15 January 2026

Česlovas Sviderskas (1920-1997), Who Stayed in Sydney, by Rasa Ščevinksienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Like our previous entrant, Vladas Navickas, Česlovas Sviderskas was one of the first group of 6 Lithuanians and Latvians sent to work at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, New South Wales, in April 1948. Unlike Vladas, Česlovas stayed, started a family and became part of Sydney’s Lithuanian community.

Česlovas was another of the 187, at least, First Transport men sent to pick fruit in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley from late January 1948. His employers were Messrs Dundas Simson of Ardmona. He had worked for them until returning to the Bonegilla camp on 1 April, so for a solid 2 months.

Česlovas Sviderskas in 1947

Česlovas (or Charles) in Sydney

An obituary by Anskis Reisgys, published in the Mūsų Pastogė newspaper in November 1997, summarises his life in Australia. He stayed at the Concord Repatriation Hospital for the contract period required by the Australian Government, so probably until 30 September 1949. 

While there, he met a later arrival, Janina Jablonskytė, who became his wife on 26 November 1949.  The bride's marriage required the prior consent of the Minister for Immigration, as a birthdate of 12 March 1929 meant that she was still under the then age of majority, 21.  They had 2 sons, Robert and Raimondas.

Anskis wrote (in Lithuanian, translated by Rasa) that “Česlovas took great care of the well-being of his young family. He acquired a house for them in the Sydney suburb of Wentworthville early. He constantly improved the well-being of his family by acquiring better and better housing”.

Wentworthville was further away from Sydney’s centre than Parramatta. By the time Česlovas (than known as Charles Stevens) and Janina were granted Australian citizenship on 6 October 1961, the family had moved to Sydney’s south, to Revesby. This suburb was close to the Sydney’s Lithuanian Club in Bankstown, a suburb known by some as “Balt Town”.

Česlovas at Work and Play

Anskis added that Česlovas had “successfully immersed himself in the new air-conditioning industry, which was then expanding rapidly.”

“Česius had a soft heart for those who got into trouble”, Anskis wrote. “He supported not only his relatives, but also everyone who needed help. However, perhaps he devoted most of his heart to Lithuanian song. At gatherings he quickly became the centre of attention with his songs. Perhaps while singing, he poured out his heartache and gathered so much new strength that there was no room for complaints.

Česlovas' Retirement and Death

“Retirement was not a good time for Česlovas: his health deteriorated, he underwent a serious operation, after which he never recovered his health. He rejoiced in his grandchildren and the achievements of his sons. At the beginning of (1997), he suffered a major haemorrhage in the brain. Without regaining consciousness, he died on 6 November”, Anskis reported.

Česlovas or Charles in later life
Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

A large gathering of the Sviderskas and Jablonskis families farewelled Česlovas 4 days later at Sydney’s Rookwood Crematorium. Undoubtedly, many friends attended also, since there are 4 condolence advertisements immediately under the Mūsų Pastogė obituary.

One of those advertisements was from Sophia and Carmen Saparas, the widow and daughter of another First Transport arrival in Australia, Bronius Šaparas, who had been a pioneer aviator in Lithuania.

The resting place of Charles (Česlovas) Stevens (Sviderskas) 
in the Rookwood Cemetery

Janina dies

Česlovas’ widow, Janina, by then also known as Jenny, lived on for another 17 years after her husband died. She was farewelled by 4 grandchildren in addition to the 2 sons in December 2014.

Česlovas' Youth

Česlovas had been born in the town of Simnas, in Lithuania’s south, as the youngest of 11 children. He spent a happy childhood on his parents' large farm while attending the local primary school, then studied at Marijampolė secondary school. He also studied at the Kaunas Theological Seminary, and later attended lectures at the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University.

The report of the interview he attended with the selection team for migration from Germany to Australia summarises this as 3 years of primary school and 8 years of secondary.

Česlovas in Germany

At the time his presence in Germany as a refugee was recorded on an American form in August 1945, he had reached the city of Paderborn towards the north of the country. The Americans recorded him as a medical student, something that Australian records ignored but, possibly, this was taken into account in sending him to the Concord Hospital.

The only language in which he was fluent recorded by the Australians was Lithuanian, but the Americans noted that he spoke German, Polish and Russian without mentioning the Lithuanian.

He is likely to have known English too by October 1947, when applying for Australia, since his address then is given as 8184 Lab Serv Co, probably working for the Americans but the place was not listed. His occupation by then had become “automechanic”.

Versatility

Growing up on a farm seems to have taught Česlovas, the former medical student, to be versatile.

CITE THIS AS:  Ščevinksienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Česlovas Sviderskas  (1920-1997), Who Stayed in Sydney' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/01/ceslovas-sviderskas-1920-1997-who-stayed-in-Sydney.html

SOURCES

Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Ceslovas Sviderskas’ Bonegilla Migrant Experience https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203693538, accessed 15 January 2026.

Find a Grave ‘Charles Stevens’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150632914/charles-stevens, accessed 15 January 2026.

‘Folder DP4123, names from SWIATLA, Albina to SWIDERSKA, Bronislawa (2)’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/69405226, accessed 15 January 2026.

Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 677, SVIDERSKAS Ceslowas DOB 12 February 1920 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5118097, accessed 15 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; SVIDERSKAS CESLOVAS, SVIDERSKAS, Ceslovas : Year of Birth - 1920 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1051, 1947-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693538, accessed 15 January 2026.

New South Wales, Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995, Marriage Certificate, Registration Number 25160/1949, Sviderskas, Ceslovas and Jablonskis, Janina.

Reisgys, Anskis (1997) ‘A † A Česlovas Sviderskas — Charles Stevens’ (‘In Memoriam, Česlovas Sviderskas — Charles Stevens’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 1 December, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-11-24-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 15 January 2026.

Sydney Morning Herald (2014) ‘Janina Stevens Obituary’ https://tributes.smh.com.au/au/obituaries/smh-au/name/janina-stevens-obituary?id=44207354, accessed 15 January 2026.

14 January 2026

Concord Repatriation Hospital, Sydney, for Lithuanian Refugees, by Jonas Antanas Skirka, translated by Rasa Ščevinksienė

The Australian Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė, published an article in December 1954 considering the role of Sydney's Concord Repatriation Hospital in the settlement of Lithuanian refugees (then called Displaced Persons) in Australia after World War II. Its author identified himself as JA Skirka. A quick search of the National Archives of Australian files which have been indexed on RecordSearch shows him to have been Jonas Antanas Skirka. Here is Rasa's translation.

"One of the larger workplaces in Sydney, where most of our compatriots found work and shelter even with their families upon arrival, is the Concord Military Hospital, probably the largest in Sydney.

Concord Hospital at the end of 1949

"Already at the end of 1949, over 60 Lithuanian men and women worked there under contract. All of them, both men and women, worked and still work, regardless of their profession, training, and education, only as ordinary workers. The men were mostly cleaners or orderlies, the women were nursing assistants.

"The worst times were those when, as soon as they arrived, and having nowhere to stay with their families, they were accommodated in the workers' camps located here, separately for women and men. Meetings with families were possible only during their free time — on the street.

A 2011 photo of Concord Hospital shows the 1990 extension
in front of the original multistorey building

Lithuanian Doctors

"A little bit of statistical information: of the medical doctors who practiced in Lithuania, the following worked here: Drs Petrauskas, Ivinskis, Kišonas, Šalkauskienė, and Mikas Bobinskas. The first two of them are currently working as doctors in New Guinea, the third is a doctor in the Scheyville immigration camp, and Bobinskas is finishing his medical studies at the University of Sydney.

Lithuanian families

While working there, some met and created Lithuanian families: Česlovas Sviderskis with "Janina Jablonskytė and Stasys Paulauskas with Magdalena Jablonskytė. Kazys Jablonskis died.

"There was a time when entire families worked here: five Karpavičiai, four Miniotai, three Ankudavičiai. Jaunutis Jurskis, the famous chess player Vytautas Patašius and K. Ankudavičius worked and studied together.

Still working at Concord, late 1954

"Currently, 15 Lithuanian men and 10 women are still working permanently. Among them are: the compassionate Sister E. Šavronas, who graduated from an Australian nursing school; Vladas Miniota, a well-known public figure to the Lithuanians of Sydney; A. Gilandis, a student of the Kaunas Conservatory, who has played at various Lithuanian commemorations and parties, and who has promised to open a private music school from the beginning of next year.

Publishers of Mūsų Pastogė

"Finally, three publishers of this issue of Mūsų Pastogė work here: Juozas Kapočius, a public figure, one of the founders of the Lithuanian community in Australia, a former book publisher in Germany, who always, everywhere and helped everyone wherever they were asked; Pranas Antanaitis, quiet and modest, who always contributes with work and donations wherever needed; and Kazys Čiuras, who has been working here for the longest time as a specialist for steam boilers, specially invited from Melbourne."

CITE THIS AS:  Skirka, Jonas Antanas (1954) 'Concord Repatriation Hospital, Sydney, for Lithuanian Refugees' translated from Lithuanian by Rasa Ščevinksienė, https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/01/%20%20%20concord-repatriation-hospital-sydney-for-lithuanian-refugees.html.

SOURCE

Skirka, Jonas Antanas (1954) 'Concordo Lietuviai' ('Lithuanians of Concord' in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 1 December p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259362687, accessed 14 January 2026.

Vladas Navickas (1924-2012): Chartered Accountant in North America, by Rasa Ščevinksienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 17 January 2026.

Vladas Navickas liked the Bonegilla camp even less than Endrius Jankus. In a 2007 issue of Mūsų Pastogė, so nearly 60 years later, he summarised his experience of Australia – and admitted his regret in leaving. Rasa’s translation from the original Lithuanian reads like this.

“I don't remember if I wrote to you that I was once an Australian. I had come on the very first transport from Germany, with General Heintzelman. I remember that we were placed in the Bonegilla camp like exhibits in a zoo, which people from all over Australia would come to see.

“Even the Immigration Minister Calwell himself met us on the ship and came to the camp to congratulate us on coming to Australia to help develop it and protect it from the ‘yellow peril’ from the north. We were his first ‘children’ of his ‘White Australia’ policy.

“How times have changed since then ... Despite the fact that I left it in 1959, one might say out of boredom, I have so many connections with it. I spent the best years of my youth there (about 15), graduated from university in Hobart, acquired the Chartered Accountant profession, which was useful to me until the end of my working career in this country.

“Today, looking at our current political and economic situation, I regret leaving Australia. Of course, 50 years ago I did not think so. For some time after my arrival, we had a rather pleasant and free life, until about 1980-1985.

“After that, our not too smart, but extremely greedy (of wealth and honour) presidents gradually took too much rights and power into their own hands and began to implement their personal long-cherished programs, despite the fact that for the remaining 300 million inhabitants, most of them were even very disastrous, leading many of them even to their graves.

“Although your leader is quite aggressive, he seems to have more sense than our quixotic leaders. It would be interesting to hear what you think about all this (Australia and this country), if you would like to share your views with me.

"Best wishes, Vladas Navickas, USA”

Where in the USA was Vladas?

We do not know from where in the United States Vladas wrote this letter, but know that his ashes were placed behind a plaque in Las Vegas, Nevada, after his 2012 death at the grand age of 88. Earlier, he worked as a chartered accountant in San Francisco, California, and first reached North America through Vancouver, Canada.

Vladas Navickas in 1947, from his Bonegilla card

Concord Repatriation Hospital

He was one of the first group of 6 Lithuanians and Latvians sent to work at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, New South Wales, in April 1948. Before that, he had spent more than two months picking fruit in Victoria, for VR McNab of Ardmona. At some time in 1948, according to Ramunas Tarvydas, he moved to Tasmania. By March 1954, he was back in Victoria, receiving his Australian citizenship.

Vladas' family

He was born in Žagarė, a city in northern Lithuania, close to the border with Latvia, on 18 January 1924. His father was also Vladas, while his mother is named on a document recorded in Germany as “Anna”. This means that it is likely that her name actually was Ona.

They had another son, Vytautas, some 3 years later. He arrived in Australia 5 months after his brother, on the Third Transport, the USAT General WM Black, on 27 April 1948. He also stayed in the Bonegilla camp, working as a camp policeman, according to one of his papers held by the National Archives of Australia.

The parents were in Bavaria after the War, looking for both their sons in October 1945. The younger Vytautas had fled Lithuania with his parents but had become separated from them during an air raid in Memel, then in East Prussia, Germany, but now back in Lithuania and known as Klaipėda. They told an UNRRA team that they understood that Vladas had headed out of Skuodas, another northern Lithuanian city, with the intention of reaching Germany.

Vladas in Germany

The only other information we have about Vladas’ flight to Germany comes for his interview for possible selection to move to Australia on the First Transport. There, the flight is summarised, as it was for so many other interviewees, as “Forcibly evacuated by the Germans”.

At the time he applied for Australia, he was in a Displaced Persons Camp in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in the centre of western Germany.  He is recorded as completing the 4 years of primary school which all young Lithuanians attended, plus 7 years of secondary education. The languages he spoke were the obvious ones: Lithuanian, German, English.

Father Continues to Search for Sons

In 1952, their father was in America but still looking for his sons, according to the advertisement below in Australijos lietuvis (The Australian Lithuanian).

Source:  Australijos lietuvis (The Australian Lithuanian) 11 February 1952

We no nothing about further contact between members of this family. We do know from Vladas’ Aliens Registration Certificate that he had 3 addresses in Hobart before he moved to Melbourne in early 1954, and that his occupation changed from labourer to clerk.

Vladas in Tasmania Applies for Citizenship

In 1953, when Vladas was still in Tasmania, he was studying bookkeeping and auditing, as his passes were published in both the Burnie Advocate and the Launceston Examiner.

He started applying for Australian citizenship in Hobart in 1952, with advertisements in the two main Tasmanian newspapers, the Hobart Mercury and the Launceston Examiner, from 16 October, attached to his application. The application ran into trouble when, at a 9 December 1952 interview, having been told that there were penalties under the Citizenship Act for false information, he admitted that he planned to move to Canada indefinitely.

In a letter dated 20 January 1953, Vladas stated that he would not go to Canada if not granted Australian citizenship. This would not have helped his case, since the double negative also can be read as an intention to depart if he did receive the grant.

On 14 April, Vladas replied to a Departmental letter, missing from the file, to state that he had abandoned his plans to go to Canada. Two letters then were sent to the High Commission but, after no reply in six months, someone telephoned instead.

That produced the Canadian reply that Vladas indeed had sought a visa, after a “close relative” had encouraged him. The fact that he would not get Australian citizenship if he really intended to depart indefinitely for Canada, leaving no ties behind in Australia, had led to the withdrawal of his application.

We have to wonder which relative could be closer than the brother also living near Hobart in Tasmania. Possibly the wife and child who he admitted later to having had in Hobart, and more about them soon.

Vladas leaves Tasmania

Vladas was resident in Yarraville, Melbourne, by March 1954, when he was a recipient of Australian citizenship at the first ceremony to be held by the Mayor of Williamstown, an inner western suburb.

In August 1956, an American Lithuanian newspaper, Naujienos (News), reported that Vladas had settled in Vancouver, Canada. The translation continues, “He is an experienced accountant and hopes to find work in his specialty.” This despite the commitment not to leave, in order to receive Australian citizenship.

As it happens, he did not qualify fully for an accountancy career until 1959, when he received a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) degree from the University of Tasmania. We know this from a list of Graduates of that University with Lithuanian Names, which appeared in the 1997 issue of Lithuanian Papers. This was an annual journal published by people associated with the University of Tasmania.

Also, he wrote in 2007 above that he did not leave Australia until 1959. Perhaps the Naujienos reporter thought that he was settling down immediately instead of checking out North America. Perhaps that is what he told the reporter.

At the same time, Vladas contradicted himself by writing that he stayed in Australia “about 15” years, since his February 1959 arrival in the United States, as stated on his petition for US citizenship, means a little over 11 years of residence here.

Vladas Settles in San Francisco

In fact, he left Australia again, early in 1959, from Sydney on the Oronsay, arriving in San Francisco on 7 February 1959. This information comes from his petition for US naturalisation. In the 1964 petition, he was claiming that he had not left the US since arrival. He must have graduated in absentia from his Tasmanian BComm course.

No, he did not leave Australia for Canada but, yes, he did leave Australia permanently as an Australian citizen with no intention of returning.

When he received his US citizenship on 30 March 1964, he had been an Australian citizen for only 10 years.  At least Australian citizenship helped him move on from Australia freely, or so he must have thought.

From advertisements published in the Lietuviai Amerikos vakaruose (Lithuanians in Western America) newspaper between 1966 and 1977, we can see that he continued to offer his services as a chartered accountant from 2838 Clement Street, San Francisco. This was in a mostly residential neighbour with a scattering of businesses, to judge from the modern Google Street View images.

One of Vladas' advertisements, offering professional advice on income tax

Vladas' marriages

During this time, on 20 October 1975, Vladas married Setsuko Kato in Monterey, a city south of San Francisco. He was 51 years old, while she was 27.

This marriage lasted until Vladas‘ death and Setsuko is buried with him. Ancestry records suggested the possibility of an earlier marriage, since they note a divorce beween a Vladas Navickas, born in 1924, and Dietlind I Klopschinsk in San Francisco in 1973. However, various records on the Web indicate that Vladas Navickas had a lot of namefellows, not just his father, including another Vladas Navickas born later in 1924. Further, the only other record for Dietlind Klopschinsk (or perhaps, Klopschinski*) on the Web appears to be a later marriage, so it is not possible to check further the birthdate of her former husband.

And definitely there was an early marriage and divorce in Australia, declared on Vladas’ 1964 petition for naturalisation in San Francisco. He advised that he had married Ona Taparauskas in Hobart on 13 February 1950. They now were divorced and she had remained in Australia. His Australian citizenship application shows that the marriage had produced one child, who stayed with the mother.

Vladas and Setsuko Move Around

In retirement, Vladas, with Setsuko, appears to have returned to the peripatetic lifestyle of his early adulthood. The Tampa Bay Times in Florida records the sale of a home by Vladas and Setsuko in that area in December 1997. Between July 2008 and April 2012, they owned a property in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Amazon.com‘s transcription of the US Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volumes 1 and 2, also have Setsuko Navickas (far less likely to have namefellows than her husband) living in Grand Canyon, Arizona, St Petersburg, Florida (across Tampa Bay from the city of Tampa) and Gresham, Oregon (more than 4 hours’ drive away from the other Oregon address of Grants Pass).

They moved to Henderson, Nevada, a city adjacent to the southeast of Las Vegas. Vladas died there on 4 July 2012.

Ancestry’s transcription of the US Index to Public Records, 1994-2019, has Setsuko living at the Henderson address between 1998 and 2020. There were two more addresses in Las Vegas for 1997 and 1998, presumably until the couple found the home they wanted to buy in 1998.

The St Petersburg FL address was good for 1991-2004, according to the US Index to Public Records, 1994-2019. The 2004 end date does conflict with the 1997 sale and the dates given for Setsuko’s addresses in other records.

If they were living in Henderson NV between 1998 and 2012 (longer for Setsuko), then either the Grants Pass OR property owned at the same time was an investment property, or perhaps they commuted between the two (summer in Oregon, winter in the warmer Nevada sun).

Vladas' Death

Vladas died on an important date for Americans, 4 July, in 2012. We do not know Setsuko’s date of death because it is too recent for public records and because her birthdate only is visible in the photograph below of the plaque in Palm Memorial Park, Las Vegas, behind which their ashes presumably rest.

Plaque for Vladas and Setsuko, in Palm Memorial Park, Las Vegas
Source:  Find A Grave

Vladas' Brother, Vytautas

Even before his older brother became an Australian citizen – for 10 years only – Vytautas was advertising his intention to apply. First his advertisement appeared in the Hobart Mercury of 22 October 1952, a little too early as he admitted that he had been in Australia for only 4½ years. This was followed by the required second advertisement in the Launceston Examiner of 27 May 1954. He was living in Hobart area then too, at Myrtle Gully, Cascades.

Vytautas Navickas from an Alien Registration record

Unlike his brother, he stayed in Hobart, known as Jack, and died there on 20 February 2015. At this time, he had been married to Mary for 61 years, meaning that he must have married back in 1953-54, and had become the father of Heather, Wayne and Gary. They had given him 7 grandchildren.

Of the two brothers, it was the younger Vytautas who stayed to contribute to Australia.

FOOTNOTE

* In fact, Dietlinde Irmhild Klopschinski, born 1935, according to another Ancestry user, whom I thank for the detail.

SOURCES

Advocate (1953) ‘Accountancy Exams’ Burnie, Tas, 15 December, p 11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69502506, accessed 9 January 2026.

Ancestry ‘Setsuko Navickas, in the US Index to Public Records, 1994-2019https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/62209/records/50328171?tid=&pid=&queryId=5459a9cd-9db0-4c89-a2ac-45479e67ce04&_phsrc=lkA33&_phstart=successSource, accessed 10 January 2026.

Ancestry ‘Setsuko Navickas, in the US Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/1788/records/25509683, accessed 11 January 2026.

Ancestry ‘Setsuko Navickas, in the US Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/1788/records/261535324?tid=&pid=&queryId=8b5d70dc-70fc-4c4c-98b4-f8d50c11a699&_phsrc=lkA38&_phstart=successSource, accessed 11 January 2026.

Ancestry ‘Setsuko Navickas, in the US Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 2https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/1732/records/195998761?tid=&pid=&queryId=2d639107-a86f-43a7-bddb-955b8114de74&_phsrc=lkA37&_phstart=successSource, accessed 11 January 2026.

Ancestry, ‘Vladas Navickas, in the California, US, Divorce Index, 1966-1984https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1141/records/1416206?tid=&pid=&queryId=c590ef56-9fdf-4d59-9923-2eca35461d0f&_phsrc=caR185&_phstart=successSource, accessed 10 January 2026.

Ancestry ‘Vladas Navickas in the California, US, Federal Naturalization Records, 1888-1991https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3998/records/3528558?tid=&pid=&queryId=6c318e39-58ba-4c0f-a03b-39db4caa97cc&_phsrc=caR207&_phstart=successSource, accessed 11 January 2026.

Ancestry ‘Vladas Navickas, in the California, US, Marriage Index, 1960-1985https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1144/records/2906960?tid=&pid=&queryId=19292cee-d5b2-48f1-9bdd-72a42f80f999&_phsrc=caR183&_phstart=successSource, accessed 10 January 2026.

Ancestry, ‘Vladas Navickas, in the US Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1629/records/5720391?tid=&pid=&queryId=578ef7a1-a5d2-4aef-9750-d31b0fcc0765&_phsrc=bUj161&_phstart=successSource, accessed 10 January 2026.

Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Vladas Navickas’ Bonegilla Migrant Experience, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203732814, accessed 9 January 2026.

Clustrmaps.com ‘Setsuko Navickas’ https://clustrmaps.com/person/Navickas-fbnv3, accessed 10 January 2026.

Examiner (1953) ‘Accountancy passes’ Launceston, Tas, 17 June, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/225924268, accessed 10 January 2026.

Examiner (1954) 'Advertising', Launceston, Tas, 27 May, p 16 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96273167, accessed 10 January 2026.

Find a Grave, ‘Vladas Navickas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102456736/vladas-navickas, accessed 10 January 2026.

Homes.com, ‘1119 Catherine Way, Grants Pass, OR 97526’ https://www.homes.com/property/1119-catherine-way-grants-pass-or/gg8wy7121nlvk/, accessed 10 January 2026.

Kmitas, H (1952) ‘Navicka’ (‘Navickas’, in Lithuanian) Australijos lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 11 February, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280318103, accessed 9 January 2026.

Legacy ‘Vladas Navickas’ (original in the Hobart Mercury, 4 August 2012) https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/vladas-navickas-obituary?id=20784927, accessed 10 January 2026.

Lietuviai Amerikos vakaruose (Lithuanians in Western America) (1966) ‘Revizoriai, buhalteriai ir pajamų mokesčių patarėjai, Vladas Navickas‘ (‘Auditors, Accountants and Income Tax Advisors, Vladas Navickas‘, in Lithuanian) Los Angeles, CA, February-March, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/lietuviai_amerikos_vakaruose/archive/1967/1967-Nr.02-03-LIETUVIAI-AMERIKOS-VAKARUOSE.pdf, accessed 10 January 2026.

Lietuviai Amerikos vakaruose (Lithuanians in Western America) (1977) ‘Pajamų mokesčiai, Income Tax, Vladas Navickas ‘ (‘Income Taxes … Vladas Navickas‘, partly in Lithuanian) Los Angeles, CA, February-March, p 7 https://spauda2.org/lietuviai_amerikos_vakaruose/archive/1977/1977-Nr.03-04-LIETUVIAI-AMERIKOS-VAKARUOSE.pdf, accessed 10 January 2026.

Lithuanians Papers (1997) ‘Graduates of the University of Tasmania with Lithuanian Names’ p 66 https://lithuanianpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/lithuanian-papers-vol-11-1997.pdf, accessed 10 January 2026.

Mercury (1952) 'Advertising', Hobart, Tas, 22 October, p 15 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27116933, accessed 10 January 2026.

My Heritage ‘Vladas Navickas, In US Naturalization Records, Northern California ‚ https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10695-443744/vladas-navickas-in-us-naturalization-records-northern-california, accessed 10 January 2026.

My Heritage ‘Vladas Navickas & Setsuko Kato, In California, Marriages‘ https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10202-2555839/vladas-navickas-and-setsuko-kato-in-california-marriages, accessed 10 January 2026.

My Heritage ‘Vladas (Vic) Navickas (partly in Lithuanian)‘ https://www.myheritage.lt/research/collection-10738/australijos-prane%C5%A1imai-apie-mirt%C4%AF-1860%E2%80%932019?itemId=4613984&action=showRecord&tr_id=m_sag98f0d7b_f5u2f3qx8a, accessed 10 January 2026.

My Tributes ‘Death notice for Navickas, Vytautas (Jack)’ (originally published in the Hobart Mercury on 21 February 2015) https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/death-notices/navickas-vytautas-jack/4629613/, accessed 10 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A442, Correspondence files, multiple number series, Class 14 (Migrants L-N), 1951-1952; 1952/14/7693, Navickas, V, 1949-1954 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1918551, accessed 13 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 611, NAVICKAS Vladas DOB 18 January 1924, 1947-1947; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005842, accessed 13 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; NAVICKAS VYTAUTAS, NAVICKAS, Vytautas : Year of Birth - 1927 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. BLACK : Number - [UNKNOWN] 1948-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203732815, accessed 13 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1184, Registration papers for non-British migrants, lexicographical series, 1949-circa 1966; NAVICKAS V, NAVICKAS Vytautas [Lithuanian], 1948-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1777773, accessed 13 January 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents, 1948-1965; 1954/NAVICKAS V, NAVICKAS Vladas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per Generel (sic) Heintzelman 28 November 1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4155519, accessed 13 January 2026.

Naujienos (News) (1956) ‘Žinios iš Kanados’ (‘News from Canada’, in Lithuanian) Chicago, IL, 15 August, p 3 https://www.spauda.org/naujienos/archive/1956/1956-08-15-NAUJIENOS-i7-8.pdf, accessed 10 January 2026.

Navickas, Vladas (2007) ‘I regret leaving Australia’ Mūsų pastogė Sydney, 14 march, page 5 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2007/2007-03-14-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 9 January 2026.

‘Navickas, Vladas’, DocID: 86418248, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/86418247, accessed 9 January 2026.

‘Navickas, Vytautas, DocID: 86418252, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/86418252, accessed 9 January 2026.

Official USA ‘Vladas Navickas’ https://www.officialusa.com/names/Vladas-Navickas/, accessed 10 January 2026.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle : Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, Tasmania, p174.

Williamstown Advertiser (1954) ‘Five new citizens naturalized’ Williamstown, Vic, 26 March, p1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/270907581, accessed 10 January 2026.

18 November 2025

Three Jakstas refugees on the First Transport, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Having noted the names Žilinskas and Smilgevičius three times each on the First Transport passenger list, Daina also wanted to know if the 3 Jakštas men were related.

Aleksas Jakštas (1921-1977)

Aleksas Jakštas started his working life in Australia by picking fruit for W Young of the Kelvin Orchards, Ardmona. He stayed more than one month at this assignment before returning to the Bonegilla camp on 3 April. He would not have needed to unpack because, on 5 April, he was off to Tasmania.

Aleksas in Tasmania

His Bonegilla card provides no more details but Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, says that he was sent to Premaydena locality in rural southeast Tasmania. Ramunas confirms that Premaydena involved more fruit picking. Both Ramunas and Aleksas’ obituarist, Aleksas Kantvilas, write that his next destination was Ida Bay. If you look back at our entry on the Electrona Carbide Factory, you’ll find that Ida Bay was the source of the limestone needed for the Factory to manufacture its calcium carbide.  The Factory was located near Ida Bay in a place that became Electrona.

Aleksas Jakstas' identity photo on his Bonegilla card

Ramunas quotes from Adomas Stasytis, who he says arrived at Electrona in mid-1948 with his wife, Veronika, both Second Transport (General MB Stewart) refugees, to find that there were 3 Lithuanians there already. From Bonegilla cards, we know that they were Kazys Alseika, Anicetas Grigaliunas and Algirdas Jonas Smelstorius. Either Jakštas arrived later still, or he really was moving limestone at Ida Bay into its transport to Electrona than moving it into the factory.

Aleksas' Personal Life

In Tasmania, he met and married another refugee, Klavdia. His obituarist wrote, in Lithuanian, "They had a daughter but she died early".  From the family's grave (see photograph below), it looks more like Klavdia brought Nina into the marriage from a previous marriage -- perhaps to someone who did not migrate to Australia as there is no public record of him.*

The Klavdia spelling of Aleksas' wife's name and Cyrillic script plus an orthodox cross on the family's grave are among hints that she and Nina were refugees from Russia.  Also, Utkina on the grave is the feminine form of a Russian surname, Utkin, meaning Duck.

Aleksas originated from Kaišiadorys, a village near Kaunas on the road to Vilnius. He was born on 5 October 1921. He spent his childhood and started his education in Kaišiadorys. His AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP (Displaced Person) Registration form says that he was born in Trakai, a town 50 Km from Kaišiadorys and closer to Vilnius. The form says also that this was his last place of residence.

His parents were Jonas Jakštas and Marijona, maiden name Jurskaitė. His occupation was still student and he hoped to go to Canada. Australia must have come up first.

Aleksas' Education

From Trakai, he moved to Vilnius and studied architecture at the Vilnius Technical University. After the War, according to his obituarist, he continued his studies in Darmstadt, but it was not at the Technical University. That University’s Archives has written to us to say that he is not on its list of past students.

His education is downgraded in the papers which survive from the selection process for his migration to Australia. The tertiary education becomes instead “2 years building technical school” and “2 years secondary in Germany”. Given that Aleksas was already 24 at the start of the 1946 academic year, tertiary study is much more likely than attending a secondary school. Indeed, the selection papers later say that he did not work at all but was a full-time student, making secondary study all the more unlikely.

Aleksas in the Community

Aleksas was part of the Lithuanian community in southeast Tasmania from the start. In 1953, he was first elected to the committee of Hobart Lithuanian Community as its secretary, as reported in the Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) of 21 February that year. Soon he became its treasurer instead.

In 1956, Aleksas represented Tasmania at a Lithuanian sports festival in Sydney. Back home, his goal was to put together a team of Lithuanian basketballers for the 1957 festival in Geelong. The Hobart sports club he founded, Perkūnas (Thunder) was the result of that effort. He managed for it for a long time.

The Perkūnas Sports Club organises its 50th anniversary celebration

Like Juozas Zilinskas in Canberra, Aleksas and Klavdia were to be seen “everywhere and often” in Hobart community life. There were said to be no gatherings, commemorations or entertainment of the Lithuanian community without their participation.

On 30 January 1963, both Klavdia and Aleksas Jakstas of 623 Seventh Avenue in the Hobart suburb of West Moonah received their citizenship certificates.

Aleksas' Early Death

In 1970 Aleksas was diagnosed with a serious illness, threatening the rest of his life.

Aleksas was an amazingly caring and talented person, his obituarist wrote. What he did, he did well, so that it was beautiful, perfectly finished; he had "golden hands", people used to say. He was open and honest; he didn't have any anger or deceit.

A hundred of his friends, compatriots and acquaintances gathered for his last farewell on 2 April 1977. He had lived for only 55 years, destined never to see the forests and fields of his motherland again. Accompanied by song, he descended to the ground covered by the tricolour flag and a handful of sand from the Neris river in Lithuania, as a farewell trumpet sounded.

The deceased left behind his lovely wife, who was loved and respected by everyone. He also left behind his father in Vilnius and three sisters and their families in Lithuania. Klavdia passed away early also, less than 15 months after Aleksas.

They are interred with Nina in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart.

The grave of the Jakštas family in Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart:
the Cyrillic at the top translates as "Ninochka", clearly her mother's pet name for Nina and
it is likely that "Aliusik" was Klava/Klavda's pet name for her husband, Aleksas;
note also the Orthodox cross at the top of the grave, which is in the Cemetery's Methodist section

*  The Arolsen Archives has a file for Klavdia Utkina (b 21 May 1928) and her daughter, Antonina (b 5 March 1948) which reveals that Klavdia married Peter Ivanovich Utkin, a fellow teacher, in Harbin, China, in 1947.  As of 1 May 1957, they were separated and his whereabouts were unknown.  

Klavdia and Nina set out for Tasmania from Hong Kong on 30 December 1957 by ship, with Klavdia's aunt, Cleopatra Krasovskaya.  They would have been travelling under an immigration program which Australia ran for White Russians from China.  This program was started after lobbying co-ordinated by the Australian Council of Churches and was at its peak during 1957-59.  The Utkina/Krasnovskaya party was headed for Klavdia's friend who was living in the inner Hobart suburb of Glebe.  All of this is to say that Aleksas and Klavdia would not have met until 1958 at the earliest. 

Algirdis Jakštas (1926-1999)

Algirdas or, in a more familiar manner, Algis, Jakštas hit the page 1 headlines in various editions of Sydney’s Daily Mirror afternoon newspaper on 25 August 1949. They reported that he had been found that morning with a knife wound above the heart, in the East Hostel, Yallourn, Victoria.

In most of its editions, the newspaper added that Algis has sought treatment the previous day for mental illness from a Yallourn doctor. It added that he now was in a serious condition in the Yallourn Hospital.

He must have recovered both from the knife wound and the mental illness, as his life continued for nearly another 50 years. He was 73 years old when he died on 26 February 1999. He was buried in Melbourne’s Springvale Botanical Cemetery on 2 March 1999.

Indeed, he was the longest lived of the three Jakštas men from the First Transport.

Algis in Germany

Algis was born 16 January 1926. His Australian Selection Report says that he had “Fled from Russian regime with parents”. He had 6 years of secondary schooling in addition to 6 years of primary, so he was well educated.

Algirdas Jakštas from his October 1947 selection papers

The selection team thought that his General Appearance was “Good” and he could be suited to heavy labour. His previous work experience was on his father’s farm, for 2 months every year (doubtless during the summer).

He was quite a linguist, with a knowledge of Russian and Polish in addition to the expected Lithuanian and German. In addition, his knowledge of English was “fair”.

Someone has added in pencil to another form used in the selection process, “Parents lost in East Prussia”.

His identity photographs came from a photographer operating in the Baltic Camp Watenstedt, where he was living. Another First Transport Lithuanian living in the same camp with his parents and siblings was Vladas Akumbakas.

Algis' First Jobs in Australia

Accepted for migration to Australia, his work contract took him to the pine forests of Mt Gambier in South Australia where he worked for the State Forestry Department.

By August 1949, he had been transferred to Victoria’s State Electricity Commission, Yallourn, where he made page 1, at least of the Daily Mirror.

Algis Starts a Family

The RecordSearch index to its digitised documents maintained by the National Archives of Australia shows only one Algirdas Jakstas entering Australia. Therefore, it would be the same person who next appears in the Australian press prior to his marriage, on 10 February 1951, to “Heather Jean, second Daughter of Capt. and Mrs A. Moore, Kew Street, Indooroopilly.” This notice appeared in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper of 8 February 1951.

During the next year, Capt. and Mrs A. Moore announced in the Courier-Mail that Heather Jakstas had given birth to a son on 13 July.

Algis Goes Flensing

So it would be the same Algirdas Jakštas who had an article headed, Beprotnamis Ar Banginių Medžioklė (Madhouse or Whaling), published in the Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) newspaper of 10 January 1953. It describes the author and his wife travelling by motor boat to Moreton Island, where they met the director of a whaling company. This director had promised his wife a job as a cleaner previously.

Moreton Island is a large sand island sheltering Brisbane, in Moreton Bay, from the Coral Sea. The former whaling station at Tangalooma now is an education and conservation centre.

Algirdas was put to work on the flensing deck, presumably on one of the 3 Norwegian ships whose crews were teaching Australians how to process the whales they had caught. The Australians, so Algirdas wrote, then started to attack him verbally. 

Flensing deck at Tangalooma Whaling Station, 1960

Those Australians were replaced by others but “they” (the new employees? the company?) “began to use other methods (so runs the translation into English) such as not letting him sleep during the day to recover from his night shift, threatening to fence his accommodation off with barbed wire, and even to deport him”.

As a result of this, Algirdas wrote, he was admitted to a Brisbane hospital where he remained for 2 weeks. In view of his previous medical history, the reader does have to wonder if this was a mental hospital or ward.

In the same issue, Algirdas inserted an advertisement which advised that people wishing to write to Liutaveras Januškevičius should use the address, “Algirdas Jakštas, 21 Bromston Street, Gladstone, Queensland”. Gladstone is a coastal city still more than 500 road kilometres and 6 hours driving north of Brisbane. 

Algirdas must have thought that moving further north would help him escape tormenting Australians. Ann, who lived even further north in Queensland for 6 years more than 50 years ago, know that this was a mistake: the further north you go, the more isolated from the outside world and its events the other residents become …

Algis Writes Again

Three years later, Algirdas had another long article headed, “Įdomūs Kelionės Įspūdžiai ...” (Interesting Travel Impressions) published in Australijos Lietuvis. This piece was based on a story Algirdas found a magazine published by a Melbourne Lithuanian sports club, about a drive from Melbourne to Adelaide. A friend who was driving in his small car was so worried about making the trip that he made his will beforehand. 

The driver, his wife and passengers saw the car in front of them leave the road and land upside down in a field but no-one was injured. Adelaide was disappointing because the friend’s Melbourne sports club did not win and for other, apparently minor, reasons. Algirdas suggested that his friend’s next trip to Adelaide should be by train or even plane.

Algis Back in Victoria

On 3 December 1960, Algirdas was granted Australian citizenship. He had left Queensland for Victoria, wisely in Ann’s opinion, and was living at Clarke House, Elmshurst Road, Bayswater, then on Melbourne’s rural-urban fringe. As far as we can find, Clarke House was the residence of a Clarke family, identified as such for the Post Office and visitors before the new Elmshurst Road received street numbers from the local government.

And that’s all the public information we have about Algirdas, until the appearance of his 1999 burial on the Find A Grave Website.  The headstone shows that his marriage to Heather Jean did not last, as the person buried with him is called Wanda.

Algirdas and Wanda Jakstas' headstone at Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne

Fridrikas Jakštas

Fridrikas came from Žiogaičiai village in the county of Tauragė. The summary report on him by the Australian selection committee categorises him as someone “forcibly evacuated by the Germans” from Lithuania in 1944.

He had 5 years of primary education and 2 years of secondary. His employment experience consisted of 2 years of farming in Lithuanian plus one year as a lumber worker in Germany. He had no knowledge of English.

His Bonegilla card shows that his next of kin was an uncle living in the Rotenburg DP camp in Hannover, in the British Zone. As this was where Fridrikas had his medical examination for migration, he probably was living there too.

Fridrikas' identity photo on his Bonegilla card

Did Fridrikas' Uncle Stay in Germany?

The uncle did not come to Australia nor was he resettled in another third country according to the available evidence. Indeed, one of two Refugee/Displaced Person Statistical Cards describes him as ineligible for IRO assistance. He was a 56-year-old farmer. Maybe officialdom had decided that he would be better off returning to Lithuania or saw him as helped already by another program, perhaps run by the Germans. Maybe he became one of the older, sicker Lithuanians in Germany for whom those in Australia collected money frequently.

Fridrikas Goes to Bangham

Fridrikas was one of the 62 Balts who arrived in Wolseley, a small town halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne, on Wednesday night, 14 January 1948. They were sent there to work for the South Australian Railways. They were to widen the district’s railway gauge. From Wolseley, they were moved to a camp of their own at Bangham.

During their five-weeks' sojourn in Bonegilla migrant camp the new arrivals learned some basic English, but only three or four of the men could converse fluently. They adopted German as the common language of conversation. While the men hoped to improve their English, it would be extremely difficult while living together in such an isolated spot. The camp was situated about 14.5 kilometres from Custon, where the predominant features of the surrounding country were scrub and sand. The men were housed in tents.

The men had been promised by Australian immigration authorities in Germany that they would only be required to work one year. After having spent years in limbo in DP camps, they hoped to find permanent positions quickly so as to end camp life.

A representative of the Commonwealth Employment Service met the party at Wolseley. The twenty Lutheran members of the party were welcomed on Wednesday afternoon at the Bangham camp by Pastor K. Hartmann, of the Lutheran Church, Bordertown. Pastor Hartmann planned to conduct services at the camp. Fridrikas was of the Lutheran faith.

Fridrikas Goes to Adelaide

There is no notation on Fridrikas’ Aliens Registration record card, now in the Adelaide collection of the National Archives of Australia, to say that he was released from his contract to the Australian Government on 30 September 1949. There also is no known reason why he would not have been released on that date. Along with the others, he probably headed for the State capital, Adelaide, as quickly as could be arranged.

The Aliens Registration record card notes that his next employment was as a labourer with Chrysler Dodge and his residential address had become 16 North Parade, North Adelaide. This change is undated.

The next notation of the record card is employment as a labourer with Hansen & Yuncken of Torrensville, builders. Fridrikas’ new personal address was 10 Athol Street in Woodville North, as of 27 October 1949.

Fridrikas Goes to Sydney

The following notation records that the South Australian Department of Immigration file of papers about Fridrikas had been sent to the Department’s Sydney office on 6 January 1950. Fridrikas had spent less than 2 years in South Australia.

He had moved to St. Mary's, now a western suburb of Sydney, 45 Km for its Central Business District. Although closer to the Blue Mountains than to central Sydney, the area has seen European settlement, initially in the form of land grants, since 1807. Even the Anglican Church after which it was named was built more than 180 years ago, between 1837 and 1840.

In St Mary’s, Fridrikas built a house with his own hands.

Fridrikas is Married

Fridrikas Jakstas and Lidia Ruta Jakstas, both of 160 Bestic Street in Kyeemagh, a Sydney suburb where the Georges River meets Botany Bay, obtained Australian citizenship on 30 October 1960.

If we knew more about the life history of Lidia Ruta Jakstas, we might know why Fridrikas moved to Sydney rather than staying in South Australia. The vast majority of First Transport men sent to South Australia lived the rest of their lives there.

The person who wrote his obituary less than 18 months after the citizenship ceremony, for Mūsų Pastogė, someone who signed himself only as J, wrote that Fridrikas had moved to Rockdale “a few years ago”.  Rockdale is the larger, better known suburb to the west of Kyeemagh, so the reference is to his Kyeemagh move.

Fridrikas Goes into Business

The obituarist wrote that Fridrikas had bought a “colonial goods store”.  The 160 Bestic Street address is indeed part of a commercial street front with second floor residences. The Jakstas’ address now houses a personal fitness and weight-loss business, according to Google Street View.

The shops at 158-164 Bestic Street, Kyeemagh, as recorded by Google Street View in June 2022;
160 Bestic Street is second from the corner, now housing Advanced Personal Training

The building’s style is 1930s Art Deco, so it would have been about 20 years old when Fridrikas and Lidia owned or were buying part of it.

Fridrikas Dies Young

Fridrikas died in Rockdale Hospital on 31 March 1962 after being unwell for three days. This young man, just 34 years old, left behind a grieving wife and parents and brothers in Lithuania.

In death, Fridrikas returned to his previous Australian home. Fr. E. Lyenert and Fr. Kosticin officiated at the funeral rites in St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in St Mary’s and at the graveside. A representative of the Sydney Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Parish Council spoke beside Fridrikas’ grave, in St Mary’s Cemetery. More than 70 people accompanied him to his eternal resting place.

The anonymous obituarist saw Fridrikas as a sincere Lithuanian and a quiet, hardworking and dutiful family man.

From her gravestone next to that of her husband, it looks like Lidia lived another 44 years without remarrying. She was buried there on 9 August 2006.  

Frederick has been buried under the Australianised version of his forename.  Since we know so little about Lidia Ruta, we do not know if Lidia was an Australian version of the Lithuanian Lidija or a variant from another language, let alone if Lida on her headstone is her proper name, a misspelling or a pet name.  We can tell that her married name is misspelt, however.

Lidia's burial in 2006 was next to the grave of her husband,
who had died too young 44 years earlier

CONCLUSION

There are no hints at relationships between these three men on their Bonegilla cards, and we cannot find any other evidence that these three men with the family name Jakštas are related. 

Another nine people with the same surname arrived in Australia in the following years. They also were unrelated to the first three, we believe.

CITE THIS AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2025) 'Three Jakstas refugees on the First Transport', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2025/11/three-jakstas-refugees-on-first-transport.htm.

SOURCES

AEF DP Registration Record, ‘Aleksas Jakštas’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67433246, accessed 23 September 2025.

Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) (1953) ‘Chronika’ (‘Chronicle’, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, 21 February, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/280311807, accessed 23 September 2025.

Border Chronicle (1948), '62 Balts at Bangham, to help broaden rail gauge', Bordertown, SA, 15 January, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/212918125, accessed 19 April 2024.

Border Watch (1948) ‘Broad Gauge Engineer Gives Amazing Facts Of Huge Undertaking’ Mount Gambier, SA, 25 September, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78591298, accessed 19 April 2024.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1963) 'Certificates of Naturalization', Canberra, 24 April, p 1428, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241013003, accessed 23 September 2025.

Courier-Mail (1951) ‘Family Notices’ Brisbane, 8 February, p 16 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50091069, accessed 23 September 2025.

Courier-Mail (1952) ‘Births’ Brisbane, 15 July, p 10 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50512361, accessed 15 November 2025.

Daily Mirror (1949) ‘Migrant Found with Knife Wound’ Sydney, 25 August, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/273698139, accessed 24 September 2025.

Dalyvis (Participant) (1955) 'Hobart' (in Lithuanian), Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian), Adelaide, 7 February, p 8 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280313783, accessed 23 September 2025.

Find a Grave 'Algirdas Jakstas (1926-1999)' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231318643/algirdas-jakstas, accessed 16 November 2025.

Find a Grave 'Frederick Jakstas (1928-1962)' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/211910034/frederick-jakstas, accessed 16 November 2025.

Gravesites of Tasmania, 'Jakstas Aliusik' http://gravesoftas.com.au/Cornelian%20Bay%20Live/Methodist%20Weslyan/EM/3/Jakstas%20Aliusik.jpgaccessed 16 November 2025.

Jakštas, Algirdas (1953) ‘Beprotnamis ar Banginių Medžioklė’ (‘Madhouse or Whaling’, in Lithuanian), Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian) Adelaide, 10 January, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280311958, accessed 23 September 2025.

Jakštas, Algirdas (1956) 'Įdomūs Kelionės Įspūdžiai ... ', (‘Interesting Travel Impressions, in Lithuanian) Australijos Lietuvis (Australian Lithuanian), Adelaide, 5 March, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280316318, accessed 23 September 2025.

J (1962) ‘Naujas Lietuvio Kapas’ (‘A New Lithuanian Grave’, in Lithuanian’ Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, 7 April, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1962/1962-04-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 24 September 2025.

Juragis, Juozas Almis (Ed.). (1961) Australijos Lietuvių metraštis I (Australian Lithuanian Yearbook I, in Lithuanian) Sydney, Australijos Lietuvių Fondas.

Kantvilas, A. (1977) ‘Hobartas, A A Aleksas Jakštas’ (‘Hobart, RIP Aleksas Jakštas’, in Lithuanian), Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of the Homeland), Melbourne, 23 April (No. 16), p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1977/1977-nr16-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 22 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1953) ‘Išrinko naują Valdybą, Hobartas’ (New Board Elected, Hobart’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 11 February, p 4 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article259366077, accessed 23 September 2025.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1956) ‘Hobartas, Nauja Apylinkės Valdyba’ (Hobart, New District Board’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, 8 February, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259359765, accessed 22 September 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; 98, JAKSTAS Aleksas DOB 5 October 1921, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005530, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 97, JAKSTAS Algirdas DOB 16 January 1926, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005529, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11772, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per General Stuart Heintzelman departing Bremerhaven 30 October 1947, 1947-1947; 117, JAKSTAS Fridrichas DOB 11 March 1928, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005546, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; JAKSTAS ALGIRDAS, JAKSTAS Algirdas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187680, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; JAKSTAS FRIDRIKAS, JAKSTAS Fridrikas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1950 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9187681, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1957; JAKSTAS ALEKSAS, JAKSTAS, Aleksas : Year of Birth - 1921 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 497, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620931, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1957; JAKSTAS ALGIRDAS, JAKSTAS, Algirdas : Year of Birth - 1926 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 496, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620932, accessed 15 November 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1957; JAKSTAS FRIDRIKAS, JAKSTAS, Fridrikas : Year of Birth - 1928 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GENERAL HEINTZELMAN : Number - 514, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203620933, accessed 15 November 2025.

'Personal file of UTKINA, KLAVDIA, born on 21-May-1928, born in HARBIN and of further persons' 3.2.3 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/81637386?s=utkin%20klavdia&t=3229806&p=0accessed 15 November 2025.

Sengalvėlis (Old Timer) (1956) ‘Hobartiečiai Rinko Valdyba’ (‘Hobart People Elected a Board’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė, Sydney, 15 February, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259359981, accessed 22 September 2025.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (1997) From Amber Coast to Apple Isle : Fifty Years of Baltic Immigrants in Tasmania 1948-1998, Baltic Semicentennial Commemoration Activities Organising Committee, Hobart, Tasmania, p 165.

Wikipedia ‘Moreton Island’ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreton_Island, accessed 24 September 2025.