Edvardas Lapinskas (1914-1975): Agricultural Expert Turned Sheet Metal Worker, by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

We have met Edvardas Lapinksas briefly already. He was standing on the left of a photo of 4 First Transport employees of the Melbourne timber company, CJ Webb, Row & Anderson. They were photographed together with one of the company’s trucks at Thornton, northeast of Victoria’s capital city of Melbourne.

The photograph again, with Edvardas Lapinskas standing on the left,
Bernardas Matkevicius in the cab, at the wheel,
Juozas Nakas standing on the right, and their Estonian friend,
probably Helmut Nursalu, seated.

Source:  Private collection

The Thornton Photograph

In June 1948, another of the men, Juozas Nakas, wrote on the back of one copy of the photo and sent it to his brother, Osvaldas, in Germany. That is why we still have access to the photo.

Edvardas' Youth

From Edvardas’ Particulars of Person Wishing to Migrate to Australia form among his selection papers, we find that he was born in Dusetai Zarasai, Lithuania, on 27 June 1914. At 33, he was one of the older men selected for migration.

Edvardas Lapinskas' photograph, colourised,
from his 1947 selection papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) DP Record for Edvardas says that his parents were Bronius and Stase, whose family name before marriage was Jerulyte.

His previous occupation was described by the seldom used word, ‘functionary’. The best synonym we can offer is ‘official’. The Australian equivalent could be ‘public servant’. Whether he worked for the Lithuanian Government before the war, or at a more local level, has to be guessed.

Languages spoken were Lithuanian and Russian. Given that his Particulars of Person form said that he had arrived in Germany one year earlier, it is surprising that the languages do not include German.

The Australian interview summary says that Edvardas had completed his 4 years of primary school, plus 5 years of an agricultural school.

Edvardas is Forced into Germany

The Particulars of Person Wishing to Migrate form contained Edvardas’ statement that he had served in the Lithuanian Army for one and a half years. Presumably, this was when the Lithuanian Army was fighting against Soviet forces and therefore supporting the Germans. It explains why his interview summary says that he was one of those “forcibly evacuated by the Germans” to their homeland, arriving in September 1944.

The AEF Record was completed on 4 September 1945, and bears a rubber stamp saying ‘Source 51 dPACs, Wolterdingen’. There are at least 2 places called Wolterdingen in Germany; the use of the British initials, DPAC, for Displaced Persons Assembly Centre, suggests the northern one in the British Zone, near Soltau, between Hamburg and Hannover.

It was known as 51 after it became a Baltic camp under IRO administration from July 1947 to June 1950. Edvardas was there still when he had his medical examination for migration to Australia on 13 September 1947.

Another German language document suggests that in 1945, after the War, Edvardas was one of the men employed mending roads in the town or district of Celle, less then 50 Km south of Soltau.

Off to Australia and to Thornton

Both Celle and Soltau are near Bremen which, in turn, is near Bremerhaven, from where the ship carrying Edvardas to Australia left on 30 October 1947. Like the rest of the 839 who stayed in Australia, he had a few days in Perth before another voyage to Melbourne and a train trip to Bonegilla. His stay at the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre, its official name, ended on 14 January 1948 when he joined 11 others on the trip to CJ Webb, Row & Anderson’s timber stands in Victoria.

We’ve noted already that Thornton, the place where the timber was waiting to be felled, is nearly 250 road kilometres from Bonegilla. The trip still is at least at least 2 hours 40 minutes in a modern car. It must have been something of a memorable experience for the 10 men being driven there in January 1948, given the condition of the roads then.

At this stage of our investigation, we assume that the 12 men stayed at their Thornton camp until at least 30 September 1949. That was the date on which the Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, had decided that they could be released early from their contracts to work where sent since their work had been so helpful. Certainly, the 3 Lithuanians, Nakas, Matkevicius and Edvardas Lapinskas, were there still in early 1949.

We know that because they subscribed to the fledgling Mūsų pastogė (Our Haven) Lithuanian-Australian newspaper by sending £3 each. That may well have been a large slice of their savings. It was appreciated by the newspaper, which thanked them publicly in its 16 February 1949 edition.

Edvardas also donated £1 to a collection taken up by the Lithuanian Women's Welfare Committee to help Lithuanians still in Germany. He was thanked publicly for this, along with other donors, in the Mūsų pastogė newspaper published on 17 March 1954.

Edvardas Marries

A marriage certificate from Births Deaths Marriages Victoria says that Eduardas (sic) Lapinskas married Irene Austra Ozolins on 12 November 1955.   They were married in the Office of the Government Statist, which is to say that they had a registry wedding, not a church one.  

Latvian Irene had arrived in Australia with her infant son on the fourth migrant voyage here of the Castel Bianco, on 17 December 1950.  She is stated on the certificate to have been divorced in July 1944, presumably in Latvia before she fled.

Edvardas' death certificate reveals that Irene’s maiden name was Dinsbergs.  Of interest is that she had managed to find someone called E. Dinsbergs, clearly a relative, to be a witness at the marriage to Edvardas.  If it was Ernests Dinsbergs, it was her brother or half-brother according to information on the Geni.com genealogy Website.  He had come to Australia more than 18 months before Irene. Alternatively, it might have been her sister-in-law, Elize.

Irene Lapinskas' photograph from her Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Given the youth of the son, born in September 1949, the new family started to use the Lapinskas family name for him too.

Edvardas Becomes an Official Australian

Edvardas was granted Australian citizenship on 2 September 1958, when living in the inner western Melbourne suburb of Seddon. That was a little over 10 years after his arrival here. Irene was granted her citizenship on the same date, most likely at the same ceremony, although the powers that be chose to gazette this 6 weeks after Edvardas’ gazettal. Edvardas and Irene probably never got to see this compliance with the law, though.

Edvardas' Death

Edvardas died on 21 November 1975. His death certificate says that he was aged 60. It seems that we have a better idea of his birthdate than the distressed informant: he actually was aged 61.

His home at the time was in the western Melbourne suburb of Altona North, but his death occurred in the nearby suburb of Footscray. As 21 November 1975 was a Friday, it may have been another death at work. It was another death from a heart attack, for someone who was said to have been suffering from heart disease for years.

Thinking of work, his occupation at the time was said to be sheet metal worker. We have to ask if Edvardas ever pined for agricultural work, given the focus of his education as a youth. We presume that he was satisfied where life had led him, given that it was away from the turmoil and dangers of World War II.  On the other hand, did the noise of his workplace take some getting used to after the noise of war?

He was cremated at the Springvale Botanical Cemetery and his ashes were buried there.

Irene Dies

Irene died 25 years after Edvardas, on 10 September 2000, aged 76. She had lived for many years with motor neurone disease. Surviving her were her son, Edvardas’ stepson, his wife and three grandchildren.

Irene’s ashes now rest with those of Edvardas.

SOURCES

‘AEF DP Registration Record, Lapinskas, Edvardas’ Folder DP2293, names from LAPINS, Talivaldis to LAPOSTA, Loreto (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from L, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/67976906, accessed 20 May 2026.

‘AEF DP Registration Record, Ozolinš, Irene’ Reference Code 03010101 18 144, Folder DP2981, names from OZOLINS, EDE to OZOLINS, Ivars (2), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from O, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/68500057, accessed 20 May 2026.

‘Allgemeine Ortskranks … Celle, Sanemann-Celle-Neustadt 74’, Reference Code DE ITS 2.1.2.1 NI 012 11 DIV ZM, Original collection, 2.1.2.1 NI 012 11 DIV Nationality/origin of person listed : Various, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70593430, accessed 20 May 2026.

Births Deaths Marriages Victoria (1955) 'Marriage certificate:  Eduardas (sic) Lapinskas and Irene Austra Ozolins', Registration no. 1408/1955.

Births Deaths Marriages Victoria (1975) ‘Death certificate: Edvardas Lapinskas’, Registration no. 5801/1976.

Births Deaths Marriages Victoria ‘Search your family history’ https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/search-your-family-history, accessed 19 May 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection ‘Edvards LAPINSKAS’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203623575, accessed 20 May 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Bonegilla Identity Card and Memory Collection ‘Irene A Ozolins’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203720313, accessed 20 May 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 19 February, p 647 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/240997718/25979702, accessed 19 May 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1959) ‘Certificates of Naturalization’ Canberra, ACT, 9 April, p 1219 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240998361, accessed 19 May 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Edvardas Lapinskas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244566373/edvardas-lapinskas, accessed 20 May 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Irene Austra Lapinskas’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244566374/irene-austra-lapinskas, accessed 20 May 2026.

Mūsų pastogė (Our Haven) (1949) ‘Aukos Mūsų Pastogėi‘ (‘Donations to Mūsų pastogė', in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 16 February, p 6 https://spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1949/1949-02-16-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 20 May 2026.

Mūsų pastogė (Our Haven) (1954) ‘Soc. Glog. Mot. Komiteto Melbourne pravestos rinkliavos metu, vokietijoje pasilikusiems tautiečiams sušelpti, aukojo’ (’During a Collection by the Social Welfare Committee in Melbourne, Donations Were Made to Help Compatriots Still in Germany, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 17 March, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/259360041, accessed 20 May 2026.

My Tributes ‘Death Notice for Lapinskas, Irene’ [Herald Sun, 13 September 2000] https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/tributes/notice/death-notices/lapinskas-irene/3728212/, accessed 20 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A435, Class 4 correspondence files relating to naturalisation, 1944-1950; 1949/4/5567, LAPINSKAS Edvardas – Lithuanian, 1949-1949.

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; 170, LAPINSKAS Eduardas DOB 27 June 1914, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005591, accessed 19 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; LAPINSKAS EDVARDS, LAPINSKAS, Edvards : Year of Birth - 1914 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 567, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203623575, accessed 20 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; OZOLINS IRENE A, OZOLINS, Irene A : Year of Birth - 1923 : Nationality - LATVIAN : Travelled per - CASTEL BIANCO IV : Number - 223954, 1950-1951, recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203720313, accessed 20 May 2026.

Wikipedia ‘Celle’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celle, accessed 19 May 2026.

Martha (nee Kivipuur) Donald Blažaitis (1912-1999) and Stanislovas (Stasys) Blažaitis (1906-1970): the Scottish connection, Estonian marries Lithuanian by Rasa Ščevinskienė and Ann Tündern-Smith

Scots?

Martha Donald came to Australia with a Scottish name despite possibly never having been outside the Baltic States or Germany before. She had married and divorced another Estonian with this most non-Estonian surname, Donald. His forenames were very Estonian though: August Voldemar. His father and grandfather before him were born in Estonia: any Scottish connection might have started with the great grandfather or earlier.

Martha Donald's colourised photo from her selection for Australia papers

Source:  National Archives of Australia

Stanislovas Blažaitis, on the other hand, had been born in Scotland on 3 August 1906 (although one record says 1908), despite the very Lithuanian name.

Stays Blažaitis, colourised photo from his Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The Blažaitis family

Economic migration from Lithuania after the famine of 1867-88 and into early 20th century took many people as far away as the United States, Canada, South Africa, and even Australia, but others only got as far as Scotland or England. It looks like Stanislovas‘ parents or maybe even his grandparents were part of this movement.

Stanislovas‘ father was also Stanislovas, born in 1884. His mother was Katrina Lapinckute, born in 1878. Both lived in the village of Carfin in North Lanarkshire in the central lowlands of Scotland. Stanislovas senior lived on Bell Row while Katarina lived on Back Brick Row. Neither street still exists in Carfin according to Google Maps. Indeed, if anything, the whole village looks from the air as if it has been rebuilt since World War II.

Regardless, the two parents, Stanislovas, then aged 19 and working as a miner in the Carfin coal mines, and Katrina, aged 25, were married in Carfin’s Roman Catholic Church on 26 September 1903. They were to have 7 children altogether, but 2 of them died very young.

The Blažaitis family returned to now independent Lithuania on 15 May 1921, when Stanislovas junior was 14 years old. Unverified data shows that he initially lived in Kaunas. Stanislovas Blažaitis (in some documents simply Stasys) graduated from high school there. In 1928-30 he served in the Lithuanian army attaining the rank of non-commissioned officer.

Stasys in Lithuania and Germany

According to data from the first census of Lithuanian police officers in 1932, he was working as an ordinary guard with the border police of Pagulianka village, Ukmergė county.

He met his future wife, Konstancija Janonytė-Pociūnaitė, in Kernavė, Širvintos district. There he rented a room from his future wife's parents and worked as a policeman in the border service in the village of Gurakolnė. They married on 11 February 1934, when Stasys was aged 28, and continued to live in Kernavė.

On 27 September 1935, he was admitted to the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union.

According to data from the Lithuanian census of 27 May 1942, he and his family now were living in the town of Karmėlava near Kaunas. He is known to have worked as a police officer in the Kaunas County until 4 February 1943.

When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviets from August 1944, Stanislovas left for Germany. His wife and 5 children (4 sons and a daughter) stayed in Lithuania.

The Arolsen Archives have only one record for him, from an index compiled in the early 1980s from small sets of cards. Unfortunately, the handwriting in this record is such that neither the eye nor Google Translate’s phone app can decipher where he was or what work he was doing although, and it is a big although, one entry dated 17 May 1945 seems to read Wehrmacht, German for the Nazi Armed Forces.

This being the case, it is probably that he did not desert his wife and family, but was forcibly taken from them due to his position in the Lithuanian forces then fighting with the Germans against the Soviet Union.

The record of his interview with the Australian selection panel confirms this idea, as it says, ‘Forcibly brought by the Germans’. It also records that, at the time of his application for Australia, he was living in Camp Riga in coastal Lübeck, a camp which must have been set up to house Latvians. Among the languages he knew, English was second only to Lithuanian and ahead of Russian and Polish. His English language skills were described as “very fair” – probably as positive a description as anyone was going to get from this panel. Strangely, German was not mentioned.

Martha in Germany

The Arolsen Archives have been able to digitise 11 records for Martha Donald, all with the same birthdate of 9 April 1912 or, in one case, her maiden name of Kivipuur. They tell us that she was born in Harku vald, a local government area close to the western side of Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn.

Her parents were Johannes Kivipuur and Leena, formerly Tramm. The two languages she knew already when being registered as a Displaced Person were Estonian and German. Her previous place of residence was in Tallinn. Her place of residence in Germany was Marburg-Lahn, where she worked in local the Universität Ohrenklinik or University Ear Clinic.

We don’t know what kind of work she was doing there. Indeed, her previous occupation is not recorded either on the AEF DP Registration Record or the Australian selection panel’s interview record. There it was noted that she had 6 years of primary education and was suitable for work as a domestic. This was the occupation to which all the women were assigned unless they could type, had previous nursing experience or were young and presentable enough to work as waitresses in Government hostels in Canberra instead.

A fifth category for the chosen women was housemaid, but the difference between this and domestic is difficult to discern today, when probably there are no women admitting to either occupation.

One Arolsen Archives list indicates that, on 13 June 1947, Martha had left Marburg-Lahn for an UNRRA camp in Hanau, over 100 Km to the southeast and still around two hours travel away. There was a major DP camp near Hanau, at Babenhausen, handed over to UNRRA by the US Army in May 1947, which was listed as Martha’s last address in her papers for migration to Australia.

Babenhausen camp, orginally a military barracks  and later too, 
but a Displaced Persons camp after World War II

Source:  Martin Stenger, on-post.com

Martha and Stasys Meet

Martha and Stasys sailed to Australia from the German port of Bremerhaven on the American military transport ship General Stuart Heintzelman on 30 October 1947. If Stays thought that he had left his wife and children temporarily, he knew by 1947 that there was no going back, not perhaps for a lifetime. Similarly, Martha may have known that August Donald had been rounded up by the Communists but would not have known that he had died in prison on 15 August 1947, a relatively youthful 45 years old.

Stasys was 41 years old when he left Europe. Martha was 35. At some stage before embarkation or in the next two months, the two met. Ann thinks that Stasys might have made the first move on learning her name, which seemed so obviously Scottish. After all, Scotland was where he had lived for the first 14 years of his life.

They were married in the Bonegilla camp at the start of a new year in a new country, on 1 January 1948. Despite Stasys’ Roman Catholic upbringing, they were married by the local Lutheran pastor, Bruno Muetzelfeldt.

Early Years in Australia

One week after the Heintzelman passengers arrived at the Bonegilla, on 15 December, Stasys had joined the camp staff. His maturity at the age of 41, his former employment as a policeman and border guard and the fact that he had grown up speaking English (but probably Lithuanian in the home) would have made him quite an asset. Martha joined the staff on that date too. Again, at the age of 35, she was more mature than most of the women.

They stayed on the staff until 25 October 1948. On 1 November, they left for new employment at the Beechworth Mental Hospital, in Victoria but less than 50 Km southwest of the Bonegilla camp.

You may have wondered why we earlier made of point of Stasys’ admission Lithuanian Riflemen's Union in 1935. His interest in shooting as a sport became apparent after the move to Beechworth, when the local newspaper, the Ovens and Murray Advertiser, had 18 mentions of Vytautas participating in competitions between July and October 1949.

Undoubtedly, he and Martha were released from their contract obligation to work where sent by the Employment Service on 30 September 1949, along with nearly all the other First Transport arrivals. They are likely to have moved away from Beechworth then, but we will not know more until the National Archives of Australia releases their citizenship application files.

They Become Australian Citizens

Thinking of citizenship, Stasys was so keen to do something about his that he advertised his intention to apply for naturalization under the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser as early as 4 June 1949. At that time, the Act required one year‘s residence immediately preceding the date of the application and another 4 years in the preceding 8 years, 5 years in all, although there were exceptions. Perhaps the Beechworth lawyers advising Stays, named in the advertisement, thought he might be eligible under one of the exceptions as someone who had spent his first 14 years in Scotland. They were wrong.

Stasys tried again together with Martha in February 1955, advertising together in the Melbourne Argus newspaper. On both occasions, the naturalization law required advertisements in 2 newspapers but the second advertisement has not been captured yet by the National Library’s Trove digitising service.

This time Stays was successful, along with Martha, when they took their oaths and received their citizenship certificates on 23 January 1958 (Martha) and 4 February 1958 (Stasys). Why there should have been 11 days between 2 separate ceremonies is an unknown. They then were living at 35 Cecil Street, Fitzroy, close to Melbourne’s central business district.

In those days, 35 Cecil Street might have been shared accommodation, like that in which Kostas Bušma lived. Due to the pause in home building during the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II, this often was the only type of accommodation available to those who could not afford to buy land and build a house or buy an established house.

35 Cecil Street, Fitzroy, would have been designed and probably built in the 1880s,
and still has some of its original bluestone (basalt) paving in the street

Source:  Google Street View

Stasys took the English-language forename Stanley when he became a citizen.

In their first appearances on a digitised electoral roll, the 1958 and 1963 rolls for the State of Victoria, they were still at the Fitzroy address.

By the time the 1967 rolls were compiled, they were living in St Albans. This was a residential suburb only a few kilometres northeast of Melbourne’s centre. Martha was described as a machinist while Stasys was a guillotine operator, but we are not told the industries in which they were working.

Stasys Dies

On 14 September 1970, Stasys died of a heart attack while at work, at the age of 63. The Melbourne Lithuanian language newspaper, Tėviškės aidai, reported that he had married an Estonian and had been living without mixing with other Lithuanians. He was buried on 17 September in the Fawkner Cemetery from Melbourne’s Lithuanian (Roman Catholic) church.

A plaque for Stanislaus Blazaitis among others in a row of concrete suggests cremation;
Stasys has a 4th version of his name (Stanislovas, Stasys, Stanley and Stanislaus);  why Polish?

Source:  Patricia C on Find A Grave 

Martha stayed at the St Albans address, according to the electoral rolls, but by 1977 she had moved closer to central Melbourne, in her own flat in the suburb of North Melbourne. Downsizing, we probably would call it now.

Martha dies

She was still there when a 1980 roll for the electorate including North Melbourne was compiled but another 1980 New South Wales roll shows that she had moved to the Estonian retirement village on Estonian Road, Thirlmere. She was back among people who spoke her mother tongue, many of whom would have understood the twists and turns in her life.

Normally the Estonian newspaper in Australia, Meie Kodu, would have carried numerous advertisements from family and friends after a person’s death. For Martha there was one only, on 3 February 1999. It gave no details. In the Estonian language, it said, “Rest in peace” and recorded that it had been inserted by the Eesti Abistamise Komitee, the Estonian Relief Committee. This was the organisation which had founded the Estonian Village, Thirlmere, and was still running it in 1999.

From a photograph of a plaque for Martha in the Thirlmere Cemetery, we see that she died on 18 January 1999. She was 86 years old. An entry in the very reliable Website, Australian Cemetery Index, has her buried in Wollongong, but the Administrator of the site thinks that this may be instead where her body was cremated.

Martha Blazatitis' plaque in the Thirlmere Cemetery,
with her first name spelled as the Estonian Village administration thought it ought to be spelled;
the Estonian reads, "Born (née) Kivipuur, in Harku local government area, in Estonia,
Died in Picton:  Rest in Peace"

Source:  Ken on Find A Grave

Although Martha was well enough to make a donation to the Australian Estonians’ Rahvuskapital fund in 1983, we hypothesise that her health deteriorated quickly after she moved to Thirlmere, so soon that she was unable to make and keep friends there. Like Stasys not mixing with other Lithuanians in Melbourne, she possibly did not spend time with other Estonians there either, making friendships which might have followed her to Thirlmere.

Given that Martha was 11 years older than the average age of all the Heintzelman passengers and Stasys was 17 years older, they possibly felt that they had little in common with these younger people. Estonians and Lithuanians of their own age in the Melbourne communities mostly would have arrived before World War II or have been born here, not having life experiences in common with those of Martha and Stasys.

A person in poor health in the Estonian Village would have been cared for well, but possibly would have had little social interaction with other residents. This may well have been a lonely end. However, Martha may have been too unwell to notice.  The very end appears to have come in a hospital in the town of Picton, near the Estonian Village, which would have had better resources to care for the dying.

SOURCES

‘AEF (American Expeditionary Force) DP Registration Record, Donald, Martha, Folder DP0843, names from DON, RACHELA to DONNER, Herbert (1), 3.1.1.1 Postwar Card File / Postwar Card File (A-Z) / Names in "phonetical" order from D /’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/66913948, accessed 11 May 2026.

Argus (1955) ‘Advertising’ Melbourne, Vic, 3 February, p 15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71631119, accessed 12 May 2026.

Australian Cemetery Index ‘Martha Blazaitis’ https://austcemindex.com/inscription?id=1157522, accessed 11 May 2026.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1958) ‘Certificates of Registration as Australian Citizens’, Canberra, ACT, 2 October, p 3300 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240882361, accessed 12 May 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, ‘Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Stasys Blazaitis’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203693078, accessed 11 May 2026.

Bonegilla Migrant Experience, ‘Bonegilla Identity Card Lookup, Martha Donald’ https://idcards.bonegilla.org.au/record/203693079, accessed 11 May 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Marta (sic) Blazaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?fulltext=&firstname=marta&middlename=&lastname=blazaitis&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=&locationId=&bio=&linkedToName=&plot=&memorialid=&mcid=&datefilter=&orderby=r, accessed 15 May 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Stanislaus Blazaitis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212524938/stanislaus-blazaitis, accessed 12 May 2026.

Geni.com ‘August Voldemar Donald’ https://www.geni.com/people/August-Donald/6000000029438163871?through=6000000039104063771, accessed 12 May 2026.

Geni.com ‘Martha Lisette Blazaitis {Donald} (Kivipuur)’ https://www.geni.com/people/Martha-Lisette-Blazaitis-Donald/6000000039104063771, accessed 12 May 2026.

Kuchel, Rachel (2015) ‘A hearty welcome and new beginning’ Lutheran Church of Australia, 10 June https://www.lca.org.au/blog/2015/06/10/a-hearty-welcome-and-new-beginning/, accessed 10 May 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1949) ‘Bonegillast, need, kes alustasid uut elu kahekesi’, (‘From Bonegilla, those who have started a new life as a couple’ in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 30 September, p 4 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85529251, accessed 11 May 2026.

Meie Kodu (Our Home) (1983) ‘Rahvuskapitali Tanu’ (‘National Fund Thanks’, in Estonian) Sydney, NSW, 31 August, p 6 https://dea.digar.ee/cgi-bin/dea?a=d&d=meiekodu19830831.1.6&e=-------et-25--1--txt-txIN%7ctxTI%7ctxAU%7ctxTA-------------, accessed 12 May 2026.

My Heritage ‘Morkuniene Family Tree, Blažaitytė (Morkūnienė), ‎‬Stanislovas (Stanley) Blažaitis’ https://www.myheritage.lt/family-trees/morkuniene/OYYV7JNVATLM736OPEKDPMDTD6DD4EY, accessed 11 May 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; 351, BLAZAITIS Stasys born 3 August 1908, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4695250, accessed 12 May 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; DONALD Martha DOB 9 April 1912, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005894, accessed 12 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; BLAZAITIS NEE DONALD MARTHA, BLAZAITIS (NEE DONALD), Martha : Year of Birth - 1912 : Nationality - ESTONIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 1101, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693079, accessed 12 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; BLAZAITIS STASYS, BLAZAITIS, Stasys : Year of Birth - 1906 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 745, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203693078, accessed 12 May 2026.

‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 ZM, 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST Nationality/origin of person listed : Estonian / 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Marburg/lahn (SK)’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70452790, accessed 12 May 2026.

‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 ZM, 2.1.1.1 HE 033 EST 2 Information on foreigners being locally registered (after the war) in the district Marburg/lahn (SK)’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70452784, accessed 12 May 2026.

‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.2 HE 033 9 EST ZM, 2.1.1.2 HE 033 9 EST Nationality/origin of person listed : Estonian’, ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70539799, accessed 12 May 2026.

‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.2 HE 033 11 EST ZM, 2.1.1.2 HE 033 11 EST Nationality/origin of person listed : Estonian,’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70539884, accessed 12 May 2026.

‘Original collection, DE ITS 2.1.1.1 HE 032 RUS 11 ZM, 2.1.1.1 HE 032 RUS 11 Information on foreigners extracted from files of social securities and employment agencies of the district Marburg/Lahn’ ITS/Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/70451687, accessed 12 May 2026.

Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1949) ‘Advertising’ Beechworth, Vic, 4 June, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/268200609, accessed 15 May 2026.

Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1949) ‘Sweepstake Shoot To-Day’ Beechworth, Vic, 9 July, p 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/268193869, accessed 15 May 2026.

Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1949) ‘Rifle Shooting, Beechworth Club, To-day’s Shoot’, Beechworth, Vic, 8 October, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/268197421, accessed 15 May 2026.

Tėviškės aidai (Echoes of the Homeland) (1970) ‘Mirė Stasys Blazaitis‘ (‘Death of Stasys Blazaitis’ in Lithuanian) Melbourne, Vic, 29 September, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1970/1970-nr37-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf accessed 12 May 2026.

Wikipedia ‘Harku Parish’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harku_Parish, accessed 11 May 2026.

Wikipedia ‘Carfin’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carfin, accessed 11 May 2026.

Vytautas Simniškis (1918- 1987), Leading Australian Lithuanian, by Daina Pocius and Ann Tündern-Smith

Lithuanian Leader in Australia

Vytautas Simniškis very quickly became a leader of the Lithuanian community in Australia.  Less than 5 years after arriving here on the First Transport, he became the second National President of ALB, Australijos Lietuvių Bendruomenė, the Australian Lithuanian Community, during 1953-54.

The earliest photo we have of Vytautas Simniškis is
from his 1947 selection papers for migration to Australia

Source:  National Archives of Australia

He stayed on the ALB board, initiating important developments for his community.  As well, from 1960 to 1983, he chaired the board of Sydney’s Lithuanian House.  During this time, he oversaw the club’s move from inner city Redfern to much larger, modern premises in Strathfield.  They have been described as “one of the most beautiful Lithuanian houses in the entire diaspora”.

Daina already has detailed this on her blog, Australian Lithuanian History.  In summary, during his ALB presidency, he was

• Responsible for developing close relationships with other exile organisations and Australian political parties;
• Raising the case for Lithuania’s independence through these organisations, nationally and internationally;
• Initiating a united Baltic committee to campaign for independence for all 3 countries.

Also while on the ALB board he

• Called together Sydney women to establish their Women's Social Care Association, in 1956: his wife was a member and served as President;
• Strengthened finances for the Australian-Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven).

Daina published the Simniškis story only 6 months ago, but documents held by the National Archives of Australia for him and his wife have become available since then. Let’s see what they add to the story.

Vytautas' early life

Vytautas Simniškis was born in 2 October 1918, in Marijampolė, into a large family of a wealthy farmers.

Like many Lithuanians, Vytautas ended up in the Seedorf Camp after the end of the war in Germany.  This Camp was in Seedorf bei Zeven in what is now Lower Saxony, north-western Germany, in the British occupation zone.  It lay roughly midway between Hamburg and Bremen.  The British gave it the DP Accommodation Centre number DPAC 249.  There he used his previous clerical experience to be a warehouse manager.

According to the report of the selection panel for migration to Australia, he had reached Germany in October 1944.  His reason for coming was the usual, “Fled from Russian regime”.

He had completed 4 years of secondary education in addition to the minimum 4 years of primary school. 

In Lithuania he had been a clerk for 7 years, his qualifications for this being “trade school”.  Presumably that was his 4 years of secondary education.  He also had served in the Lithuanian armed forces for 18 months, during 1938-40.

Vytautas Starts Out in Australia

He served the Australian Government’s minimum of two years’ employment here at the brown coal mines of Yallourn, Victoria.

There had been a haircut and a shave before this photograph
was taken later in 1947 for Vytautas' Bonegilla card

Source:  National Archives of Australia

At the beginning of 1950, Vytautas moved to Sydney, where he put down his roots and devoted himself wholeheartedly to Lithuanian activities.  He bought a grocery store, which he modernised and expanded.  It was his livelihood until he retired.

The two years (likely to have been reduced by some months to a period ending 30 September 1948 by a decision of the Minister for Immigration) at the brown coal mines means that Vytautas should have a place in Josef Sestokas’ book, Welcome to Little Europe. Indeed, he is there, as someone “Only remembered for what he did after his time at the North Camp: Went to Sydney, opened a bottle shop (sic) and became a leader within the Sydney Lithuanian community.”

Vytautas the Administrator

From the beginning of 1952 until 1958, Vytautas was a member of the board of the Lithuanian Community of Australia, serving for three terms.  Soon after he joined, he was chosen to be President when the previous office-holder left Australia.

In 1955, Vytautas married fellow Lithuanian Tatjana Chodeckaitė.  Tatjana, born in Siauliai, had been a dental assistant in Lithuania and Germany.  She had earned her income for 10 years from needlework, including embroidery.  She was 39 years old when she arrived in Australia on the Svalbard on the 16 August 1948.  Vytautas was something like 9 years younger.

When Vytautas turned 60 in 1978, Mūsų Pastogė published a front page tribute.  Its position was not a surprise, given that he had taken on the role of publisher of this newspaper from January 1954 to September 1959.  This appears to be the period of time in which he was strengthening the finances, so he was not a publisher in name only.

The photograph used to illustrate Vytautas'
60th birthday tribute

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

The anonymous author the tribute finished by writing, in Lithuanian of course, “Calm and careful, never hot-tempered, always with 'gaspadorian' wisdom [that of the head of the household or the farm owner] and light humour, Vytautas persistently ploughed furrow after furrow in the entire soil of our social activity and grew a rich harvest. We congratulate Vytautas Simniškis on this anniversary and wish him not to let go of the plough and reins from his strong hands for a long time.”

Vytautas' Death

Sad to say, Vytautas lasted less than 9 more years, dying on 3 July 1987.  His funeral was attended by around 200 mourners 5 days later at St. Joseph's Church, Lidcombe.

The Chairman of the Sydney Lithuanian Club, Vytautas Bukevičius, spoke on behalf of his Board.  He urged those present to continue Vytautas’ work by committing to maintain the Lithuanian Club and leave it for future generations as an eternal monument.

A final photograph, to accompany Vytautas' obituary

Source:  Mūsų Pastogė

The larger mourner numbers meant a long motorcade to the Rookwood Crematorium.

This time, the man who wrote the obituary in Mūsų Pastogė is known.  He was Anskis Reisgys, who had arrived on the First Transport with Vytautas and served on committees with him. Translated from Lithuanian, some of Anskis’ words follow.

“The path from the old Redfern walls to the current licensed [Lithuanian] club with new buildings was winding and full of obstacles. It was necessary to compete in the courts with bar lawyers, municipal bureaucrats, builders; to study the basic laws of this land, binding the clubs, and to listen to disputes among themselves.  Vytautas overcame all this.

“He had neither magical power nor supernatural abilities, but he had a 'gaspadorian' hand, was straight-thinking and, after patiently listening to mutual disputes, would say with a light sense of humor: '...let's get back to work, men, because we need to do it now.'  And thus, ploughing furrow by furrow, he grew a great harvest.  He was not proud of his achieved result, but quietly, quietly rejoiced in the beautiful harvest.”

Some of those words and phrases ('gaspadorian', '… ploughing furrow by furrow, he grew a great harvest') suggest that Anskis was the author of the earlier tribute also.

The misspelling on Vytautas' Rookwood Cemetery plaque
is not how he should be remembered

Source:  Billion Graves

Tatjana died just over a year later, on 11 August 1988, and her ashes are interred with those of Vytautas at Rookwood.

CITE THIS AS:  Pocius, Daina and Tündern-Smith, Ann (2026) 'Vytautas Simniškis (1918- 1987), Leading Australian Lithuanian', https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/05/vytautas-simniskis-1918-1987-leading-Australian-Lithuanian.html.

SOURCES

Billion Graves 'Search Results of Vytautas Simniskis' https://billiongraves.com/search/results?CollectionID=&CatalogID=&PageNumber=1&PageSize=20&GivenNames=vytautas&GivenNamesExact=false&MaidenName=&MaidenNameExact=false&FamilyName=Simniskis&FamilyNameExact=false&EventBirthYear=&EventBirthYearRange=5&EventDeathYear=&EventDeathYearRange=5&MilitaryConflict=&MilitaryBranch=&MilitaryRank=&YearRange=&ID=2f5e5799-00b2-4377-b876-449bd9096ed3, accessed 9 May 2026. 

Find A Grave ‘Vytwatas (sic) Simniskis’ www.findagrave.com/memorial/150628633/vytwatas-simniskis, accessed 9 May 2026.

Find A Grave ‘Tatjana Simniskis’ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150628632/tatjana-simniskis, accessed 9 May 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1978) ‘V. Simniškiui 60 metų’ (‘V. Siminiskis, 60 years’, in Lithuanian), Sydney, NSW, 10 September, p 1 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1978/1978-10-09-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 9 May 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; 276, SIMNISKIS Vytautas DOB 2 October 1917, 1947-1947 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5005991, accessed 9 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Central Office; A11841, Migrant Selection Documents for Displaced Persons who travelled to Australia per Svalbard departing Bremerhaven 21 May 1948, 1948 - 1948; 312, CHODECKAITE Tatjana DOB 27 December 1909, 1948 - 1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=5124221, accessed 9 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; CHODECKAITE TATJANA, CHODECKAITE, Tatjana : Year of Birth - 1909 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - SVALBARD : Number - [UNKNOWN], 1948 - 1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203670444, accessed 9 May 2026.

National Archives of Australia: Migrant Reception and Training Centre, Bonegilla [Victoria]; A2571, Name Index Cards, Migrants Registration [Bonegilla], 1947-1956; SIMNISKIS VYTAUTAS, SIMNISKIS, Vytautas : Year of Birth - 1917 : Nationality - LITHUANIAN : Travelled per - GEN. HEINTZELMAN : Number – 672, 1947-1948 recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=203711663, accessed 9 May 2026.

Reisgys, Anskis (1987) ‘A A. VYTAUTAS SIMNIŠKIS’ (‘In Memoriam, Vytautas Simnisksi’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), Sydney, NSW, 20 July, p. 3 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1987/1987-07-20-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 9 May 2026.

Šeštokas, Josef (2010) Welcome to Little Europe: Displaced Persons and the North Camp, Sale, Little Chicken Publishing, p 94.

Bronius Bukevičius (1915-1990): builder of furniture and community, by Daina Pocius, Ann-Tündern-Smith and Rasa Ščevinksienė

Updated 23 May 2026.

This is the story of a First Transport passenger who became well known around his adopted home town of Hobart and further afield for his singing and his willingness to support his community.

Bronius in Lithuania

Bronius was born in 20 October 1915 in the village of Kumečiai, near Kalvarija in Suvalkija, the southwestern region of Lithuania. His parents were Tomas Bukevičius and Petronėlė nee Pečiulytė. He grew up in a family of five brothers and a sister. 

He finished secondary school, although this is stated to be ‘8 years of elementary school’ on the record of his interview with the selection team for migration to Australia. He then worked in a government office.

In 1944, as the Russians approached, he left with his older brother Juozas for Germany. His Mūsų Pastogė obituarist wrote that he had reside in various DP camps. Arolsen Archives has not been able to digitise any documents for him, so we have no further evidence from that normally useful source. Juozas appears on one list only, which tells us nothing more than the date he embarked on the ship which brought him to Australia.

Bronius embarked on the First Transport, the USAT General Stuart Heintzelman, on 30 October 1947, or we would not be researching him.

Bronius Bukevičius in his 1947 photograph for his application to migrate

Source:  National Archives of Australia

The Particulars of Displaced Person Wishing to Migrate to Australia form typed up on his behalf in Germany says that he had 10 years of farming experience in Lithuania and 7 months more recent months. Presumably, the Lithuanian farm experience was before, during and after his work in the state office, when he was needed on the family farm or elsewhere in the district.

Bronius' early life in Australia

In March 1949, Bronius lodged an application to sponsor his brother for migration to Australia. Bronius then was working for HV Locke of Premaydena as an Orchard Hand, earning £5/17/6. This was less than the then basic wage of around £6/8/-, so we have to hope that the difference was due to Bronius also received a place to live and meals.

When he applied for Australian citizenship in 1957, he stated that his occupation before coming to Australia was clerk. That fits better with the obituarist’s recollection that he had worked in a government office. His current occupation was joiner, that is, a builder of furniture rather than houses.

Forming a choir on the way to Australia

When he applied for Australia, his German was ‘fair’ but he had no English. The selection team gave him a B+ score, enough to get him out of Germany on the Heintzelman.

On the voyage to Australia, Bronius joined with Kazys Mieldažys and Petras Morkunas to start a 40-man choir. Bronius had been managing a choir called Aušrinė in Germany.

In addition to singing on the ship, the choir performed for an audience of 9 local Lithuanians while the Heintzelman passengers had their 4-day Perth stopover. It continued to perform in the Bonegilla camp until the last of its members were dispersed to their first jobs in Australia. While in this camp, its singing was recorded by Albury’s radio station, which continued to broadcast the songs after the choir had disbanded.

The choir’s history and Petras Morkunas’ later achievements were recounted by fellow First Transport passenger, Kazys Mieldažys, in a celebration of Petras’ 70th birthday published in Mūsų Pastogė in December 1982.

More on his early life in Australia

Bronius’ first job in Australia was Goulburn Valley fruit-picking in Victoria, employed by W Young of Kelvin Orchards. He stayed there for more than 9 weeks, unlike some who came back to the Bonegilla camp after a few days. Then it was off to Tasmania after one day back at the Bonegilla camp. There he was sent to the New Norfolk, upriver from the State’s capital city of Hobart. His Bonegilla card adds nothing to this but Ramunas Tarvydas has him working with the Tasmanian Government’s Housing Department, perhaps a later destination.

A later 1947 photograph of Bronius for his Bonegilla card:
same man, same outfit (his best? but the tie is different)

Source:  National Archives of Australia

However, we know from his sponsorship of his brother, Juozas, that he was working as an Orchard Hand or assistant at Premaydena in March 1949. This still is nearly 2 hours’ drive from New Norfolk, so Bronius must have been able to move from one workplace to another in Tasmania while still under contract to the Australian Government.

When his contract period was up, probably on 30 September 1949, he moved to Hobart. The obituarist said that he worked as a Carpenter in house construction for a Derwent Park company.

From the start, Bronius involved himself in the Hobart Lithuanian community. He was the secretary of the founding meeting for a community organisation. In 1954, by which time the organisation had become the Hobart District of ALB (the Australian Lithuanian Community), he was elected to the board alongside Jonas Motienjūs and Aleksas Jakštas, both of whom we have met already in this blog.

Bronius and the Hobart Lithuanian Quartet

His choral interests were expressed in Hobart’s male quartet. When first making the news in Hobart’s Mercury newspaper on 25 November, 8 and 9 December 1950, he was the first tenor while the other members were Vaclovas Kalytis (second tenor), Karolis Maslauskas (baritone) and Juozas llciukas (bass).

According to a report in Mūsų Pastogė on 23 September 1953, the quartet now had 5 members: Bukevičius, Maslauskas, Kalytis, J. Šlyteris and Aleksas Jakštas. On that occasion, a celebration of what Lithuanians called National Day, on September 8, the author remarked that the singers would be of a high standard if they had a conductor. Unfortunately, he wrote, the Hobart Lithuanian community lacked a musician knowledgeable in choral conducting.

Bronius, his brother and their sister

Bronius’ sponsorship of Juozas was successful. Juozas, also a Joiner, was accepted as a labourer and joined Bronius in Hobart. He left Marseille on a ship called the Sagittaire with his passage paid by the International Refugee Organization (IRO, one of UNRRA’s successors), landing in Sydney on 29 July 1949.

Their sister also had fled Lithuania, with her husband and daughter, ending up with Juozas in France. Juozas applied to the Australian Government for them to be accepted as migrants. Questions then arose, including whether they were still eligible for IRO assistance, because otherwise they would have to pay their own fares to Australia. Eventually the sister, brother-in-law and niece emigrated to the USA.

Juozas starred on the lead story on page 1 of Hobart's Mercury newspaper on 12 January 1954.  The occasion was his airport reunion with his wife and two children, whom he had not seen for 11 years.

Bronius 10 years on

In June 1958, Tėviškės Aidai told its readers that Bronius had been seriously injured in a car accident two months previously. Although his health had improved, he had not been able to return to work.

On 5 March 1959, Bronius became an Australian citizen.

The quartet plus one was still performing in 1960, again at a Lithuanian National Day celebration which was reported in the 30 September issue of Mūsų Pastogė. This time, the quartet was again a quintet, with the core of Bukevičius, Maslauskas and Kalytis joined by Stasys Domkus and a later arrival, Bonifacas Šikšnius.

Bronius in later years

In 1963, he along with many others was thanked publicly for contributing a donation to the Australian Lithuanian Community (ALB) for its activities. In his case, he donated £1, the equivalent of around $120 in today’s buying power.

To support the travel of a North American Lithuanian basketball team to Australia in 1964, his donation was £5, not calculated by the Reserve Bank to be worth 5 times as much as his previous donation but still a helpful $180.

Another unhealthy episode occurred in 1971, when he fell and broke a leg. On that occasion, the Tėviškės Aidai correspondent had to report again that he was still in hospital but hoping to go home soon.

Bronius was a member of the Audit Commission of the Australian Lithuanian Community Hobart District in 1973. The thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Hobart District was marked by a gathering in the suburb of Glenorchy in September 1980. Bronius’ name was one of a number singled out for special mention for having served on the board at times over the previous years.

Bronius died on the 10 April 1990, and was thought worth of two slightly different obituaries, one in Mūsų Pastogė for 7 May 1990 and one in Tėviškės aidai for 15 May.  He was cremated in the Cornelian Bay crematorium.  Juozas had died already, on 27 June 1988.

Bronius Bukevicius' plaque in the Cornelian Bay Cemetery:
The Lithuanian Ilsekis ramybeja means 'Rest in peace'

Source:  JMcL on Find A Grave

The Cornelian Bay Cemetery wall which contains Bronius' ashes and plaque

Source:  JMcL on Find A Grave

Baltic people and singing

Hobart’s Lithuanian Quartet, anchored by 3 men from the General Stuart Heintzelman, was not the only musical expertise and enjoyment brought to Australia by the First Transport. We know of a Lithuanian quartet or double quartet in Adelaide and Lithuanian choirs in Melbourne.

Sydney-based EMA (Eesti Meeskoor Austraalias, Estonian Men’s Choir in Australia, while ema is the Estonian word for ‘mother’) performed for 65 years after its start on the voyage to Australia. At least 2 Latvians on the voyage were trained singers, so it is not a surprise that their Melbourne community founded the Rota choir in 1949, followed by other Latvian communities.

This blog will have more about them as soon as we can put their stories together but, meanwhile, it can be said that, wherever there are Baltic people, there is singing.

FOOTNOTE:  Lithuania's National Day was commemorated after WWI until the chaos of WWII, to promote Lithuanian statehood.  Of course it became but a memory once a Communist government took over.  

The date itself is that on which Vytautas the Great was to be crowned King of Lithuania in 1430.  His crown was seized by Polish nobles opposed to his elevation while on its way from the court of the Emperor Sigismund, so the coronation did not take place.  Lithuania remained a Grand Duchy.

Continued celebration of National Day in Australia was a strong way of opposing Lithuania's WWII fate.

It is still a day of commemoration in modern Lithuania, but not a public holiday. It is most often commemorated today at monuments to Vytautas the Great (for instance in Kaunas, Jurbarkas, Veliuona), in schools, especially those named in honor of Vytautas, and briefly in cultural centres.  Some municipalities conduct short ceremonies, perhaps with flower-laying.

CITE THIS AS: Pocius, Daina , Tündern-Smith, Ann and Rasa Ščevinskienė (2026) 'Bronius Bukevičius (1915-90): builder of furniture and community' https://firsttransport.blogspot.com/2026/05/bronius-bukevicius-1915-90-builder-of.html

SOURCES

Augustavičius, S (1990) ‘Mūsų mirusieji, A † A Bronius Bukevičius’ (‘Our Deceased, In Memoriam Bronius Bukeviius’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven), 5 July, p 7 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1990/1990-05-07-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 21 April 2026.

Augustavičius, S (1990) ‘Hobartas’ (‘Hobart’, in Lithuanian) Tėviškės Aidai (The Echoes of Homeland), Melbourne, Vic, 15 May, p 6 https://www.spauda2.org/teviskes_aidai/archive/1990/1990-05-15-TEVISKES-AIDAI.pdf, accessed 22 April 2026.

Find A Grave, 'Bronius Bukevicius' https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212980499/bronius-bukevicius, accessed 23 May 2026.

Mercury (1950) ‘Lithuanian Quartet’ Hobart, Tas, 9 December, p 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26744818, accessed 30 April 2026.

Mercury (1954) 'For 11 Years They Dream of This' Hobart, Tas, 12 January, p 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27208269, accessed 1 May 2026.

Mieldažys, Kazys (1982) ‘Petrui Morkūnui 70’ (Petras Morkunas 70’, in Lithuanian) Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) Sydney, NSW, 13 December, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1982/1982-12-13-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 26 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1953) ‘Pavykęs minėjimas’ (‘A Successful Commemoration’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 23 September, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1953/1953-09-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 22 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1954) ‘Nauja Apylinkės Valdyba Hobarte’ (‘New District Council Hobart’ in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 3 February, p 4, https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1954/1954-02-03-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 29 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1960) ‘Hobartas, Tautos šventės minėjimas’ (Hobart, National Holiday Celebration, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 30 September, p 6, https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1960/1960-09-30-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 29 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1963) ‘Aukos al bendruomenei, Hobarto apylinkėje aukojo’ (‘Donations to the community, donated in the Hobart area’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 4 December, p 4 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1963/1963-12-04-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 30 April 2026.

Mūsų Pastogė (Our Haven) (1964) ‘Aukos, Šisurės Amerikos Lietuvių krepšininkų rinktines kelionės Į Australiją išlaidoms Padengti’ (‘Donations, to Cover Expenses of Lithuanian-American Basketball Team's Trip To Australia’, in Lithuanian) Sydney, NSW, 23 November, p 5 https://www.spauda2.org/musu_pastoge/archive/1964/1964-11-23-MUSU-PASTOGE.pdf, accessed 26 April 2026.

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