First Australia Lithuanian Community House

For two years, the Sydney Lithuanian Community called 5 Young St, Circular Quay home. The building was owned at the time by St Vincent de Paul and housed a hostel for destitute men, cafe, chapel, chaplain to migrants. In 1951-1952, the community used some of the premises from which it ran Mūsu Pastogė and Catholic activities.

The building is known as Hinchcliff House and still stands, a street away from the Harbour.  It is a heritage-listed former wool store and hostel for homeless men. This three-story building plus basement, was built as wool store.

The firm of A Hinchcliff, Son & Co built the stone store in the late 1880s replacing an earlier iron shed. The Bank of New South Wales, as mortgagor, leased the property in 1937 to German woolbuyers. A mortgagee sale in 1945 saw the property acquired by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

In 1949 it passed to the Society of St Vincent de Paul and was named Ozanam House in acknowledgment of the founder of the Society, Frédéric Ozanam. During, 1950 – 1952 the premises was used as the Sydney Lithuanian community house.  Part of it was known as Catholic United Services Australia (CUSA) Navy Club, conducted by the Catholic church for sea farers.  The Club was staffed by volunteers who prepared food and provided Christian entertainment each night.

Also using the premises were the Chaplain for Migrants. It appears that the Lithuanian priest Butkus resided here.  The premises served as the venue for the Lithuanian Catholic Association, Community Committee, Australian Lithuanian lawyers society, the Lithuanian library and Australian Lithuanian newspaper, Mūsų Pastogė.

References

Mūsų Pastogė Wednesday 21 November 1951, page 6

Draft conservation management Plan URBIS, Nov 2012

 

Lithuanian Sword Swallower & Fire-Eater, Otto Butkus

Otto was born 21 May 1929 in small town of Rėzgaliai.  He arrived on the ship Goya, 26 May 1950. He worked as a cabinet maker in Adelaide before becoming a professional sword-swallower and fire eater. 

While living in a DP camp in Hamburg, he began a correspondence course.  The books didn’t tell him about sword-swallowing, so he threw them away and began to teach himself.  He also began learning fire eating the same way but finished teaching himself.   It took him two years before he was able to push a sword down his mouth without feeling nauseous.

He was the star attraction in live entertainment shows in hotels in Sydney.   He used to swallow 27-inch swords until a doctor told him the points were bumping the pit of his stomach.  He reduced the swords to 24 inches. He would get a sore throat after swallowing swords a dozen times a week. He wouldn’t swallow a sword after a heavy meal, as it might make him sick.  One also cannot move once the sword is down. For a change he would swallow 4000-volt lit neon tubes, which could be seen through his chest.

He was a fakir, magician, fire-eater, hot coal eater, sword swallower, neon tube swallower, and collector and manufacturer of magic apparatus.  Butkus performed a show called 100 Minutes China Fantasy where he performed in flashy Asian costumes, ate fire and hot coals with chopsticks, swallowed a Tai Chi sword and neon tubes.

With a lighted glass neon tube filled with gas and charged with 3,000 volts; his audience sat perspiring.  In his act, he not only swallowed a sword, but razor blades, and fire. Butkus confessed that swallowing the neon tube was his most complicated act.  

Butkus died in Sydney Australia, on 30 January 2008, and is buried in Macquarie
Park Cemetery.

Daily Telegraph, Sunday 10 October 1954, page 13

Images from State Library of Victoria and State Library of New South Wales

http://www.swordswallow.com/halloffame.php