A helpful response from PRO Victoria…

I just received this very helpful email from the Public Record Office Victoria, in response to a request I put in a few days ago to have a look at the Victoria Police Gazette 1945, 1946, and the two photographic supplements covering that period:

The Victorian Police Gazette (1853 – 1971) is not actually a part of our collection, though we do keep a copy of it in our reading rooms for reference purposes. There are several indexes in the back of each volume and each volume contains a single year of records, in the later years each volume also contains a photograph section.

Most volumes contain indexes to weekly photographs, fortnightly photographs, prisoners discharged from gaol and a general index. I have had a brief look in the index of 1944, 1945 and 1946 and unfortunately none of the names you mentioned appeared.

After reading the article you cited, it does not appear that these men were charged with anything. They appear on an ‘affidavit’ and the house was eventually listed as a common gaming house and was sold not long after that, by Paizes.

I thought the name Balutz might be a nickname but after seeing one of the other men was a Richard Thomas known as Abishara and tracing him shows his name was really Abishara, a Syrian born man who later became ‘Donegal Dick’, I wasn’t so sure.

When I put Balutz into an electoral roll search, the name Balutis came up as an alternative, possibly might be this man, but again nothing comes up in the Police Gazette. Treantaillous Balutis was a greek waiter, living in Melbourne in the 1930’s and 1940’s, as I am sure you are aware Paizes was also a greek immigrant. not sure if that is relevant or not.

You could try looking through the records for Melbourne Courts (VA 518) to see if these names appear, as an option.

So, even though this line of research started with a (single) mention of a Balutz, might he actually have been a Balutis?

Triantafillos Balutis…?

It’s a reasonable suggestion: so let’s look for “Treantaillous Balutis”, see what we find? (Note that the proper Greek spelling (I think) of his first name would be closer to “Triantafillos”.)

• Findmypast has a Triantafylos Balotis (brother to Vassilios Balotis) arriving at New York from Piraeus on the Themistocles (NARA publications M237 and T715) in 1910, but no original image to check. Note that Theodoroula Balotis (mother of Vassilios Balotis) also arrived on the Themistocles in 1910, as did Vassilios Balotis (aged 19, of Constantinople, Turkey).
  
• Findmypast also has a Triandafilos Balutis arriving on the Carpathia in New York from Trieste in 1913 (NARA publications M237 and T715), but no original image to check.

• Findmypast has a “Trentafellos Damianon Balutis” (born 28 Aug 1885, nationality Turkey, son of Theodoola Balutis of Constantinople, medium height, slender build, brown eyes, black hair, living at 342 Broadway NYC) joining the US Army in 1918 in New York.

• Ancestry lists “Messrs T. Baloutis” (born about 1889) arriving at Fremantle on 08 Feb 1923, but I don’t have a subscription so can’t see the arrival record behind the Ancestry.com paywall.
  
• The NAA also has a 1928 record of a Triantafilos Balutis (Nationality: Greek) being nominated by Dimitrios Balutis. This was a Form 40 (“Application forms […] for admission of Relatives or Friends to Australia“), so would imply that Dimitrios Balutis was almost certainly a relative already in Australia. (No original image.)

• The 1939 Melbourne electoral roll has a Balutis, Treantafillous at 27 Lansdowne st. (waiter): and he was at the same address in 1946. Note that 27 Lansdowne St seems (from various small ads) to have been a house converted to BSRs (bed sitting room).

While it’s possible that these are all the same person, it’s also hard not to notice that one record says he is Turkish and born in 1885, and the other says he is Greek and born in 1889. All the same, the vectors of people’s lives are often complicated, so who can say?

Stelios Balutis…?

As for other Melbourne people with the surname Balutis, we can see a Stelios Balutis in North Melbourne applying for naturalisation in 06 Aug 1954 (his certificate of naturalisation, issued 12 May 1955, is here):

I, STELIOS BALUTIS, of Greek nationality, born at Thraki, resident 31 years in Australia, now residing at 119 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, intend to APPLY for NATURALISATION under the Nationalisation and Citizenship Act 1948.

There are a number of other Stelios Balutis records:

• Findmypast has a record of a Stelios Balutis being born in 1890 and died in “Park”, Victoria in 1977 (reg: 17231).

• The NAA has a record of Stelios Balutis arriving in Melbourne on 16 Feb 1923 on the Ormonde. The passenger list in the Sydney Morning Herald did not list the “large number of passengers in the third-class”, though the “Grand Duchess Ivonovitch” was presumably not one.

• The NAA also has Stelios Balutis’s service record (V377969, born 28 Feb 1888 in Sterna, Turkey, enlisted in Caulfield, Victoria, next of kin “BALUKIS IOANNA” [presumably BALUTIS misspelt]).
  
• Familysearch’s reference books (which, it has to be said, aren’t normally the most useful part of that site) have “Balutis, Stalios” [sic] living at 119 Queensberry St in the 1959 Commonwealth of Australia electoral roll (though the document itself can’t be seen online).
  
• There was also a Stelios Balutis on the S.S. Bretagne, arriving in Sydney in 1962 from Piraeus, with his destination “Grenvell St 26 Hamilton Melb”.
  
• findmypast has the will/probate records for “Stelois Balutes” [sic], died 09 Jul 1977, retired, of “Parkville”, Victoria.
  
• The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust lists a “Stelias Balutis” [sic] as having been interred on 13 Jul 1977 in the Chivers Lawn section of Templestowe Cemetery (location: “TE-CH_L*H***52“) in Manningham City, Victoria. (This also appears in findagrave.com)

Again, it’s entirely possible that these are all the same person, but it’s hard not to notice that one was born in Sterna, Turkey (where is that, exactly?) while another has Greek nationality.

Where Next?

Well… I have to say I’m not entirely sure. The logical step would seem to be to get hold of Triantafillos Balutis’s Form 40, and/or Stelios Balutis’ service records, his death notices from 1977 and/or his will/probate records, to try to reconstruct a little more of both men’s immediate family.

But for all the details scattered across all the archives, I’m not yet sure I’ve really got even a basic handle on either of these two yet. For example, I have no idea at all about Dimitrios Balutis, or Ioanna Balutis: so everyone in this family / these families seems to be close to archivally invisible.

At the same time, given (a) that the S.S. Ormonde arrived at Fremantle a few days before proceeding to Sydney, and (b) that I’m not a big fan of coincidences, it does seem overwhelmingly likely to me that Triantafillos Balutis and Stelios Balutis both reached Australia on the same ship.

Note that there was a fireman (i.e. a fire stoker) on merchant ships called Demetrios Balotis (5ft 5in, 160lbs) born around 1911 (nationality: Greek) who appears in US crew lists from 1945-1950, who had been at sea for 14 years by 1945. I don’t believe this was the same Demetrios Balutis who filled in Triantafillos Balutis’s Form 40, but I could easily be wrong-footed there.

I suppose the big question for me is: where are these people all buried? We have a plot for Stelios Balutis, sure, but there are at least three other Balutis family members to account for in or around Melbourne, and there are no other Balutis graves in Templestowe Cemetery. Perhaps some ended up near The Resurrection of Saint Lazarus Greek Orthodox Church? It feels to me as though there is a gap in the records here that findagrave and billiongraves aren’t touching. All suggestions and ideas very welcome!