Balt Camp and Able Mine

 

Balt Camp, Baltic Refuges as Migrants.

The Balt Camp was situated in Camp Road, Bullarto, north of Blackwood.

It was a refugee work camp for ‘displaced persons’ – including from the Baltic States – after World War 2. All that remains today are a stone chimney and concrete foundations of the huts.  

BALT REFUGEES AS MIGRANTS – Arrival at Fremantle in December . The first party of 860 displaced persons would arrive in Australia early in December, the Minister for Immigration (Mr. Calwell) announced today. They were all of Baltic origin and had been instructed in the English language and the Australian way of life at a camp near  Berlin. This instruction would be continued on the voyage and in  Bonegilla camp, Victoria, where  they would stay for a month before being allotted to employment in the various States.

West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Monday 27 October 1947, page 16

Australia accepts displaced persons from Europe – 843 Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians arrive. (1947)

After World War Two Australia agreed to provide a new home to many people from Europe who had become refugees because of the war. The first ‘displaced persons’ came from the Baltic countries – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. There were 843 people in the first group to arrive in Australia in 1947. This was the beginning of a large-scale immigration program. Many Australians felt that the population needed to grow so that the country could defend itself better, and have enough people to fill all the jobs that were available. Most of the refugees from World War Two arrived during 1949 and 1950. The one millionth person to migrate to Australia after World War Two was Mrs Barbara Porritt, who arrived with her husband in Australia on 8 November 1955. In the previous decade the makeup of the population had changed dramatically. In about 1945, more than 7 in 10 Australians were from a British background. By 1955 this proportion had dropped to approximately 5 in 10 Australians. As more and more people migrated to Australia, bringing with them a rich variety of cultures and skills, the proportion continued to drop, to a little over 3 in 10 Australians.

Ben Chifley, swiftly gave his approval and about 170,000 displaced persons came to Australia between 1947-52, mainly from Poland, the Baltic states, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Russia. For the New World recruiters, blonde, blue-eyed Baltic people were the cream of the crop and Jews were not — a racism rationalised by Anglo Australia as preserving harmony.

Site History

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.

This building was the cookhouse.  The men’s sleeping quarters were on the other side of the road.  Two of them have been removed to Korweinguboora where the bright green painted sheds can be seen on the west side of the Ballan-Daylesford road.

Directly opposite the site there is an extremely deep mine shaft covered with a protective grid.

Further Information – Daylesford Historical Museum.  The Assistant cook and two of the original foresters live in the Daylesford area.  https://www.victorianmuseums.com.au/daylesford-district-historical-society-a