Two Year Contracts Part I

The Australian Government had an agreement with the International Refugee Organisation to settle at least 12,000displaced persons a year, from camps in Europe.  In exchange for free passage and help on arrival, new post WWII migrants agreed to work for the government for two years.

Between 1947 and 1953 the Australian Government assisted over 170,000 Displaced Persons to migrate to Australia.

All assisted migrants aged over 16 had to work. Regardless of qualifications men were classified as labourers and women as domestics.

So, what did they actually do?

The men were often sent to remote country places to work on the railways, work in the forest industry, cutting cane, building dams or work in mining.  

Here is a list of some places, certainly not all and with names attached if known. If you can add places, please comment below. 

New South Wales

Potts Hill (Water Board Camp) Sydney

From October 1948 a tent city grew 430 men from various nationalities.  Amongst them 75 Lithuanians.  By the camp gates a notice in German reads ‘Entry of women is prohibited’.  Many married men live here, some wives work in Sydney and could only meet out on the road. 

Two men live in each tent, there is a floor, two beds, small table and electricity. Food is made by yourself with electric frying pan, washing done yourself, in the laundry.  There are showers.

Work included laying pipes and sewers.  They earn 17-21 pounds per fortnight, of which they pay 2.6 for living in the camp. There is no large building as yet.

https://www.mhpillawarra.com.au/index.php/migrant-hostels-in-wollongong/item/105-the-balts-camp

Warragamba Dam, New South Wales

Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board project, Warragamba river which provides water supply to Sydney.  A large-scale operation that has meant the establishment of its own town, houses with modern facilities.  Unmarried workers get a bed in a dormitory at a cost of 4 shillings per day.  New arrivals get to stay in tents until a house becomes available.  There is a communal refectory, but one can choose to make your own food.  There is post, some shops, cinema that shows films three times per week.  

Surrounding area is a eucalyptus forest, three miles long ending Wallacia where there is a hotel, shops and restaurant.  The closest train station is Penrith, 16 miles away.  From there to Sydney is another 30 miles.  Come the weekend the town empties of men making there way to Sydney for the weekend. 

Work varies, constructing barracks, excavating soil, digging tunnels, blowing rocks and concreting. Work week is 40 hours, some areas they work in three shifts.  Earn 8-10 pounds in a week depending on the work.  

The first Balts arrived on 16 June 1948, four Lithuanians.  Now ten Lithuanians at the dam and four at the Mulgoa camp. It is difficult to meet up as they work odd times.  The works is said to take ten years. The town keeps growing and 3,000 workers will be here, mostly migrants from Europe.  The dam has been renamed DiPi Dam.

Waterboard requested 200 Balts to work on the dam.

Juozas Matikovas

Vincas Melnikas

Breadalbane, New South Wales

Gediminas Peciulevicius

Bronius
Tirilis

Waronora Dam, via Waterdall, Sydney

Alfonsas Praninskas

Western Australia

Bunbury, Western Australia

Main Road Board

Ten Lithuanians and two friendly Estonians.  Living near the Bunbury forest in tents.  Repairing roads, the work is not hard. Fortnight wage is around 14 pounds.

Everything they do themselves, cooking and cleaning.  Vytautas is the cook who also has a radio.  The evenings are spend listening to the radio, news from Europe.  They receive newspapers from Germany in Lithuanian which they read and pass around.  Thinking of constructing a basketball court.

Bunbury and Manjumup Pemberton Brick Yards 20 Balts

Martynas Janulis

J. Jonaitis

Simas Povilaitis

More to come.

Jonas Žilinskas the man with the iron jaw

Jonas Žilinskas (sometimes Žilinskis.  He was known as Jonaas in Australia) was born in 1919 in Kretinga.  

As a young man he became a trainee acrobat with a troupe that spent World War II entertaining soldiers. At this time, Žilinskas developed the “strongman” aerial act that he later brought to Australia.  

Jonas was part of the first transport of DP's arriving on the General Stuart Heintzelman..  His two year contract saw him cutting timber in  the Yuraygir National Park, northern NSW.   Jonas designed and built what is thought to be the first swingsaw in Australia.  It had an immediate impact on sleeper production, increasing those made form 10 to 250 sleepers per day for a 2-3 man crew. 

Before leaving the forest, Jonas built a statue of himself in the Newfoundland State Forest.  Made from concrete the life size version of himself stands on a large column. The figure is covered in a keys.  He lived in the forest in a self made wooden slab hut.  He even erected a tightrope between the trees so he could practice his circus skills.  

He never forgot his first love of circus work.  By 1950's he began working again for Australian circuses, first joining Wirth's, Sole's, Bullen and then Ashton where he remained until his retirement in 1999.  His signature act was holding a ring in his mouth while on a trapeze.  From the ring would dangle another performer. He claimed he could hold the weight of three female aerialists.  On one occasion he suffered a broken jaw while performing. 

A lovely obituary was written for him by Pixi Robertson.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/jonas-zilinskas-circus-legend-a-hard-act-to-follow-20130826-2sm4a.html