Fruit pickers needed in SA

Fresh off the ships after docking in Perth, the migrants were placed onto trains, arriving in Adelaide. The Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Employment Service (Mr. F. Dwyer) met Baltic migrants with the Rev. Father Wilfrid Ryan, President of United Lutheran Church (Dr. Stolz) and president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Dr. C. E. Hoopmann).  Father Ryan told the Balts they would be welcomed because they were young, fit, and appeared to be the types needed to help build up the country.   A few speak halting English, but most have German as a common language.

 The new migrants were quickly taken to where they would undertake work. At this time (March 1948) there was a need for fruit pickers in South Australia. Fifteen were assigned to Reynella. The remainder went by train to Morgan and will be taken by bus to Renmark (61), Barmera (47), and Berri (86) tonight.

 The Balts proved very easy to handle.  They were glad to be here and were eager to work to earn some money. Among them, were a wide range of callings including clerk, engineers, and architects, but they were prepared to forget this and settle down to work offering.

Once the season was over, the workers were transferred to the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and other grape growing areas.

News 3 March 1948 p. 6 Balts for fruit jobs welcomed.

 Berri

Vaclovas Brazauskas
Jonas Brazauskas
Stasys Gabrijolavičius
Domas Karpys
Petras Kazlauskas
Stasys Kvedaras
Eduardas Kurauskas
Lendraitis A
Apolinaras Lukošius
Jonas Mockūnas
Vytautas Neverausksas
Jonas Neverauskas
Bronius Pavilauskas
Vytautas Palavikas
Mikas Pareigis
Bronius Pukelis
Jokubas Punys
Adomas Stasytis
Juozas Staskauskis
Vytautas Stalba
Ignas Stankus
Jonas Šliažas
Pranas Stasaitis
Juozas Survila
Narimantas Tauras
Kostas Toliuzis
Jonas Užubalis
Petras Užzubalis
Kazys Vaitkevičus
Vytautas Vosylius

Monash

Balsevičius
Juozas Derencius
Antanas Jankauskas
Janulevičius
Arnoldas Janilionis
Stays Kurlianskas
Izidorius Liaksas
Jonas Pušys
Kazys Simutis
Stasys Simanavičius

Barmera

Astrauskas J
Leonas Balandis
Juozas Bataitis
Leonas Baranauskas
Hansas Glaze
Edwardas Kondrotas
Juozas Mikalauskas
Vaclovas Miliauskas
Vladas Morkys
Antanas Prekeris
Antanas Ragaisis
Jonas Repecka
Jonas Rylis
Antanas Sinickas
Zenonas Sulcas
Jonas Sauskaitis

Renmark
Pranas Apulskis
Vytautas Ambrazevičius
Maksimilijonas Berzanskis
Julius Burkauskas
Antanas Černius
Povilas Dyse
Giniotis A
Vytautas Jagminas
Vytautas Janulis
Liudas Jaronis
Stansilaus Jezukaitis
Albertas Kuras
Emilis Kuras
Zigmas Kalinauskas
Vincas Kukanauskas
Jonas Mačiunas
Pranas Marčiunas
Stanislovas Mačiulskis
Pranas Matiukas 
Stasys Mikauskas
Gediminas Paulauskas
Ignas Vaitkevičius
Stasys Varkulevičius
Valdermaris Žakis
Adomas Zelianis
Leonas Žigaitis

Coonawarra
Jonas Venslovavičius

 Reynella

Algimantas Grigonis
Aleksandras Raguckas
Stanaitis
Kazys Znutas
Tadas Žutrauskas

 

Two year contracts part III

 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.  They were thinking of constructing a basketball court.

Bunbury and Manjumup Pemberton Brick Yards 20 Balts
Martynas Janulis
J. Jonaitis
Simas Povilaitis

Myalup, Forestry Department, via Harvey WA

Victoria

Blakeville, Victoria

It was known as the Balt Camp, a work camp for displaced persons from the Baltic States working for the Forest Commission.

The Balt Camp was in Bullarto, north of Blackwood. All that remains today are a stone chimney and concrete foundations of the huts.  http://gdt.org.au/lerderderg-track/balt-camp-walk/  

The Balt Camp was built by the Forestry Commission to give employment for young displaced persons from Northern Europe in 1946.  The male workers were given the weekend off and either walked to Bullarto to catch the train or just walked through the forest to Daylesford. 

Rushworth Migrant Camp

Lithuanians organised a national dancing group that performed for Independence Day 1950. The ensemble consisted of Bladzeviciene, Brazeliene, Gudeikiene, Gyliene, Jarenkeviciene, Karpalaviciute, Zdanaviciute, Burokaite, Starinskaite, Sutas, Kisielius, Matiulionis, Musinskas, Igaunis, Starinskas.

On Feb 22 1950 they performed at the Shepparton Sports Festival.  They performed again on the 4 March for a camp concert and on 7th March at the Women’s camp at Shepparton.  The group was invited to perform in Morupna, Vagambia, Rushworth. They did not have a Lithuanian musician so borrowed a Latvian. National costumes were borrowed from Lithuanians in other cities. 

Yallourn

Three camps, 2.5 km, west, north, and east hostel. In the west and north camps, lived mainly unqualified workers and the east had various professions. 

Most had their own room, some were two to a room. Each room has an electric radiator which they could leave on as much as they wanted as electricity was cheap.  They had a food hall.  The best accommodation was in the eastern camp. Here they had brick walls and a room each, which were cleaned daily.  Two weeks cost £3 – 15.  

The work was in a coal factory, brick factory and electricity.  One could earn £15 – 25 a fortnight, the best wage was earnt in the coal mine and building as here overtime was available.  The Brick factory had a lot of dust and soot, one could earn £16.  It was hard to earn a good wage, carpentry earned the best at £30 fortnight.  

There was not much to do in the town.  Yallourn good place to live for a short time to save money, living was cheap and there was no where to spend money. 

Not one, but four weddings

There is no first wedding for a Lithuanian couple in the post WWII immigration story, in fact there are four.  On the 29th May 1948, four young couples, many of whom had just arrived on the General Sturgis ship, ten days earlier were married in the Bathurst Migrant camp.  One Latvian couple also tied the knot.  The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Father Triepper, a Latvian priest whose message in Latin and German was translated into Lithuanian.  

The Lithuanian women wore traditional national costume skirts and white linen embroidered blouses. Throughout the service, Leonas Kazlauskas played and sang hymns in Lithuanian, German and Latin.  On several occasions, Lithuanians in the chapel joined in.  The main decoration was two paper made flags, one Lithuanian, one Latvian, that hung behind the altar. 

Despite the cold weather of the day, over 250 people waited outside to shower the couples with confetti and good wishes. 

A joint wedding breakfast was held in the town.  A wedding cake was made by a Balt pastry chef and a candle was presented to each bride.  Everything else was contributed by the Catholic community of Bathurst.  During breakfast, one after each other, each couple joined hands to cut the wedding cake and each bride lit her candle. 

The couples married that day were,

Juozas Kvietalaitis and Laimutė Gelytė
Juozas Jonelynas and Albina Brazauskaitė
Juozas Matikovas and Stasė Pinikaitė
Grabrielus Žemkalnis and Danutė Butkevičiutė (Pictured above)

National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW : 1889 - 1954)  Mon 31 May 1948   Page 2 

1000 Balts in South Australia

Employed On High Priority Work


More than 1,000 Balts were employed in South Australia on work of the highest priority, the Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Employment Service (Mr. P. K. Dwyer) said on Saturday.


It was probable, he said, that several hundred more Balts would be allocated to SA before the end of the year and that fairly large numbers of women would be made available to alleviate shortages of staff in country hospitals.


The men would be employed in brick manufacturing, water works and sewerage, forestry, timber mills, road and wharf construction, gypsum mining, salt harvesting and State and Commonwealth railways.


Mr. Dwyer said that 15 Balts were engaged on the Leigh Creek coalfields and others were on labouring work at the Woomera rocket range. There were 100 Balt women in hospitals and institutions.


The Advertiser Monday 6 September 1948

Baltic Holocaust

In June each year the Baltic people remember the mass deportations of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians from their homelands to Soviet slave labor and extermination camps that occurred in June 1941. Some 60 000 people were taken from their homes on the nights of June 13 and 14th. Men, women and children starved in cattle trucks en route to Siberia. Many died of cold and disease in the Gulag archipelago.

Each year the Baltic communities gather to commemorate these events so not to forget. A church service is usually held with a laying of a wreath.

In 1988, the 75th year from this tragedy was commemorated with a public demonstration that began at the War Memorial on North Terrace. Balts dressed in traditional costumes carried flags and laid wreaths at the steps of the war memorial. Youth dressed in black with their faces painted white displayed numbers on the front of their clothes. The numbers represented the thousands who perished.

After the laying of the wreaths those present moved to the Adelaide Town Hall. The youth dressed in black, stood on the steps leading into the Town Hall, so each entrant could count the number of people lost. A combined Baltic choir sang “Advance Australia Fair” and “Requiem”. The Baltic Council president Maret Kneebone spoke, followed by Ilze Radzins who read an Estonian and Latvian poem. After an interval cellist Janis Laurs played which was followed by songs sung by the Lithuanian and Estonian choirs. To finish the combined choirs sung the national anthems of each country.

A plaque has also been placed at the Migration Museum, remembering the atrocities of 1941. The Balts were the first to place a plaque outside the entrance to the museum, which is now surrounded by other nationalities who wish to remember atrocities that occurred in their own country.

Musu Pastoge 4/7/1988 nr 26