We have written a little about Petras Juodka in the blog entry for Domas Valancius. After maybe two weeks of fruit-picking in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley for Anton Lenne, he had returned to the Bonegilla camp. Less than one week later, on 19 February 1948, he was sent to Iron Knob in South Australia. There he met Domas and trouble.
The Port Augusta District Employment Officer travelled to Iron Knob following a phone call from the Registrar of the Broken Hill Proprietory Limited company, to talk with Broken Hill’s Iron Knob foreman. Two First Transport arrivals, Domas and Petras, were said to have ‘given quite a lot of trouble on and off the job’.
Disorderly Behaviour
Both had been before the Iron Knob court where they had been fined for disorderly behaviour in a public place.
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| Petras Juodka around 1947 Source: Bonegilla Migrant Experience |
The foreman told the Employment Officer that Domas was ‘of an argumentative and repulsive nature’. Domas was considered the leader with Petras a follower, despite Petras having been before the local court one more time than Domas. The foreman thought that Petras would settle down if separated from Domas.
The local policeman said that he thought it would be necessary to transfer both of the men ‘as there appeared to be a feeling amongst others that there was trouble ahead.’
The Employment official and the foreman then interviewed the two men together. The Employment official recorded that Petras ‘was very repentant, but (Domas) did not appear to care what happened to him’.
The company agreed to give the men one week’s notice and told them that they would have to pay their own fares to Adelaide in order to visit the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) there. Their ‘services were terminated’ on 23 September.
Domas had caught the express train eastwards on the night of 25 September. He had stated that he was returning to the Bonegilla camp. This would have left Petras on his own in Adelaide, unless he knew how to contact friends from the First Transport.
From Iron Knob to Harbours Board
Petras reported to the CES as directed and was found employment with the SA Harbours Board. He started there on 27 September, according the Alien Registration card record kept by the Adelaide office of the Department of Immigration.
Someone has made sure that the card also recorded some of the trouble he got into while in Iron Knob. P olice Gazette 39 of 1948 recorded an appearance before the Iron Knob Police Court on 14 September 1948, when he was fined 30 shillings plus 10 shilling costs, a total of 40 shillings or £2, for disorderly behaviour.
The second court appearance is not recorded but a large file from the Department of Immigration’s Adelaide office contains Petras’ original application for citizenship. Having been told the penalties for not being completely truthful, he recorded all 6 court appearances between 1948 and 1953, plus their consequences.
The first Iron Knob Iron Knob Police Court appearance had been on 21 June 1948, when he was fined 27 shillings and 6 pence (27/6 or £1/7/6) for being drunk. This would have been in a public place.
More court appearances and fines
He did not calm down in Adelaide, at least, not initially. Police List 8 had him fined £7 for indecent exposure, which would have been urinating in public, thanks to an appearance in the Adelaide Police Court.
The Adelaide Advertiser newspaper reported the appearance as well, saying that it was on 10 July 1950. His occupation was given as sawyer.
In his application for citizenship, Petras admitted to having to pay an extra 7/6 for court costs on this occasion.
In the Port Adelaide Police Court of 14 August 1950, according to Police List 9, he was fined a further 10 shillings for being drunk, which also would have been in a public place.
He was still working for the Harbour Board in September 1949 when, in excellent handwriting, he filled out a form labelled Application for Release from Period of Exemption. In more than 25 years of researching the First Transport arrivals, this is the first time that Ann has seen such a form on one of National Archives’ files. The form was dated 27 September 1949 and, like most of the other arrivals, Petras was granted his release 3 days later.
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| Petras Juodka's completed Application for Release from Exemption form; the result of a successful application was a Certificate of Authority to Remain in Australia click once on image for a more legible version Source: National Archives of Australia |
The Alien Registration card record kept by the Department of Immigration in Adelaide then has an undated transfer to General Motors Holden (GMH), Woodville, and a total of 5 residential address for the period from April 1950 to February 1951.
He then had 2 changes of employment, to the Shell petroleum company in April 1951 and back to the Harbour Board about 2 weeks later. In July 1952, he was back to GMH as a machine operator.
A Re-entry Permit
The Adelaide Immigration office’s file shows that, in June 1952, Petras applied for a re-entry permit, that is, permission to come back into Australia if he left. His reason for the application was that he wanted to be away for 2-3 years to get his seaman’s ticket on a foreign ship before joining the Australian merchant marine.
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| Petras' 1952 photo for his Application for a Re-entry Permit Source: National Archives of Australia |
The Department did issue a Re-entry Permit to Petras, but it never was used. Perhaps an Immigration official took the time to explain to him that any time outside Australia would be deducted from the 5 years required to obtain Australian citizenship. The next papers on his file are the several pages of his citizenship application form, completed on 14 January 1953.
Dairy Farming But More Trouble
In early December 1952, he had had a change of scenery. He had left urban Adelaide to became a labourer on a dairy farm operated by H Brown at Nangkita, on the Fleurieu Peninsula. Nangkita is still around 80 Km and 75 minutes by road from Petras’ previous address in Adelaide. While the change of employment was noted, a change of address was not, unless it was assumed that the address of H Brown at Nangkita was sufficient.
The record of misbehaviour published by the Adelaide Advertiser does not stop though. On 14 January 1953, the date that he completed his naturalisation application, he had been found by the police hammering on a door in the suburb where he used to live, Semaphore.
When the occupant of the house told him to go away, he shouted, “I’m cold and I want shelter”. He was fined £3 and had to pay an additional 7/6 court costs. Presumably there would have been additional charges if the police had judge that he had been drinking. His address was given as Nangkita.
He may well have felt that the next move, away from Nangkita, was a great opportunity, since it was to a winery. His new employer, as of April 1953, was Hamilton Wines of Glenelg, in inner urban Adelaide. He lasted less than 5 weeks there though, as it was back to GMH in May.
He changed his home address 5 months later, then moved to what may have become a permanent employer, the South Australian Railways, in July 1954. At first he was employed as a porter, someone moving heavy luggage and freight, in Port Adelaide. Then came what seems to have been a longterm move, with the Railways to Port Lincoln.
Port Lincoln is around 650 Km by road from the northern Adelaide suburbs and nearly 7 hours away. Perhaps Petras had removed himself from bad influences. His date of arrival there, as recorded on his citizenship application, was 30 December 1954.
Citizenship and the Army
For some reason not explained by the papers on file, he was sent a form letter on 16 January 1953, stating that he would not be eligible to apply for citizenship unless he continued to reside continuously in Australia for another two years.
As a former Immigration official, Ann can work out that he was eligible to apply from 28 or 29 November 1953. Admittedly, he had applied early, a good sign, but was misdirected by officialdom, bad practice.
On 15 March in the same year, he wrote to the Department of Immigration to say that he was interested in joining the Army. He had attended a recruiting office but there was told that he should be in contact with the Department of Immigration.
The reply he received said that he should present his receipt for his Declaration of Intention to become Naturalised to the recruiting centre. The Department thought that this would be sufficient for enlistment, if the Army found him otherwise eligible.
What motivated him to want to join the Army, after a previously expressed desire to join the merchant marine? Was he just a restless person, as suggested by the changes of employment listed on the Department’s Alien Registration card?
Yet more trouble
Later the same year, he gave a Cheltenham address in suburban Adelaide and a press operator occupation when he appeared before a court yet again. This time the charge was offensive behaviour in a Port Adelaide hotel on 12 September. He admitted the charge and was fined £2/10/- and ordered to pay another £1/8/6 court costs.
This was the last court appearance to be reported by Petras himself, or the police. However, it was not the end of his appearances in the press, with the Port Lincoln Times taking over the role of the Advertiser.
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| A list of Petras' offences supplied to the Department of Immigration by the police Source: National Archives of Australia |
Port Lincoln and Citizenship
On 15 March 1955, following the incorrect previous advice from the Department of Immigration, he wrote to ask what he now needed to do to obtain citizenship. He was sent the appropriate forms and told about the requirement to advertise his intention in two newspapers circulating where he lived.
On 7 July, the Department of Immigration wrote to the CES, asking that it make someone available in Port Lincoln to interview Petras. That interview took place during that month.
He gave his previous occupation as labourer or deckhand. The second would explain the interest in returning to shipboard life evinced in June 1952.
At the time of the interview, he was described as a porter for South Australian Railways, living in the South Australian Railways Hostel.
The Port Lincoln Times carried an advertisement, also on 7 July, in which he was seeking somewhere to live other than his current home in the Hostel. Of particular interest is his description of himself as “respectable sober gent”. He must have really cleaned up his act in the 21 months since his last court appearance!
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| Looking for somewhere else to live Source: Port Lincoln Times through Trove |
Yes, all of that offending did interfere with Petras’ application to become an Australian citizen. The Adelaide office of the Department of Immigration referred the application to its Canberra head office in January 1956. Two weeks later, Canberra wanted more details. Adelaide replied that it was due primarily to drinking. Petras had not been recorded adversely in the 3 years prior to February 1956 (if the 12 September 1953 conviction for offensive behaviour in a hotel was ignored).
On 7 May 1956, Petras was sent a letter which said that “… the Minister has decided to withhold the grant of naturalization (sic) to you for a period of twelve months.” He was not told why this decision had been taken or what would make a difference at the end of the twelve-month period.
On 7 October 1956, Petras wrote to the Adelaide office enclosing another letter which he wanted to be sent to the Minister for Immigration. No copy of the second letter is on file. The second letter was forwarded to the Department’s Canberra office with a note that said he had not been recorded adversely since 18 November 1953.
The public record does not say anything about an 18 November charge or conviction. Nor, for that matter, does the list of 6 offences to which Petras admitted on his application or the police version above. This ends, as does the public record on 14 (rather than 12) September 1953.
On 22 March 1957, Petras wrote again, asking to revive his application for naturalisation.
Railway Injury
Petras had moved to Port Lincoln, but not away from trouble. The Port Lincoln Times reported on 6 September 1956 that he had been badly injured when coupling railway trucks on a jetty. Two fingers on his right hand were crushed by coupling hooks. The injury was treated in the local hospital.
He responded to the hospital treatment by inserting an advertisement in the same 6 September issue of the Port Lincoln Times, thanking the doctor and nursing staff who had helped him after the accident. He started, “I am grateful to all those very good Australian people …” and ended, “… that further obliges me for a greater contribution to this country.”
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| Petras (Peter) thanks all who helped him Source: Port Lincoln Times through Trove |
What we don't know is whether he was recovering from his injury or, indeed, has lost those two fingers.
Citizenship, Finally!
The last Port Lincoln Times report is the most positive. Petras was one of 13 people to receive Australian citizenship at a ceremony led by the Mayor of Port Lincoln on 5 December 1957. That’s 10 years to the day since he was travelling across the Great Australian Bight on the temporary warship, the Kanimbla.
Had he really given up alcohol? He certainly had learned to moderate his behaviour, as we know of no more court appearances. The overuse of alcohol was almost certainly connected with what he had experienced in 5 years of war, with 2 more years in an occupied but still troubled Germany no help either.
It should be possible to follow any further changes of residence through an Ancestry.com account, since Ancestry has digitised all electoral rolls for Australia up to 1980. However, checking using all three known spelling variants of Petras' surname (see below) produced no results. This suggests that having been granted Australian citizenship, Petras failed to accept its major obligation, to enrol for elections and vote, at both the State and Federal levels.
In Germany
On his citizenship application form, Petras had written that left Lithuania and arrived in Germany on the same day, 7 July 1944. This probably seemed easier than explaining how it may have taken several days to travel from the Lithuanian border to Germany, avoiding bombing and gunfire from the Soviets, the Germans and the Allies.
His name appeared in a list of Lithuanians searching for others in a Lithuanian language newspaper, published in Augsburg, Germany, in January 1946. The notice indicates that, at that time, he was living in Karolinenschloschen, Bad Aibling.
Karolinenschloschen means Caroline’s Little Palace in English. If his DP camp really was in a former palace, it must have been an interesting place in which to live.
Bad Aibling is a spa town in the far south of Germany, between Munich and Salzburg, the latter in Austria. He had managed to get as far away from the Soviets as he could go, without crossing mountains into Austria or Switzerland.
An American Expeditionary Force (AEF) DP Registration form filled out at the very end of 1945 tells us that Petras was born on 2 March 1919, so he was 26 years old at the time. His parents were recorded as “Johann”, probably meaning Jonas in Lithuanian, and Aniela, the latter being an equivalent of Angela.
Life in Lithuania
He had been born in Serasai, according to the AEF form, probably meaning Zerasai in northeastern Lithuania. His place of birth on the application form for migration to Australia was recorded oddly as Rainiai-Salakas, 2 towns in the north of Lithuania which are nearly 300 Km apart by road. Zerasai is less than 30 Km from Salakas, so more likely to be the birthplace.
His usual occupation on the AEF form was farmer. In mid-October 1947, the Australian selection panel’s report recorded that he had only 3 years of primary schooling but 2 more years at a commercial school. His previous occupation was not recorded on the application form, where his current occupation was said to be general labourer.
Languages
Neither form nominated English as one of Petras’ languages, although he had Polish as well as Lithuanian. We have to hope that he attended Edna Davis’ classes on board the Heintzelman. Problems with understanding those around him in Australia would have added to his psychological difficulties.
On the other hand, the letters that he clearly wrote himself, since all are in the same script and use the same ink colour, indicate somewhere who had learned to express himself well – if not with complete fluency – in English by the mid-1950s.
Later years
After so much publicity for Petras in his first 10 years in Australia, the record goes quiet. That’s apart from 2 appearances in Australia’s Lithuanian-language press. Mūsų Pastogė, in a September 1968 edition, published a letter from Petras. He noted the approach of the 48th anniversary of Poland seizing the Lithuanian capital city, Vilnius, in October 1920, and thanked 2 Adelaide residents who he said had participated in the return of Vilnius to Lithuania in October 1939.
He signed himself as a dragoon of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, a soldier of the Lithuanian Self-Defense Units of the Homeland Protection Team, and a member of the ex-servicemen’s organisation, Ramovė.
In November 1973, he offered to finance the restoration of the missing metal Vilnius city coat of arms in the Lithuanian Land Monument in the churchyard of St Casimir's Church. St Casimir’s is the Lithuanian Catholic community’s church in Adelaide.
Death
Finally, Tėviškės aidai in its issue of 4 March 1978, carried a sentence about recent deaths in Adelaide. This included Petra Jotka (sic), who had died on 17 February 1978. He was said to be 60 years old but, given several records of his birthdate on different forms, he would have been 58, 2 weeks short of his 59th birthday. He had returned to Adelaide, to his previous suburb of Semaphore.
It looks like the earlier hard living had caught up with Petras.
CITE THIS AS: Ščevinksienė, Rasa and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Petras Juodka (1919-1978): A Troubled Start in Australia'
SOURCES
Note: Petras' surname has 3 variants in the sources, even in the Lithuanian language: Juodka, Juotka and Jotka.
Advertiser (1950) ‘Charge Admitted’ Adelaide, SA, 11 July, p 11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/44919776, accessed 26 January 2026.
Advertiser (1953) ‘Unlawfully On Premises’ Adelaide, SA, 16 January, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47526251, accessed 26 January 2026.
Advertiser (1953) ‘Offensive Behaviour’ Adelaide, SA, 15 September, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48928540, accessed 26 January 2026.
Billion Graves ‘Petras Juodka’ https://billiongraves.com/grave/Petras-Juodka/44357799, accessed 27 January 2026.
Bonegilla Migrant Experience, ‘Petras Juodka’ Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203731915, accessed 26 January 2026.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Naturalization (sic)’ Canberra, ACT, 18 September, p 3099 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240882136/25977671, accessed 27 January 2026.
Find a Grave ‘Petras “Peter” Juodka’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151279180/petras-juodka, accessed 27 January 2026.
‘Folder DP1689, names from JUNOS, BARBARA to JUOZUVAITIS, Otonas (1)’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 67523592, ITS/Arolsen archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67523592, accessed 26 January 2026.
Mūsų Pastogė (1968) ‘Padėka‘ (‘Gratitude’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 2 September, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1968/1968-09-02-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 27 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; 556, JUODKA Petras DOB 2 March 1919, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005792, accessed 27 January 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D400, Correspondence files, annual single number series with 'SA' and 'S' prefix, 1949-1965; SA1956/8813, JUODKA PETRAS, 1949-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=31672421, accessed 27 January 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D401, Correspondence files, multiple number series with 'SA' prefix, 1946-49; SA1948/3/512, VALANCUS Domas - application for admission of relative or friend to Australia - KLINGBEIL Loni, 1948-53 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12455258, accessed 27 January 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4878, Alien registration documents, alphabetical series, 1937-1965; JUODKA P, JUODKA Petras - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4078212, accessed 27 January 2026.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; JUODKA PETRAS, JUODKA Petras - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Melbourne per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1957 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9181028, accessed 27 January 2026
National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; JUODKA PETRAS, JUODKA, Petras : Year of Birth - 1919 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 930, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203731915, accessed 27 January 2026.
News (1953) ‘Laborer (sic) fined £3’ Adelaide, SA, 15 January, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/130926042, accessed 26 January 2026.
Port Lincoln Times (1955) (Advertising) Port Lincoln, SA, 7 July, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/266921092?searchTerm=p.%20juodka, accessed 26 January 2026.
Port Lincoln Times (1956) ‘Shunter Injured’ Port Lincoln, SA, 6 September, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/267051164, accessed 26 January 2026.
Port Lincoln Times (1956) 'Expression of Thanks' Port Lincoln, SA, 6 September, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/267051150, accessed 28 January 2026.
Port Lincoln Times (1957) ‘They Want to be Australians’ Port Lincoln, SA, 21 November, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/267059474, accessed 26 January 2026.
Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1973) ‘Adelaidės kronika‘ (‘Adelaide Chronicle’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 6 November, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1973/1973-nr43-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 January 2026.
Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of Homeland) (1978) ‘Iš mūsų parapijų, Adelaide’ (‘From Our Parishes, Adelaide’, in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 4 March, p 8 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1978/1978-nr08-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 27 January 2026.
Wikipedia, Bad Aibling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Aibling, accessed 27 January 2026.
Ziburai (Lights in Darkness) (1946) ‘Paieškojimai‘ (‘Searches’, in Lithuanian) Augsburg, Germany, 19 January, p 9 https://spauda2.org/dp/dpspaudinys_ziburiai/archive/1946-01-19-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 26 January 2026.
