Vaclavs Kozlovskis at Pyramid Hill, March-May 1948, translated by Monika Kozlovskis

PYRAMID HILL, 22.3.48, Mon

The end of the month has arrived, and also the boss, to calculate our accounts.  He’s decided to make some changes.  From Monday Kevin will work at the crusher, and I’ll be the boss of the quarry.  I’ll work with the explosives all by myself, and so the key to the dynamite room came into my pocket.  Of course my wage will increase as well, although only by twopence per hour.  It’s not all that pleasant, but what can I do, someone has to be the supervisor.

PYRAMID HILL, 5.4.48, Mon

Today I lay once more in the now familiar hospital, and once more the dentist worked on my tooth.  This time the pain was over quickly.  Soon the root was out and I could get up again.  This time, it seems, I’m free from that unrelenting toothache.

PYRAMID HILL, 10.4.48, Sat

Although it’s Saturday I worked this afternoon.  The hospital organised a working bee, in which we were also invited to participate, so it wouldn’t have been right to not show up.  The distance wasn’t any particular problem, for all seven of us have bicycles.  We worked at this voluntary job right up to five thirty and only then got to go home.  The locals will have something new to say about us now.

Riding back I realised that I’d left my swimming trunks behind, so all I could do was watch while the others swam.  This wasn’t much fun, but it was my own fault.

Modelling swimming trunks, possibly outside the men's original Pyramid Hill home

Source:  Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis

I felt quite tired and didn’t go to the dance this time, but that’s all right.  Around the time I’d normally be coming home from the dance there was a heavy rain shower.  I listened to the raindrops clattering on the roof and rejoiced that I’d escaped a thorough soaking.

PYRAMID HILL, 11.4.48, Sun

I’ve waited for rain for a long time and finally it’s here, apparently the Australian winter is starting. T he whole sky is blanketed in grey clouds, the large clay field has become quite sodden, and puddles have appeared in the courtyard.  The kitchen tap is working again now that fresh roof water has poured into the water tank.  

In the evening the rain eased and I climbed on my bike and rode into town.  I barely recognised the road - all the potholes are full of water, and the rain has washed a great many new ruts in the road, so I had to be careful not to slip over in the mud.  By the time I returned home the bicycle was covered in red clay. I’ll have my job cut out for me until everything is clean again.

PYRAMID HILL, 28.4.48, Wed

Alas, poor diary, less and less frequently have I begun to turn your pages and fill them with words ... but what else can I do, when I have so little time left over from my other pursuits: I have to work on the weekdays, go rabbit hunting and dancing on Saturdays, play golf with the girls on Sundays, so when can I find the time to spend with you?  But don’t despair - I’ll try to improve!  The hot Australian summer is over and now it’s autumn.

Increasingly the sun hides behind the clouds, and for some time now the cold has begun to shiver through my body on my ride to work.  Less and less sweat forms at work, and we haven’t been swimming for a long time.

Thus gradually the days of my life hurry by, they can’t be caught or turned back.  Only my yearning rushes away to strange, and also to some familiar places, while the kookaburra laughs raucously about the people haunted by their longing for distant places ... be patient, heart, even these eight remaining months of slavery will pass.  Then I’ll be able to climb onto a steel ship, and search for my dreams in the wide oceans!

PYRAMID HILL, 5.5.48, Thurs

Tooth extraction is very expensive in Australia - today I received the dentist’s bill, and I will have to part with one pound, eleven shillings and sixpence.  So incredibly expensive was my aching tooth!

PYRAMID HILL, 10.5.48, Mon

Finally the building of our long-awaited cabins is underway.  The only question is, how many months will it take to complete them?  Today’s post brought me medicine from Sydney, to help me give up smoking.  I’ll have to wait to see what the result will be.

PYRAMID HILL, 13.5.48, Thurs

I didn’t want to go anywhere after work, but when the others decided to go to the cinema, I went with them.  The entire horizon was covered in grey, ominous clouds, and occasionally the darkness shot through with a flash of lightning.  Suddenly in the middle of the second film, heavy raindrops began spattering on the tin roof.  I wasn’t enjoying the coloured film at all by now.

Although the rain passed quickly, we didn’t make it home without getting wet.  The road was muddy and our clothes, as well as bicycles, splattered with clayey mud.  We squelched through this red mud for almost an hour, until finally we were home and could stretch out in bed.

PYRAMID HILL, 23.5.48, Sun

Autumn has arrived, and winter will follow, but summer’s not retreating yet.  Today it seems that summer has vanquished autumn’s superiority and sent as a sign of its power one of the warm days that it always has in reserve.  The weather was too fine to spend all day inside labouring over my foolish letter writing, so straight after breakfast I took my rifle and went out into the fresh autumn air.

The evidence of changing seasons is very interesting in Australia.  As little as a month ago I would gaze at the sky and long to see even the smallest of rain clouds momentarily cover the face of the smiling sun and give some respite to my burning skin!  But in vain — there was nothing to be seen except for the sunlit pale blue sky and the dust raised into the air by the rock crusher, and in some secret bush hiding-place the kookaburra hid, laughing and jeering to see the hot sun beating down on the rock splitters.

But now the cool breath of autumn has begun to caress the earth.  It seems a long time since my back was soaked in sweat, and since my teeth started chattering during my morning ride to work.  The face of the sun has become anxious; increasingly often she hides behind the clouds; sometimes white ones, other times quite grey and spitting lightning, and the water canals have become quite clear for there are no longer swimmers desirous of refreshing themselves, to muddy them.  The water reservoir in the sky bursts through often, and onto the parched earth falls abundant, life-giving rain.

That's definitely Pyramid Hill in the background, and it may be a local canal in the foreground

Source:  Collection of Vaclavs Kozlovskis

Autumn has come, bringing with it several surprises, which it seems are possible only in this strange land.  I recall autumn in Latvia — there in that distant Happy Isle it was grey and mostly unpleasant.  Grass and flowers died under the cruel bites of the frost beast, to transform into black dust.  Onto the ground fell tree leaves bitten by the same beast, amongst which boys squabbled as they searched for acorns, and all of this was cloaked in grey, dirty, autumn mud.

Here things are very different.  Up until now I’ve been accustomed to seeing a vast field of yellow grass which seemed to have existed from a time before the world drew its first breath.  But now suddenly this yellowness is disappearing, and in its place, wherever my gaze lingers there is green, freshly grown grass.  My eyes feast often on this transformation, and my thoughts rummage confusedly in the past trying to work out whether I haven’t again moved to some new continent, without noticing.  But no, I’m still here, still surrounded by twisted trees with white rabbit tails disappearing quickly under them.

The sheep rejoice in the food autumn has brought them, and only the black, raven-like birds seem dissatisfied with the changes.  They flutter around, caw and with malevolent voices curse in some incomprehensible English dialect.  And why wouldn’t they curse?  After all, the sheep now have food in plenty, and there are few who are weak enough to collapse helplessly for the pleasure and sustenance of these cawing spectres, in a short time to transform into a small bundle of bones and wool.

But the parrots don’t show the slightest interest in all these proceedings; as usual they argue and try to divide Australia amongst themselves, and with perfect English calm the koalas marvel at such behaviour.  This is autumn, but what winter is like I will discover only later, because I can’t make any sense out of what the locals have to say about it.

Suddenly a small grey rabbit leaped out of a clump of grass to remind me that I’m hunting.  I came back to the present, and by the end of the hunt four of these Australian pests lay by my feet, lifeless.  Having visited nature for long enough, I returned home.

Karolis Varkūnas (1912-1971): Sad end, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Some words, even though fifty-five years have passed, are still relevant. Writing about the death of Karolis Varkūnas, V Milčius said something that will never get old and will always be to the point.

Karolis Varkūnas was 58 years old when he died on 26 January 1971. A group of Hobart Lithuanians buried him on 29 January in Malbina General Cemetery, New Norfolk, Tasmania.

Karolis arrived in Australia on the First Transport in 1947. He had no relatives in Australia, he was single.

Karolis Varkunas' photograph on his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Words of wisdom

Milčius wrote of Karolis Varkūnas that quite a few single people have a “philosophy of pessimism”, hammered into their heads. Why work when you have no-one to whom to leave your property?

However, single people do not have to live in blind darkness when there is somewhere to leave their estate. Lithuanian national institutions are asking for legacies for the existence of the nation. Anyone can create a legacy, immortalise their name, remain alive while Lithuanian history exists.

Those who believe in leaving their earnings only in bars have shortened, unhealthy lives, become a burden to themselves and others. Their life history is left empty, maybe without even a mark in a cemetery, without memories among the living.

Karolis' last years

Varkūnas was a bricklayer by profession, he said, but without a permanent job. For the last couple of years of his life, he had avoided any work, so he left no property, only what he carried on his body. He had lived under the care of the charitable Mrs. Teresa Kairienė.

The Commonwealth Employment Office terminated his unemployment benefit and sent him to a power plant construction site. There he collapsed and died after only one day of work.

Karolis in Lithuania

He had been born near Ukmergė, a city 78 Km northwest of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, on 5 December 1912. His parents were Karolis and Veronika Varkūnas. Veronika had been born in Warsaw, Poland, around 1887, but may well have been of Lithuanian ethnicity given that both Poland and Lithuania were part of one empire at the time, that of the Russian Tsar.

Karolis completed his elementary schooling, served in the Lithuanian army from 1933 to 1935, then worked as a bricklayer – or was he a stone mason? -- before leaving for Germany.

The start of his life was no different from other young people. His chosen trade was good, so it shouldn't have been difficult to get a job.

His life experiences, however, his separation from his homeland, family, and lack of friends led Karolis, as well as other emigrants, to despair, lack of purpose, and unwillingness to cling to life.

Karolis in Germany

Karolis is another of the 31 whose selection papers have been misplaced. However, it turns out that the misplacement was onto the file about his application to become an Australian citizen (NAA: A446, 1955/52715), so we can see still what he told the selection team in Germany in 1947. Here, he was recorded as a stone mason, although bricklayer is mentioned as well, with 12 years’ experience in this trade in Lithuania. He also had worked for one year in farming in Germany.

The Arolsen Archives so far has not found and digitised any papers for Karolis in Germany, so it is not possible to find more detail on his life there.

Karolis is selected for Australia

On a Statutory Declaration given in relation to his application for citizenship, Karolis stated that he had left Lithuania for Germany in November 1943. This would mean that he was in Nazi Germany for 18 months before its defeat. The Australian selection team’s report has the usual “forcibly evacuated by Germans” explanation.

The team had been tasked to look in particular for men who could help with building construction, so masonry would have fitted the bill. The team also was looking for people with agricultural experience, to feed the returning service people and the families they now were forming. Karolis was 34 at the time though, which may no longer have been considered young in 1947. Nonetheless, he was given an A recommendation, which was more than the A- given to some others recruited for the First Transport.

Karolis in Australia

Despite that highly desirable construction experience, he was one of the 187 or more sent to pick fruit as their first job in Australia. His employer was Messrs Dundas Simson of Ardmona. He undertook that work for nearly two months, returning to Bonegilla on 22 March 1948. His card says that his destination one week later was Tasmania.

An Application for Release from Period of Exemption, his request for permission to stay in Australia after the initial contract period finished, has survived on a Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch, file.

On it, we can see that the next job for this skilled bricklayer was picking more fruit, for DK Calvert for another 3 months. He finally got to lay bricks again from 20 September 1948, first for the Australian Newsprint Mills company (presumably at Maydena) for one month, and then with a private employer, S Haunstrap.

When he completed the Application, he was living at New Norfolk, where presumably he was living also when he died. New Norfolk is some 36 kilometres from the centre of Tasmania’s capital city, Hobart, by a winding road which follows the River Derwent.

Another document records that he stayed in New Norfolk until December 1949, when he moved to across Bass Strait to Melbourne. He returned to Hobart in June 1955.

Karolis Varkunas in 1955

Source:  National Archives of Australia

In August 1954, in Melbourne, he applied for a new Alien Registration Certificate as the old one had become worn, perhaps because Karolis kept it with him wherever he was. At that time he said he was self-employed as a bricklayer.

In May 1955, Karolis was one of the more generous donors to an appeal for Lithuanians still in Germany, giving £1/10/-.

His Australian citizenship was granted 9 April 1956.

After that, Karolis lived such a quiet life that he does not appear in either the English or Lithuanian-language press, nor on official files, until his death.

Was he clinically depressed or otherwise ill?

Fifty-five years later, it is possible to ask whether the “philosophy of pessimism” and the lack of a desire to work were, in fact, deep and untreated depression: a medical condition rather than a deliberate choice?

His depression perhaps was not have been recognised as a medical condition by those around him but it does fit V Milčius’ description of “despair, lack of purpose, and unwillingness to cling to life.”

The collapse at work after two years of unemployment may well have been due to another undiagnosed condition, such as heart disease. The heart disease and other illnesses may have been intertwined with the possible depression.

Such illnesses would have had nothing to do with the issue of not having family to whom to leave one’s property. Milčius’ point about leaving it to a Lithuanian institution is well made, regardless, and applies equally to charities also, both in Lithuania and Australia

FOOTNOTE:  The National Archives RecordSearch service does not contain any files for someone with a Milčius family name.  As Tėviškės Aidai actually printed it as Mil-čius, this may not be a typographic error but the shortening of someone's name.  With this in mind, we looked again in RecordSearch to find Vincas Milinkevičius arriving in September 1948.  He looks like the only candidate for the V Mil-čius nom de plume.

SOURCES

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup ‘Karolis VARKUNAS’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203724312, accessed 7 March 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Karlos Varkunas, Malbina General Cemetery, Derwent Valley Council, Tasmania’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/215236428/karlos-varkunas, accessed 7 March 2026

Mil-čius, V (1971) ‘Hobartas, Palaidojom A A Karolį‘ (‘Hobart, We buried the late Karolis’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai (Echoes of Homeland) Melbourne, Vic, 9 February, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1971/1971-nr05-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 7 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations [Main correspondence files series of the agency], 1926-2001; 1955/52715, Application for Naturalisation - VARKUNAS Karolis born 5 December 1912, 1947-1956 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8821097, accessed 7 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P1184, Registration papers for non-British migrants, lexicographical series, 1949-1966; VARKUNAS K, VARKUNAS Karolis [Lithuanian], 1947-1955 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1914257, accessed 7 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; VARKUNAS KAROLIS, VARKUNAS, Karolis : Year of Birth - 1912 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 718, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203724312, accessed 7 March 2026.

Wikipedia, Ukmergė https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukmerg%C4%97, accessed 7 March 2026.

Kazys Alseika (1917-1984), the Tasmanian One, by Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 13 March 2026.

3x Kazys Alseika

The first thing to note about Kazys Alseika is that there were 3 of them.  That is to say, 3 men called Kazys or Kazimieras (the long form of Kazys) with the family name Alseika came to Australia during the 1947-49 period.  What’s more, the 3 were the only men with the family name Alseika to arrive under the IRO Mass Scheme, to give the movement of Displaced Persons to Australia during 1948-54 its formal name.

How do we separate them one from the other?  If you haven’t thought about it before, the answer is birthdates, the reason why officials, the health system, and anyone else who needs to sort one namefellow from another, immediately wants to know your birthdate as well as your full name.

Our Kazys Alseika, the one who came on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, was born on 8 June 1917.  The second Kazys was born on 15 December 1918 and arrived on the Nelly on 15 July 1949.  Kazimieras was born on 27 February 1918 and arrived on the Second Transport, the General MB Stewart, on 14 February 1948.

The Kazys Alseika who came to Australia on the Heintzelman

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Newspaper reports are unlikely to distinguish one Kazys Alseika from another, although Kazimieras might stick to that form of his name.  This means that we need to rely on those official documents with birthdates, although they may give us other clues, like where they lived and worked.

Those documents tell us that the second Kazys Alseika was sent to Yallourn, Victoria, for his first job.  His naturalization record and a newspaper obituary say that he stayed in Victoria.  Kazimieras was sent initially to Western Australia but received Australian citizenship when resident in South Australia.  We’ll soon find that our Kazys was sent to Tasmania after his initial fruit-picking, so place of residence is another way to separate these three.

Our Kazys Goes to Work

Starting with the Bonegilla card for our Kazys, we see that he was one of the 187 or more fruit pickers sent to Victoria’s Goulburn Valley in late January 1948.  He was allocated to AW and JF Fairley of Shepparton.  He stuck it out for more than 9 weeks, returning to the Bonegilla camp on 7 April.

His next allocation was to the Commonwealth Carbide Company at Electrona, Tasmania, which actually was a different company with a similar name, the Australian Commonwealth Carbide Company.  Thanks to Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, we have an assessment from Jonas Motiejūnas of the hard physical nature of the work.

If a former DP has moved around a lot, we often can follow those movements from their application for naturalization.  When our Kazys applied in October 1953, he did not mention Electrona or a carbide company.  Instead, he recorded that he was then working as a spray painter for a company called Cannon & Hornby of Glenorchy, Tasmania.  He had been there since 8 November 1949, the second anniversary of the day he arrived at the Bonegilla camp.

An article in Launceston’s Saturday Evening Express newspaper of 31 May 1952, headed New Firm’s Success, tell us about Kazys’ employer.  Cannon & Hornby made electric coppers (presumably to heat water for laundry), domestic hot water services and a hot water service specially for the dairy farmer.  They also made refrigerator cabinets for Australian-made refrigerator units and electric cooking ranges.  At this time, 18 months before Kazys submitted that he had been working for them since late 1949, they employed 28 staff.

Ramunas Tarvydas, in From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, notes that Kazys were first at Electrona but then with a company called Derby Products.  This seems to have been a company specialising in heating and air-conditioning products.  I write “seems”, as references to the company are still on the Web, but links lead to dead pages.  If Kazys had become a specialist spray painter, his work on heating and air-conditioning products would have been similar to his work at Cannon & Hornby.

A group of Hobart Lithuanians about 1950:  Kazys Alseika is on the right

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė 31 July 2000 p 4

Tarvydas has called Alseika “Kazimieras” on page 158, but this also was the version of his name used on the one document in the Arolsen Archives which relates to him.  We know that the Arolsen Archive document is about our Kazys because of the birthdate.

Kazys Marries

Kazys married Marcia Ina Paul at New Town, Hobart, on 5 January 1950.  They were living on Butler Avenue, Moonah. She had brought 2 children into the marriage.  It looks like Marcia won any discussion about religion, given that they were married in a Congregational Church although Kazys had previously stated that he was a Roman Catholic.

The wedding made the social pages of the Hobart Mercury newspaper, on 28 February 1950, under the heading of Some Recent Tasmanian Weddings.

Kazys became an Australian citizen on 15 December 1955.  It’s interesting to note that the two women who swore in relation to his application that they had known him for some years and that he was a person of good repute had married into his wife’s family. Her maiden name was Cook, and these two women, both of whom gave their occupation as housewife, used the family name Cook also.

Rocky Kazys Alseika

It seems that at least one child was born in the marriage.  A football club register of all players prepared by a diligent supporter and placed on the Web gives the birthdate of Rocky Kazys Alseika as 19 December 1959.  The football club was the Cygnets, Australian Rules players from the township of Port Cygnet in Southern Tasmania, but the register records zero games for Rocky.

That is an unusual name to give a child, but Rocky Marciano, undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion from 1952 to his 1956 retirement, certainly was a well-known name in the 1950s.  Rocky Marciano might have been on Kazys’ mind when his very own son was born.

Our Kazys Dies Early, After Building a House

Sad to report, Kazys had died already when Ramunas was doing his research in the 1990s.  His date of death was 21 November 1984, so he was only 67 at the time. Ramunas was able to interview Marcia though, using her report on the building on their own Derwent Park house in his book.

Source:  Ramunas Tarvydas, From Amber Coast to Apple Isle, p 64

Marcia lived as a widow for another 15 years, dying in 1995 and being buried besides Kazys.  Their burial place is the Kingston Cemetery, in a town so close to Hobart that it might well be a suburb now.

The plaque where Kazys and Marcia, or their ahses, are buried

Source:  Julie Henderson & Lacey Milier on Find A Grave

Rocky did not survive long after his parents, dying on 29 August 2005 when only 45 years old.

Rocky Alseika's plaque in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery needed restoration
when this photograph was taken, but his image is clear still

Source:  MargaretM on Find A Grave

Our Kazys in Lithuania and Germany

Kazys had been born on 8 June 1917 in Kretinga, in Klaipėda County, making him another Samogitian.  His parents were another Kazys and Adolfina.  The Hobart Mercury report on the Alseika wedding calls Kazys “the youngest son of Mr and Mrs K Alseika”.

On a statutory declaration in relation to his application for naturalization, Kazys declared that he had left Lithuania on 10 October 1944, which was rather late to be leaving that invaded nation.  He arrived in Germany on 12 October 1944, he declared.

In an Arolsen Archives list of Lithuanians living in Oldenburg in the British Zone of occupied Germany, Kazys is shown at the same address as one “Viktora” Alseika.  The occupation for both is Bauer, German for farmer.  Since first I thought that this had something to do with building, I looked more closely at “Viktora”, to see that “she” was männl., short for männlich, German for male or masculine.  Someone has left the “s” off the end of Viktoras’ name.  He was born 9 years before Kazys, in 1908.

This would have made him only 39 in 1947, within the age range Australia was considering and raising the question of why he did not come to Australia with Kazys.  The possibilities are that he applied but was rejected, or that he decided to hold out for another country.  Either way, 3 documents digitised by the Arolsen Archives have him setting out for Canada on 13 April 1949.

Perhaps Viktoras preferred a colder climate.  Kazys certainly got a climate as cold as Australia gets in Tasmania.

CITE THIS AS: Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Kazys Alseika (1917-1984), the Tasmanian One'

SOURCES

Australijos Lietuvis (The Australian Lithuanian) (1950) 'Mišri šeima’ (‘Blended Family, in Lithuanian) Adelaide, SA, 20 March, p 31 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280319034, accessed 28 February 2026.

Britannica ‘Rocky Marciano, American boxer’ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rocky-Marciano, accessed 28 February 2026.

‘Correspondence and nominal roles, done at Bremen-Grohn: transport by ship (USS GENERAL HOWZE, USS GENERAL MCRAE); transit countries and final destinations: Canada, USA’, 3.1.3 Emigrations, DocID: 81660307 ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/81660307, accessed 2 March 2026.

Cygnet Football Club, ‘Register of Games Played’ http://cygnetfc.com.au/index.php/download_file/-/view/61, accessed through Internet Archive Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/web/20260000000000*/http://cygnetfc.com.au/index.php/download_file/-/view/61, accessed 2 March 2026. [The Cygnet FC is moving its website to a new location. As of 2 March 2026, the new site did not include this version of the Register.]

‘Folder DP0049, names from ALPINA, STANISLAW to ALTAZIN, Louis’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 66415045 (VIKTORAS ALSEIKA) ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66415045, accessed 28 February 2026.

‘Folder DP0049, names from ALPINA, STANISLAW to ALTAZIN, Louis’, 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 66415046 (VIKTORAS ALSEIKA) ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66415046, accessed 2 March 2026.

Mercury (1950) 'Some Recent Tasmanian Weddings’ Hobart, Tas, 28 February, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26686218, accessed 28 February 2026.

‘Original collection’ 2.1.2.1 NI 054 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Oldenburg/oldenburg (SK), DocID: 70713224, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70713224, accessed 2 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A446, Correspondence files, annual single number series with block allocations, 1926-2001; 1955/6002, Application for Naturalisation - ALSEIKA Kazys born 8 June 1917, 1955-1955 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8858840, accessed 2 March 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; 8, ALSEIKA Kazys DOB 8 June 1917, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005451, accessed 2 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Tasmanian Branch; P3, Personal case files, annual single number series with 'T' (Tasmania) prefix, 1951-; T1969/1987, Alseika, Kazys, 1947-1955 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9588585, accessed 2 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; ALSEIKA KAZYS, ALSEIKA, Kazys : Year of Birth - 1917 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 408, 1947-1948; recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203676793, accessed 2 March 2026.

Saturday Evening Express (1952) ‘New Firm’s Success’ Launceston, Tas, 31 May, p 11 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/265092824, accessed 2 March 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, pp 64, 145, 158.

Tarvydas, Ramunas (2000) ‘Lietuviai Tasmanijoje 1950 – 2000’ (‘Lithuanians in Tasmania 1950 – 2000’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 31 July, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/2000/2000-07-31-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 2 March 2026.

Welcome to Cygnet Football Club https://cygnetfc.tidyhq.com/, accessed 28 February 2026.

Antanas Galatiltis (1923-1983): From Farm Boy to Electrical Engineer, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Updated 7 March 2026.

Lithuanian life for Antanas Galatiltis

An electrical engineer, Antanas was born in the city of Švenčionys, 84 kilometres north of Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, on 23 April 1923.  He attended the Vytautas Didysis High school in Vilnius, graduating in 1941. 

He left Lithuania by himself in 1944, fleeing as far as the Baltic Children’s Home near Lübeck in northern Germany.  Here he taught primary school until the possibility of leaving for Australia arose in September-October 1947.  During this time, he was living in Camp Riga in Lübeck.  

He had given his occupation as teacher on the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) Displaced Person (DP) Registration Form which is held and digitised by the Arolsen Archives.  Presumably he had trained as a teacher during 1941-44, after high school, and taught then as well.

He told the Australian selection team that he had 3 years' experience as a farm worker.  Possibly that was a summary of work done on a family farm.  Of course he was one of those selected then for resettlement, travelling on the First Transport, or we would not be discussing him.

Antanas Galatiltis' photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Off to Forestry, Mt Gambier, South Australia

On 9 January 1948, Antanas was one of a group sent from the Bonegilla camp to work for the Woods and Forest Department at Mount Gambier in southeast South Australia.  Jedda Barber's father, Valentinas Dagys, was another of that group.  Kostas Bušma, Stasys Čibiras, and Algis Jakštas are 3 more from this group whom we have met already in this blog.

The working and living conditions offered by the Woods and Forests Department in 1948 would have been no better than those described by Pranas Nagys in a series of articles in Mūsų Pastogė 50 years later.  Pranas was part of a group which reached Mt Gambier on 30 March 1949.  Here is what he wrote about the living conditions, translated from the issue of 2 June 1997.

Living Conditions in the Forestry Camp

“Living conditions here were worse than in the sugar cane fields.  We had a water tap by the barracks, but there was no place to shower.  There was no river and the weather was cold.  The wood-burning stove in the kitchen was only suitable for boiling a pot of rice.

“Once a week, we would organise to wash.  We would empty one large pot of water into a large tub, and it would be enough for two men.  While the two of them were bathing, we would boil water for the next two …

“We had to make sure that the last two would have time to bathe by 8 am on Saturday, when the bus left for Mt Gambier.  So, according to a pre-arranged list, we would wake each other up from sleep for a wash.

“Going to town was very important, as it was necessary to bring food for the whole week.  There were no shops in the forest.  A dairy farmer lived nearby.  We bought milk and eggs from him every day.  Bread was delivered to the barracks every morning.  We brought all the other products from Mt. Gambier.

“There was no way for each of us to cook separately, as there was only one stove, which could hold only one pot.  We decided that we needed a cook.  One of us would cook for everyone, and we would pay him 5 shillings a week for that work.  Modestas Čiplys agreed to be the cook …

“Our cook had to boil water for tea every day.  In the evening, he would cook what he could.  The rest of us had to bring him firewood from the forest and chop it up.  We carried broken dry branches and trees.

“On cold nights, we would put everything we had in our suitcases on our beds.  We would put our jackets and all our shirts between the blankets to make it warmer.  In the evening, we would stoke the heater, one to each room.  After they went out, it was very cold in the morning.  Sometimes the frost would turn white on the grass until the sun rose and melted it.”

Pranas and his peers tried hard to get back to sugar cane cutting, which had been their first job in Australia.   Those not used to cane cutting reported it as hot, dirty work, since the cane fields had been burnt to remove dried cane leaves and vermin first.  That says a lot about the work they were expected to do in the forests around Mount Gambier.

Antanas in Adelaide

Antanas was released from his contract to work where directed along with nearly everyone else from the First Transport, on 30 September 1949.  An Alien Registration record card kept by the Adelaide branch of the National Archives reveals that he had got himself to Adelaide even before that date, since he advised Immigration officials of a South Terrace addressed in the central city on 27 August.

His next employer was the General Motors Holden plant in the suburb of Woodville.  He lived at 4 different addresses during this time, up to January 1952.

Antanas Takes Up Study

That year, he enrolled in the Electrical Engineering with the South Australian Institute of Technology.  By day he worked at Holden factory, and in the evenings he studied.  He graduated from this course in 1959.  The South Australian Institute of Technology became part of the University of South Australia, which merged with the University of Adelaide on 5 January 2026.

Antanas' Work

Antanas worked as a draftsman with the Electricity and Water Supply Department (E&WS) from 1954, and for the Post Master General from 1956 until 1959. Once he graduated in 1959, he began working with electrical devices in the Engineering Department at the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) at Salisbury.

Australian Citizen and Active Lithuanian

On 13 February 1956, Antanas was granted Australian citizenship in the Adelaide suburb of St Peters.

Antanas was a great supporter of Adelaide Lithuanian House and was Vice-President of the Australian Lithuanian National Council for two terms. He was a member of the Adelaide Lithuanian Architects and Engineers Society.

Antanas' Early Death

He died, aged only 60, on 8 July 1983.

His black granite headstone in the Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, is adorned with a carved Lithuanian cross, his name, birthdate and date of death.

Antanas Galatiltis headstone in the Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, Adelaide

CITE THIS AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Antanas Galatiltis (1923-1983): From Farm Boy to Electrical Engineer', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/03/antanas-galatiltis-1923-1983-from-farm-boy-to-electrical-engineer.html

SOURCES

'Folder DP1129, names from GALANTER, HUNA to GALAUSKA, Reinis (2)', 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 67117458 (?tanas GALATILTÍS), ITS Digital Archive/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/67117458?s=GALATILTIS%20&t=2737450&p=0, accessed 4 March 2026.

Adelaidės Lietuvių Žinios (Adelaide Lithuanian News) (1983) [No title] Adelaide,17 July, p 9. [Copy in the Australian Lithuanian Archive, Adelaide.]

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1960) 1960 ‘Mūsų baigusieji Adelaidėje’ (‘Our Graduates in Adelaide) Sydney, NSW, 6 May, p 3 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1960/1960-05-06-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 4 March 2026.

Nagys, Pranas (1997) ‘Pirmieji metai Australijoje, Kuriamės Pietų Kryžiaus žarnyne’ (‘The first year in Australia, We are building in the bowels of the Southern Cross', in Lithuanian) Mųsų Pastogė, Sydney, NSW, 26 May, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1997/1997-05-26-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 4 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D 4881, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; GALATITIS ANTANAS, GALATILTIS Antanas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1956 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=7207511, accessed 26 September 2025.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; GALATILTIS ANTANAS, GALATILTIS, Antanas : Year of Birth - 1923 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number - 759, 1947-1948 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203670934, accessed 4 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; NAGYS PRANAS, NAGYS, Pranas : Year of Birth - 1923 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. BLACK : Number - [UNKNOWN], 1948-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203717138, accessed 4 March 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; GALATILTIS ANTANAS, GALATILTIS, Antanas : Year of Birth - 1923 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 759, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203670934, accessed 26 September 2025.

Wikipedia ‘Švenčionys’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0ven%C4%8Dionys, accessed 4 March 2026.

Antanas Martisius (1923-1997) Another Who Left, by Ann Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinksienė

Updated 15-16 April 2026.

Few public records

Antanas Martisius is one of the 31 Heintzelman passengers whose selection papers have gone missing. In addition, there were 3 Displaced Persons with the same name in Germany after World War II, 4 if we count another First Transport passenger, Saliamonas Antanas Martisius, commonly known by his middle name.

At least we know from his Bonegilla card that our Antanas had a birthdate of 1 December 1923, so we can focus on a man with that name and birthdate. The Bonegilla card also says that he was one of the 7 sent to the Pyramid Hill Quarries in northwest Victoria.

Antanas' photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Antanas' Lithuanian past

The DP Registration Record form completed in Germany in November 1946 says he was born in Šakai in Marijampolė County, now close to the eastern border of the Kaliningrad exclave. His parents were Juozas Martisius and the former Prančiska Butkiūte.

His usual trade or occupation was stated to be smith, which presumably was a blacksmith as opposed to workers in metals other than iron.

A 1942 census in Lithuania, conducted despite the War, gives more information about Antanas and his family.

They actually lived in the Daugėliškiai village in the Šakiai district.  The parents married in 1921.  The census shows that they had had 9 children 21 years later, of whom 8 had survived (4 daughters and 4 sons). 

Antanas was born in Daugėliškiai village and had finished elementary school.  He was working as a metal turner at the Malcanas agricultural machinery factory in Šakiai.  Being what Australians call a "fitter and turner" would explain the "smith" description on his DP registration form.

Alien Registration Details

His Alien Registration Application form says that he was 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, so he towered almost as much as the 6 feet 3 inch (1.9 m) tall Lembit Koplus, his fellow Pyramid Hill worker.

The file which contains his Alien Registration Application form also has his original Certificate of Registration under the Aliens Act, a passport-like document. It was issued in September 1952 to replace an earlier Certificate which was mutilated. This means that there is no record of his movements after leaving the Bonegilla Camp for Pyramid Hill until a Rae Street, Fitzroy, address at the start of the new Certificate.

Later changes of address were to a hostel in Eildon, Victoria, in September 1953 and to semi-rural Clarinda, then on the outskirts of Melbourne but now definitely a southeastern suburb, in July 1956.

In April 1957, Mūsų Pastogė has him advertising twice for another Lithuanian to contact him.  His address now was in inner suburban Melbourne, on Montague Street in Albert Park.  "There is news from Lithuania" was added to the second advertisement, perhaps producing the desired reaction.

Antanas Leaves

Then the final record states that Antanas left the Commonwealth (of Australia) on 11 July 1958 on a passenger ship, the Oronsay. It sailed a trans-Pacific route, stopping at both Vancouver, Canada, and San Francisco in the United States.

The Oransay was favoured by several others who left Australia for the Americas. The first was Viktoras Kuciauskas in 1956, bound for the love of his life in the United States. The peripatetic Vladas Navickas left Australia on this ship in early in 1959. Veronika Tutins, now Brokans, travelled on the Oronsay with her family in 1960, probably with the aim of joining her successful brother-in-law.

Antanas' death

After Antanas left Sydney on the Oronsay, there is one final set of public records, about his death.  None of them give the date of birth of the deceased, but they all give the year as 1923.  This separates him from Saliamonas Antanas, born in 1920 or perhaps 1921, plus 2 others named Antanas Martisius and captured in the Arolsen Archives digitising, born in 1917 and 1921.

The major item is an advertisement in the Canadian newspaper, Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland in English) in its 6 January 1998 edition.  Headed Padėka or Thanks, a translation would read,

'ANTANAS MARTIŠIUS, our dearest and best man not only in Canada, but also in the whole world, departed for eternity on 12 December 1997.   With his loss, this foreign land became even colder.  We will carry in our hearts the goodness, patience, generosity and faith sown by the late Antanas all our lives and will try to help others, as he helped us. 

'We sincerely thank the Franciscan Fathers of the Resurrection Parish and the priest from Lithuania, Julius Sasnauskas, OFM, for the funeral rites, musician Danguola Radikienė for the beautiful singing and organ playing during the Mass, and Valea Siminkevičienė for the wonderful bouquets of flowers. 

'Thank you to the pallbearers, friends and acquaintances for attending the funeral, expressing condolences, flowers, requesting Mass and donations for the 6-year-old orphan, Renata Gelžinytė, from Lithuania who was burned. Thank you to Birutė Stanulienė and Genutė Kobelskienė for preparing a delicious lunch. Special thanks to Vytautas Kulnis and Viktoras Račiukaičis for their sincerity, help and advice during the funeral. 

'With deep sadness — Angelė and Birutė.'

Those attending the funeral on 15 December donated CA$180 for the 6-year-old orphan who needed a skin graft.

Who were Angelė and Birutė?  Since Angelė now has a joint headstone with Antanas, but with no dates in her case, we hypothesised that she was Antanas' wife.  We further hypothesised that Birutė was their daughter.   However, an 2010 article in Tėviškės Žiburiai about Birutė says that she was Antanas' stepdaughter.

Since the World Wide Web is still great at enabling people at great distances to make easy contact with each other, we now know from Birutė that the former First Transporter was indeed her stepfather.  And that Angelė is a good distance from sharing the grave with Antanas.

Antanas Martisius' headstone with space for wife Angele in 
St. John's Lithuanian Cemetery in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Source:  Billion Graves

SOURCES

Billion Graves, 'Antanas Martisius' https://billiongraves.com/grave/Antanas-Martisius/52346233?referrer=myheritage, accessed 14 April 2026.11.

‘Folder DP2579, names from MARTINSONS, MARIA to MARTON, IBOLYA (2)’ 3.1.1 Registration and Care of DPs inside and outside of Camps, DocID: 68195911 (Antanas MARTISIUS), ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68195911, accessed 2 March 2026.

Geni 'Antanas Martišius' https://www.geni.com/people/Antanas-Marti%C5%A1ius/6000000052312923835, accessed 4 May 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1957) 'Pajieškojimai' ('Searches' in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 1 April, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1957/1957-04-01-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 13 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (1957) 'Pajieškojimai' ('Searches' in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 8 April, p4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1957/1957-04-08-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 13 April 2026.

National Archive of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents, 1948-1965; 1958/MARTISIUS A, MARTISIUS Antanas - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Heintzelman 28 November 1947, 1947-1958 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=6036235, accessed 3 March 2026.

National Archive of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; MARTISIUS ANTANAS, MARTISIUS, Antanas : Year of Birth - 1923 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 964 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203615119, accessed 3 March 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1997) 'Toronto Ont' (in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 16 December p 2  https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1997/1997-12-16-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1998) 'Padėka, A † A Antanas Martišius' ('Thanks, RIP Antanas Martisius, in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 6 January p 2  https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1998/1998-01-06-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (1998) 'Toronto Ont' (in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 6 January p 10  https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/1998/1998-01-06-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

Tėviškės Žiburiai (The Lights of Homeland) (2010) 'Birutė Lukšėnaitė' (in Lithuanian) Mississauga, Ont, 19 October, p 15 https://spauda.org/teviskes_ziburiai/archive/2010/2010-10-19-TEVISKES-ZIBURIAI.pdf, accessed 15 April 2026.

VšĮ Genealoginiai surašymai (Public Institution Genealogical Censuses) 'Šeimos surašymas 1942 metais' ('Family Census in 1942', in Lithuanian) https://eu3.ragic.com/genealogija/census/3/19406.xhtml, accessed 4 March 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Clarinda, Victoria’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarinda,_Victoria, accessed 3 March 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Marijampolė County’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijampolė_County, accessed 2 March 2026.

Wikipedia, ‘Šakai’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0akiai, accessed 2 March 2026.

Wikipedia ‘SS Oronsay (1950)’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Oronsay_(1950), accessed 2 March 2026.

Woomera, South Australia, by Jonas Mockūnas

Rocket range

The idea of establishing a rocket range in outback Australia — with the impressive title of the Anglo-Australian Long-Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE) — originated soon after the end of World War II. Concerned by the lack of adequate defences to the German V-2 rockets during the war and by growing Cold War tensions in the post-war environment, the Anglo-Australian Joint Project was established in 1946 with the LRWE as a centrepiece.

A huge parcel of remote land in South Australia — the Woomera Prohibited Area — was declared in 1947, for use as a testing range for new rockets and guided missiles. At its peak, the range covered 270,000 square kilometres, an area larger than the United Kingdom, and accommodated both military and civil aerospace testing facilities. Today, the somewhat smaller prohibited area is called the RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC).

Growing up in Adelaide during the 1950s, I was vaguely aware of the rocket range, as tests were occasionally reported in the local media. I also knew that some of the Displaced Persons (DPs) who had arrived in Australia after the War had worked there, including my father and a few of his Lithuanian friends and acquaintances. It was only a few years ago that I began to comprehend the massive scale of the project, or the contribution made by refugees, largely thanks to the research of Associate Professor Andrew Saniga of Melbourne University.

Tent lines at Woomera in 1947 or 1948 in the base camp of No. 2 Airfield Construction Company,
RAAF, engaged in constructing the airfield for the rocket range

Source:  Australian War Memorial PO1984.001

DPs Employed Despite Security Questions

Once the Prohibited Area was established, the Department of Works and Housing was tasked with building a village and other infrastructure at Woomera. Labour was in short supply, so despite the security considerations at the military-controlled site, newly-arrived DPs under work contract to the Australian government were also brought in to assist with the construction phase.

Some of the ‘Balts’ who had reached Australia in late 1947 on the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, the First Transport, began arriving at the Woomera worksites from April 1948, having been redirected from their initial placements in fruit picking or other jobs. The first major placement, of 50 men from the Bonegilla migrant camp, was despatched on 2 June 1948; by mid-1949 there had been over 400 DPs sent to the rocket range, and 360 were still there despite the harsh work and living conditions. 

Most likely there were few attractions in this remote environment for the new migrants other than their pay packets, which were larger than could be found for unskilled work elsewhere in Australia; the June 1948 contingent started on a wage of £7/10 per week, accommodation and meals included. By April 1949 my father, who had arrived on the Second Transport, recorded that most unskilled wages started at £11 per week.

Hundreds of DPs Employed at Woomera

In May 1949 the Security Officer at Woomera compiled a Nominal Roll of the DPs who had been employed at Woomera from April 1948 to April 1949. Numerically, the Poles were the largest group (112), followed by Lithuanians (92), Latvians (89) and Estonians (38). The Nominal Roll, together with the Bonegilla records, show at least 34 Balts from the First Transport at Woomera during the late 1940s:

Estonians Kuusk, Lembit Latvians Abolins, Voldemars Apinis, Janis Bergtals, Sergejs Bergtals, Nikolajs Kondrats, Vilis Muiznieks, Elmars Osins, Augusts Osis, Eriks

Lithuanians Balsevičius, Bronius Brazauskas, Antanas Budrionis, Antanas Dailyde, Vladas Janonis, Zenonas Kildišas, Adolfas Laurinavičius, Povilas Lileika, Algirdas Lizaitis, Algirdas Meškelis, Vilgelminas Navickas, Albinas Norkeliunas, Antanas Norkūnas, Vytautas Petruškevičius, Jonas Petruškevičius (nee Salytė), Viltis Reisgys, Anskis Rimkevičius, Eduardas Sivickas, Vincas Staugas, Eduardas Strankauskas, Jonas Valinčius, Kazys Venzlauskas, Antanas Volkovas, Simonas Zakarauskas, Jurgis Zeronas, Romualdas

[Some names in the list above have had links added to them, which will take you to the biographies of those individuals.  More links will be added as more relevant biographies appear on this blog.]

The earliest from the First Transport to arrive at Woomera was Vilgelmas Meškelis, on 25 April 1948; he had already worked picking fruit for J Nethersole and Son, at Ardmona in Victoria, before being sent to Iron Knob in South Australia after a return to the Bonegilla camp. He was followed by four others during May 1948 (S. Bergtals, Laurinavičius, Navickas and Norkūnas). Nine members of the June 1948 contingent from Bonegilla were First Transporters.

Most of the men were employed as labourers on the various construction projects, although a few were given semi-skilled or trade tasks. Elmars Muiznieks, a mechanic in Latvia, was employed in the mechanics workshop until he was dismissed (see below) and Romualdas Zeronas was employed as a cook’s offsider until he too was dismissed.

The Bergtals brothers, having had prior supervisory experience, were given more responsibility, Sergejs as a ganger/foreman, and Nikolajs as a ganger/draftsman. Albinas Navickas worked as a linesman, Jonas Petruškevičius as a stone mason, and Anskis Reisgys as a cable joiner.

Viltis Petruškevičius, née Salytė, the only woman in this group, worked as a waitress; she had opted to go to Woomera to accompany her husband Jonas after they married in April 1948.

Building the spur line to Woomera, 1949

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Conditions in the early construction camps were often relatively primitive, even for men who had spent years in Europe’s Displaced Persons camps. Many had elected to put up with the conditions as a means of saving a nest-egg towards their futures in the big cities, others enjoyed the new-found freedom in the bush including the relatively unrestrained opportunities for alcohol and/or gambling. Not surprisingly, around 6 per cent of the DPs were dismissed for various transgressions within that first year.

Escapade Led to Deportation

Perhaps one of the more colourful escapades was that undertaken by two Latvians, Elmars Muiznieks and Julius Gravans who stole a truck in Woomera in February 1949 but were soon apprehended, fined £20 Pounds in the Port Augusta Police Court, and dismissed from their employment.

Deportation Order for Elmars Muiznieks

Source:  Arolsen Archives

What may have started as a lark did not end well for these men: ignoring their work obligations to the Australian Government, they then made their way to Melbourne, but were soon arrested by the Victorian Police operating at the request of the Department of Immigration. The authorities had clearly had enough — the men were given dictation tests, in Italian and Romanian, and declared prohibited immigrants before being deported in September 1949. Ironically, the First Transport Balts were released from their work obligations to the Commonwealth at the end of September 1949.

FOOTNOTES

1. The Nominal Roll does not list all of the above names; in particular, Viltis Petruškevičius and Algirdas Lileika do not appear on the Roll and have been included because of other substantiating documentation. If searching the Nominal Roll, please be aware of other errors also, including incorrect arrival dates to Australia (several First Transport passengers are shown as arriving in November 1948, whereas the year should be 1947), and incorrect listing by nationality (for example Budrionis and Laurinavičius are both listed under the Latvian heading).

2. There are many other issues associated with Woomera that are beyond the scope of this post. Prof Saniga touched on a few of these in the 2022 exhibition catalogue, referring to the irony of ‘war-weary European migrants‘ who had been displaced from their own homelands being sent to work on a military project that had involved ‘the displacement of Aboriginal people, mainly the Kokatha, from their tribal lands’.

ANN'S ADDITIONS

In a 2025 paper, Scriver, Cooke and Saniga note that ‘At least six different Aboriginal Peoples were impacted by the LWRE. Much of what had been the country of the Kokatha People ... would thereafter be designated the Woomera Prohibited Area. 

'The extent of the impact was much greater, however, as numerous other groups would also be profoundly affected ... along the thousands of kilometres of the rocket range’s firing line that traversed their ancestral countries between Woomera and the northwest coast of Australia. 

'These included the Nakako, Pitjantjatjara, Ngatatjara, Mardu and Nyangumarda Peoples ... tracking and clearing people from the fall zones of spent rockets by the LRWE’s Native Patrol Officers, including the removal to mission reserves of women and children of the Manjiljarra/Martu Wangka and Yulparija Peoples, some of who had reputedly never left the desert previously.’

We should note that what may seem ruthless now was just part and parcel of what had happened to many people across Europe and Asia during and after World War II, especially in the Baltic and other Eastern European countries from which the DPs came. 

The Anglo side of this Anglo-Australian project, in particular, might have included survivors of the London Blitz of September 1940 to May 1941 or people whose families had been caught up in it.  The military of both nations had just been fighting against would-be invaders for 6 long years.

Those “growing Cold War tensions” Jonas mentioned at the start affected the attitudes of Anglo-Australian officials to the pre-existing populations.  They had to be moved on for the good of the whole world.

SOURCES

Brisbane Telegraph (1949) ‘Balts jailed; Left jobs’ Brisbane, May 16, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article212265738, accessed 27 January 2026.

Mockūnas, Jonas (snr) (1949) [Personal diary].

National Archive of Australia: Commonwealth Investigation Service, South Australia; D1918, Investigation case files, single number series with 'S' prefix, 1938-1960; S1493/5/2, Nominal roll of displaced persons at Woomera [Long Range Weapons Establishment, Woomera, SA], 1948-1949 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=856767, accessed 18 February 2026.

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 – [Schedule No. SA1 to SA31], 1948-1950 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=23150376, accessed 18 February 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, South Australia Branch; D4481, Alien registration cards, alphabetical series, 1946-1976; PETRUSKEVICIUS VILTIS LODZE, Petruskevicius Viltis Lodze - Nationality: Lithuanian - Arrived Fremantle per General Stuart Heintzelman 28 November 1947 Also known as NEE SALYTE, 1947-1952 https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=9221636, accessed 18 February 2026.

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