Rev. Jonas Tamulis (1915- 2010)

The previous post gave a very brief history of the short-lived Australian Lithuanian journal Užuovėja, published monthly during 1949 and 1950. While the publication had several editors during that time - Julius Veteikis, Petras Pilka, Vincas Kazokas, Mikas Apinys, and Fr. Petras Butkus -  it was underwritten, and probably the brainchild, of a remakable Lithuanian priest, Jonas Tamulis.

Accounts vary, but Tamulis appears to have been born in England around 1915. The family returned to Lithuania while he was quite young and settled in the village of Žindaičiai, near Jurbarkas. Ordained a priest in 1940, he was one of the group of British citizens permitted to leave Lithuania during the first soviet occupation (1940-41) who made their way to Vladivostok and then to Australia aboard the Hai Tan, arriving in December 1940.

Tamulis spent the remaining war years as an army chaplain in Brisbane but was able to reach the USA in early 1946. For a while he ministered to the St Casimir Lithuanian parish in Los Angeles before being posted to another parish. By the late 1940s Australia's Mass Migration Scheme was attracting large numbers of displaced Lithuanians from European refugee camps and Tamulis volunteered to return to Australia.

From December 1948 Tamulis worked as a chaplain at the Migrant Reception Centre in Bathurst. From there he was able to travel to Sydney and other regional centres to provide religious services to the newly forming Lithuanian communities, and it was very soon after his arrival that Užuovėja first appeared. Produced by the Society of St Casimir on a rotary hand press, each 30 page edition aspired to high journalistic standards with news, information, and articles on literature, science, and the arts. Initially published from the Bathurst camp, by November 1949 it had found a home in Sydney.

As well as providing regular church services in Sydney, Rev. Tamulis was also responsible for the establishment of the first Lithuanian Catholic Centre in Sydney (at 5 Young Street, Circular Quay) and a Lithuanian weekend school. However by 1950 he had fallen into disfavour with the Australian church hierarchy - apparently because of his attempts to promote the establishment of a Lithuanian parish in Australia - and returned to the USA where he followed his religious vocation in Michigan until retirement in 1991.



Sources (see Links on RHS):
Australian Lithuanians;
Mūsų Pastogė (1949-50); and
Metraštis No.1 (p98).

   

A view from 1950

The Australian Lithuanian publication Užuovėja ('A Shelter from the Wind') was published monthly in 1949 and 1950, initially at the Bathurst Migrant Camp and later from Sydney. The 1950 calendar for subscribers included a short article on Lithuanians in Australia (p85) from which I have extracted the following snapshot of knowledge and views from 70 years ago:

As far as we know, the first group of Lithuanian migrants arrived in Australia at the end of the 19th century, settling initially in Adelaide. They had established a mutual-aid society there but after a few years the community dissolved as members moved to settle elsewhere in Australia.

A new wave of migrants arrived after the First World War. It is believed that around a thousand people arrived in the interwar years, mainly from Lithuania and Scotland. They were also scattered around Australia, although a larger number settled in Sydney and its environs. The people in Sydney established an Australian Lithuanian Society, which later received newspapers through the Lithuanian government's Society for Assistance to Overseas Lithuanians. Even now there are over a dozen families from that migration who continue to participate in community activities, largely because of the efforts of Mr Bauže who has been president of the Society for close to 20 years.

Nevertheless the fact that today we can only count a few dozen active community members out of 1000 arrivals is a sad and sobering thought. Now we are expecting another modest influx of migrants. Official figures as at September 1949 show 4800 new Lithuanian migrants in Australia; optimistically this figure may grow to around 7000.

At present our communities and lively and energetic. Nevertheless, many are forced to work in isolated parts of the country; especially disturbing is the lack of [Lithuanian] educational facilities for our young people. In the author's opinion, our community leaders should work up a broad plan now to address the likely future erosion of our numbers.