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.

Immigration Records to Australia

Records of people who arrived under the Displaced Persons scheme 1947 to 1953 are held at the National Archives of Australia. Occupation by the USSR forced many people to flee Eastern Europe towards the end of WWII. Many ended up in Germany with smaller numbers settling in Italy, Australia and Holland. Unable to return home they awaited resettlement by the International refugee Organisation (IRO). Under the IRO scheme each person was required to complete two forms;

1. A screening card: this records the persons name, date of birth, sex, nationality, educational standards, fluency in languages, religion, dependants, employment in the past, suggested employment.
2. IRO Medical Examination Form: this included the person’s name, date of birth, colour of eyes, and hair, weight, height, name of camp allocation, place of birth, passport photograph, signature and medical questionnaire including x-ray negative.

This documentation has been preserved by the National Archives and is searchable under surnames under the keyword search. You are able to access the original records by visiting the reading rooms in Canberra or a digital copy can be requested for a fee. Once digitised the copies are loaded onto the website when anyone can then view them. For family history research this is a fantastic resource for family members who participated in the scheme.
www.naa.gov.au

Kerry Ward
The South Australian Genealogist February 2003, Vol.30, No.1

Displaced Persons "God's Little Birds"

Boarding a train to Bremehaven 1947, then onto Australia.

World War Two for many in eastern and central Europe brought radical changes. For the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) their independence of 22 years was quashed by Soviet Russians, during the months of June and July 1940. As the war progressed, the German Army replaced the Russians in the Baltic States. By 1944, the reverse happened, the Germans were replaced once again by the Russians. It was at this time that many people left, with Lithuanians making their way west and many ending up in Germany.

The total number of Lithuanians who left, was in the vicinity of 60,000. The refugees became known as Displaced Person’s, or D.P’s. Lithuanians called themselves Dievo Pauksteliai or God’s little birds.
The Displaced Persons camps which were usually old German Prisoner of War camps, became the refugees’ home for anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. The camps generally came under the auspices of the International Relief Organisation (I.R.O).
Life in the camps was hard, housing was overcrowded, food and clothing was minimal. Narkeliunaite, a displaced writer wrote of the camps “We are condensed and pressed like herrings in a barrel, we have to live in our barracks as mice in the luggage having no opportunity to unpack”.
To some extent the camps became a world in itself, with churches and schools built and cultural groups being formed. The D.P’s worked in the camp’s administration, hospitals, kitchens and even in their own fire and police stations.
The displacement of Lithuanians was believed to be temporary, they believed that communism would be expelled from Lithuania and they would return home. When the D.P’s realised that their return would not be in the near future they considered immigration.

To learn more about the DP camps there is a great website "DP Camps"