and sport attendance costs money, unlikely to have been covered by the sale of his books. Perhaps Gunars was able, as an accredited reporter, to attend sporting events for free or at a reduced rate, but he was not being paid for his journalism (except by the Melbourne Age). I would assume that Gunars was able to find work as an accountant, auditor or management consultant when not travelling but have not confirmed this.

Gunars Berzzarins in later life

Source:  TimeNote

Gunars is honoured

As far as I am aware, he is the only passenger from the first refugee voyage to Australia of the General Stuart Heintzelman to have received an honour from the Australia Government. On Australia Day 2012 he received a Medal of the Order of Australia for ‘service to the Latvian community, and to sport as an administrator and journalist’. This entitled him to the OAM postnominal.

Gunars’ death

Gunars died in Adelaide on 14 November 2015. He had reached the respectable age of 90. He had clearly found some things more interesting than economics to keep him engaged, active and contributing to the broader community in such a long life.

Sources

Advertiser (1950) ‘Berzarrins wins chess tourney’ Adelaide, 14 January, p 12 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50205342 accessed 2 January 2025.

Berzzarins, Gunars (2004) Personal communication, Adelaide, 6 January.

Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Leneva in Close Match’ Albury, 6 May, p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263461640 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Wodonga Table Tennis', Albury, 20 May, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263463451 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Table Tennis', Albury, 3 June, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263465225 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Table Tennis', Albury, 17 June, p 11 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263467117 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Table Tennis', Albury, 22 June, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263467589 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) ‘Revised Draw’, Albury, 1 July, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263775553 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) 'Table Tennis', Albury, 3 July, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263775858 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) ‘Colts’ Second Win’, Albury, 8 July, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263776405 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) ‘Colts’ Down Wodonga’, Albury, 15 July, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263776405 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) ‘Wodonga Table Tennis’, Albury, 29 July, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263779206 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) ‘Table Tennis’, Albury, 19 August, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263781859 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1948) ‘Table Tennis’, Albury, 2 September, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263783514 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1949) ‘Played Balts Table Tennis’, Albury, 27 June, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264034366 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1949) ‘Table Tennis’, Albury, 1 July, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264010971 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1949) ‘Table Tennis’, Albury, 25 July, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264017837 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1949) ‘Table Tennis’, Albury, 18 August, p 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264024590 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1949) ‘Table Tennis’, Albury, 29 August, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264027862 accessed 2 January 2025.

Border Morning Mail (1949) ‘Wodonga Win Narrowly over “Bulldogs”’, Albury, 25 September, p 26, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136315066 accessed 2 January 2025.

Britannica (2024) ‘Göttingen, Germany’ https://www.britannica.com/place/Gottingen accessed 1 January 2025.

Čepliauskas, V (1952) ‘Sportas’, Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian, in Lithuanian), 30 August, p5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280312004 accessed 11 July 2025.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1957) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 3 October, p 2988 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232986655 accessed 1 January 2025.

Daily Telegraph (1947) 'New Migrants from Baltic', Sydney, 8 December, p 9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248104979 accessed 2 January 2025.

GEB (1951) 'Chess Prizes Presented' Adelaide, 20 September, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/45784498 accessed 21 July 2025.

Hammerton, Marianne (1986) 'Water South Australia' Netley, Wakefield Press pp 232-5.

Latvietis (2015) ‘Gunars Bērzzariņš, 1.09.1925-14.11.2015’, Victoria, Australia, 27 November, https://www-laikraksts-com.translate.goog/raksti/raksts.php?KursRaksts=5851&_x_tr_sl=lv&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc accessed 1 January 2025.

Nagy, Boti (2016) ‘Goodbye and God bless three of our finest’ 16 January, http://www.botinagy.com/blog/goodbye-and-god-bless-three-of-our-finest/ accessed 1 January 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947; 35, BERZZARINS Gunars born 1 September 1925 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5169917 accessed 20 July 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series; BERZZARINS G, BERZZARINS Gunars - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4072326 accessed 20 July 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series; BERZZARINS GUNARS, BERZZARINS Gunars - Nationality: Latvian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7215890 accessed 20 July 2025.

National Archives of Australia, Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla]; BERZZARINS GUNARS, BERZZARINS, Gunars : Year of Birth - 1925 : Nationality - LATVIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 435 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203663902 accessed 20 July 2025.

News (1950 )'N.S.W. Chess Champion Coming Here', Adelaide, 6 January, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130800048 accessed 2 January 2025.

News (1950) 'Migrants keen on "night life"', Adelaide, 25 January, p 16 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130793823 accessed 2 January 2025.

Ryerson Index, https://ryersonindex.org/search.php accessed 19 July 2025.

Sydney Morning Herald (1947) 'Yacht Race Entrant — Migrants', Sydney, 18 December, p 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27893069 accessed 2 January 2025.

TimeNote ‘Gunars Berzzariņš (in Latvian)’ https://timenote.info/lv/Gunars-Berzzarins accessed 15 July 2025.

Wikipedia ‘Battle of Stalingrad’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad accessed 17 July 2025.

Wikipedia ‘Kruschev thaw’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khrushchev_thaw accessed 17 July 2025.

Wikipedia ‘Reich Labour Service’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Labour_Service accessed 17 July 2025.

World's News (1948) ‘The Chess Corner', Sydney, 25 September, p 26, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136315066 accessed 2 January 2025.

Borisas Dainutis (1918-1960): Always prepared, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 15 August 2025.

This is the story of the founder of Lithuanian scouting in Australia. It is a story of commitment and persistence.

Borisas in Lithuania

Borisas Dainutis was born on 11 August 1918 in Vilnius, still the capital of Lithuania until 1920 after Poland seized it. Given the continued fighting from 1918, it was no surprise that the family moved to Panevėžys, in the cenre of Lithuania. Borisas grew up and finished high school there.

In 1939, he completed military training. In 1940, he commenced construction studies at the Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas, in the Technical Studies faculty. The German occupation closed the University in 1943 when Lithuanians refused to raise an SS battalion, so Borisas did not complete his studies there. He resumed them in Germany in 1946 but, again, they were interrupted by his departure for Australia.

Germany, Australia and Scouting

His Personal Statement and Declaration completed in Perth the day after his arrival on 28 November 1947 describes his occupation as “building engineer". For the Melbourne Age newspaper, which published a report on his scouting activities on 27 December 1949, he was a civil engineer.

Apparently, he left behind in Germany no documents that the Arolsen Archives could digitise, so we don’t know how he initially was describing his departure from Lithuania. The selection interview report for migration to Australia says simply that he “fled from Russian regime” and reached asylum in September 1944.

He had been a scout from school days and continued while in a displaced persons camps in Hanover, Germany. He was invited to be the head of the scouts in his camp.

Borisas Dainutis in scout uniform

Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

He worked in that position for half a year and devoted a lot of time and energy in this role. In 1948, he was awarded a scout medal, the Lelijos Ordinas (Order of the Lily). It is awarded to a scout leader who has shown great merit for at least three years and for being active for at least ten years at any scout level.

Borisas organises Scouts

The Lithuanian Scout Society appointed him as its representative in Australia. While on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman coming to Australia, he organised the scouts on board. Given that there were 45 in addition to him, this would have kept him busy.

And while the Heintzelman was coming to Australia, on 7 November the Minister for Immigration honoured Borisas with a special mention in the press release in which he told Australians about the impending arrivals.

In Australia, Borisas had the difficult task of registering scouts scattered all over Australia and organising them into units. From the Bonegilla migrant camp, he was writing to Australian scout officials to establish how the Lithuanian scouts could operate in Australia as a distinct group.

First two jobs in Australia

Borisas was one of 187 men sent from Bonegilla to pick fruit in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. He left the Bonegilla camp on 29 January. We’ve noted in another blog entry that he did not return to the Bonegilla camp until 5 May, nearly 4 weeks after the last of the other 186. His employer was Messrs Turnbull Brothers of Ardmona.

He had another 5 weeks in the Bonegilla camp in which to continue his scouting organisation until being sent to his next employer. On 16 July he set off on his own to the Dookie Agricultural College in Victoria. It is less than 50 kilometres east of Ardmona, where he had spent 3 months already.

He wasn’t going to be there on his own. Two Lithuanians, Jonas Kildisas and Mecislovas Tutlys had left Bonegilla for Dookie three weeks earlier. The three were to be joined by Vytautas Sakalauskas in early September and Jonas Asmonas three weeks later.

Borisas continued his scouting campaign from Dookie. He would write drafts of his scouting correspondence on Dookie College letterhead and then get someone to correct his English.

Borisas' use of Dookie College letterhead

                Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

He would apologise for his errors and not understanding the culture as well as he would have liked. He persevered, writing to Australian scouting officials and even the Chief Scout in Britain to get a Lithuanian branch of scouting in Australia.

First Pan-Pacific Scout Camp, Yarra Brae, Victoria

Algirdas or Algis Liubinskas, left, and Borisas or Boris Dainutis, right,
at the First Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree, Yarra Brae, Victoria, 1948-49

Source:  Weekly Times, Melbourne, 5 January 1949

After just over a year in Australia, Borisas organised a Lithuanian scout troop to attend the first Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree on the Yarra Brae property in Wonga Park, Victoria. It commenced on 29 December 1948 and continued for 12 days. The Melbourne Age of 27 December reported that Borisas with 29 other scouts had moved in already on Christmas Day. He would have had his 45 fellow scouts on the Heintzelman as a starting point for this, but all would have had to seek successfully some leave from their employers.

A souvenir of the Yarra Brae camp

                                    Source:  Australian Lithuanian Archive

After the Government contract

After completing his work contract as a medical orderly at the Dookie Agricultural College at the end of September 1949, Borisas settled in Melbourne.

He actually was selected in Germany for employment as an urgently needed builder’s labourer. It’s not clear, therefore, why he finished up working as a medical orderly instead, except that he probably had first aid training from his scouting activities. Also, the Bonegilla cards are notable in not showing any of the selected builder’s labourers actually been sent to work with builders.

He was interviewed by the Good Neighbour magazine in 1950. The magazine reported that “After two years in Australia, 31-year-old Boris Dainutis has seen more of the country than many Australians. In his native Lithuania before the war Boris did his travelling by cycle. He finds Australia much too big for that and has bought a motorcycle. On it he tours Victoria at weekends; he visited Sydney from Melbourne on his holidays and next Christmas hopes to tour Tasmania … Boris worked as a fruit picker and medical orderly under contract. Now he has chosen a job with a dry-cleaning company …”

Lithuanian Scouts in Australia

From 1949 to 1953 he was head of Lithuanian scouts in Australia and, later the head of its press department. He led another Lithuanian troop to the 1955-56 Pan-Pacific Jamboree at Clifford Park in Victoria, and also to the 1958-59 National Camp at Mornington, Victoria.

He attended many other scout camps, assisting at them as an instructor or official. One of these activities made it into the press in March 1949, when the Kyabram Free Press reported that Borisas had been the special guest at a cub camp at the Kyabram Scout Hall. He had led the cubs in a number of games and in play-acting.

Borisas becomes an official Australian

Borisas was one of those keen to become an Australian citizen. The two required advertisements appeared in newspapers in November 19, less than five years after his arrival. He had to wait another 6 months though before he took his oath of allegiance before a magistrate, on 12 May 1953.

Work, Study, Marriage

At the time of his application for naturalization, Borisas was working as an assistant to a surveyor. Both were employed by the Victorian Lands Department.

Given his tertiary education in Lithuania and Germany, it was not surprising that he thought to at least work as a draftsman in Australia. To prepare, he studied surveying and drawing at the Royal Melbourne Technical College (now the RMIT University). He then found work as a draftsman with Victoria’s State Electricity Commission.

In 1952 married Elena Šteinartaitė and purchased a house in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg. A daughter and son were born to the couple.

Illness and Death

As his first decade in Australia ended, Borisas was feeling more and more ill. In hospital it was found that his kidneys were damaged and inoperable. This was in the days before kidney transplantation was available in Australia and when dialysis was still in its infancy.

He was only 41 years old when he died on 29 March 1960 at the Prince Henry Hospital. As his daughter had been born in December 1958 and his son in December 1959, they both were babies still at the time of his death.

He was interred in the Fawkner cemetery, Melbourne. His funeral was attended by Lithuanian scouts, who formed a circle about the grave to sing the traditional evening song, Ateina Naktis.

It is sung at the end of every day at scout camp as a prayer. The words mean, “The night has come, the sun has set from the hills and forests, from all the land. Sweet dreams, go to sleep, God is here”.

Russian, Ukrainian and Estonian scouts attended too, no doubt grateful for the precedent in ethnic community scouting set by Borisas for Lithuanians. His grave was decorated with many wreaths and several farewell speeches were given by community members and family.

Elena was buried with him 58 years later. Their grave is marked by the Australian version of their names, Boris and Helen.

Australia has gained through the training and discipline still acquired by those involved in the Lithuanian branch of scouting here.

Sources

Age (1948) ‘Canvas Tent City Rises at Wonga Park’ Melbourne, 27 December, p 4 https://www.newspapers.com/image/124518561/ accessed 15 June 2025.

Age (1952) ‘Advertising, Public Notices’ Melbourne, 13 November, p11 https://www.newspapers.com/image/123319339/ accessed 15 June 2025.

Ancestry.com ‘Boris Dainutis in the Victoria, Australia, Marriage Index, 1837-1962’ https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/61649/records/2214455?tid=&pid=&queryId=8c597349-35d6-48c7-8922-61ee55dda6e4&_phsrc=lkA14&_phstart=successSource accessed 15 June 2025.

Baltutis, V, Poželaitė-Davis, II, Jonavičius J, Mockūnienė B & Pusdešris, P (1983) 'Australijos Lietuvių Metraštis II [Australian Lithuanian Yearbook II (in Lithuanian)]' Adelaide, Australijos Lietuvių Bendruomenė ir Australijos Lietuvių Fondas, pp 325 – 328.

Context Pty Ltd (2005?) ’Yarra Brae, Place No 262’ in Manningham Heritage Study pp 687-9, http://images.heritage.vic.gov.au accessed 14 June 2025.

Good Neighbour (1950) ‘Meet a New Australian’, Canberra, 1 October, p 3 https://www.newspapers.com/image/901721676/ accessed 15 June 2025.

Krausas, A (1960) ‘Vyr. Skaut. Borisas Dainutis’ (‘Chief Scout Borisas Dainutis’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 29 April, p 2 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1960/1960-04-29-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 15 June 2025.

Kyabram Free Press and Rodney and Deakin Shire Advocate (1949) ‘Scouts and Cubs' Kyambram,10 March, p 15 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article270432677 accessed 15 Jun 2025.

Popenhagen, Luda (2012) 'Scouting' in 'Australian Lithuanians' Sydney, New South Publishing, pp 251-53

Queensland Times (1948) 'Pan-Pacific Jamboree Great Gathering of Boy Scouts in Victoria', Ipswich, 20 December, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article117112254 accessed 15 June 2025.

Sun News-Pictorial (1952) ‘Advertising, Public Notices’ Melbourne, 13 November, p 22 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/279921260 accessed 15 June 2025.

Weekly Times (1949) 'Scouts at Jamboree', Melbourne, 5 January, p30 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224886070 accessed 9 July 2025.

Zalys, B. (1996) ‘Pėdsekys, LSS Australijos rajono 50-meciui artejant’ [‘Footprints, As the LSS Australian District approaches its 50th anniversary’, in Lithuanian] Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 18 November, p 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge /archive/1996/1996-11-18-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf accessed 19 Jun 2025.