Croatian Australians

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Croatian Australians
Total population
164,362 (by ancestry, 2021) [1]
(0.6% of the Australian population)
43,302 (by birth, 2021)
Regions with significant populations
Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Geelong
Languages
Australian English, Croatian
Religion
predominantly Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Croatian Americans

Croatian Australians (Croatian : Hrvatski Australci) are Australian citizens of Croatian ancestry. Croatia has been a source of migrants to Australia, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.

Contents

History

Prior to World War II

Croats were first encouraged to migrate to Australia during the gold rushes of the 1850s taking place in the British colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. Although migration was relatively small, Croatian travellers and sailors employed on merchant vessels played a significant role in spreading the news of the opportunities possible in Australia. [2]

In an interesting occurrence in October 1875, sixteen Croatian sailors aboard the vessel Stefano, became shipwrecked on the Ningaloo Reef along the West Australian coast. Ten survived to reach the shore where the local Yinikutira people gave them food and water, and found their map of the coast among the shipwreck's debris. By January 1876, all but two had died from hunger or exposure. The two survivors, Baccich (aged 16) and Jurich (aged 19), became part of a Yinikutira clan and spent the following three months living with them around the North West Cape. They were rescued by a pearler looking for Aboriginal labour in April 1876 and, after a few months in Fremantle, they returned to Europe. [3] [2]

The Western Australian gold rushes in the 1890s started a significant migration of Croats (mainly from Dalmatia) to Australia and by the early part of the 20th century, there were around 2000 to 3000 people of Croatian origin in Australia, 80% of these residing in Western Australia. Around 100 Australian Croats fought for the Allies during World War I. However, during this war around 600 non-naturalised Croats were interned at the Holsworthy Internment Camp where 20 died and about 500 were later deported from Australia in 1919. [2]

During World War II, Independent State of Croatia was established. Croatian Australian representatives during this time condemned Ante Pavelić as a traitor. [4]

Tom Starcevich, a Croatian Australian born in Subiaco, Western Australia was a recipient of the Victoria Cross medal for bravery during World War II. [2]

Post World War II

Croatian migration to Australia took on a different aspect after World War II. From 1945 to 1952, Australia's post-war immigration scheme saw around 170,000 Eastern European displaced persons, including Croatians, given residency. Some of these Croatian migrants were associated with the defeated Ustaše regime. In the context of the White Australia policy, Cold War anti-communism, and the shortage of workers at the time, the Ustaše in Australia were allowed to dominate and influence the Croatian migrant community through the establishment cultural and sporting clubs around Australia that promoted Ustaše ideals. This influence continues into 21st century Croatian-Australian society. [5] [6] [7] [8]

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the Ustaše splinter groups in Australia led by people like Srećko Rover ran a campaign of bombings, intimidation and insurgency operations against pro-Yugoslav interests. Eventually, after a large bombing in Sydney injured many people, a crackdown on the Ustaše movement in the Croatian-Australia community occurred from late 1972. This was spearheaded by the Attorney-General, Lionel Murphy, who raided ASIO Headquarters and made public the files on the Croatian terrorist activities. [9] [10] [11] [12]

Croatian Embassy in Canberra Croatian Embassy in Canberra.JPG
Croatian Embassy in Canberra

In November 1977, an unofficial Croatian embassy was opened in Canberra, causing a legal and diplomatic difficulty for both the Australian and Yugoslav governments. [13] The embassy, aimed at raising awareness of Croatia as a nation and the Croatian people separate from Yugoslavia, remained open for 2 years closing in 1979. Its ambassador was Mario Despoja, the father of former Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja.

Since the independence of Croatia in the 1990s, an official embassy has been opened in Canberra and consulates have been opened in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.[ citation needed ]

The Yugoslavia-born population reached 129,616 by the 1971 Census and 160,479 by the 1991 Census. The greatest number settled in Sydney and Melbourne, though Croats are well represented in every Australian city and region. Croatian migration to Australia has been very low since the 1980s.[ citation needed ]

Demographics

People of Croatian ancestry according to the 2011 census results Australian Census 2011 demographic map - Australia by SLA - BCP field 1066 Croatian Total Responses.svg
People of Croatian ancestry according to the 2011 census results
one dot denotes 100 Croatian-born Sydney residents HV born Syd.png
one dot denotes 100 Croatian-born Sydney residents
one dot denotes 100 Croatian-born Melbourne residents HV born Mel.png
one dot denotes 100 Croatian-born Melbourne residents

The 2021 Census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that 43,302 persons resident in Australia identified themselves as having been born in Croatia, representing about 0.15% of the Australian population. The Census also noted 164,362 persons identified themselves as having Croatian ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry, representing a further 0.65% of the Australian population. Most of this demographic were shown to reside in Victoria and New South Wales. [14] [15]

As the level of immigration from Croatia has dropped significantly from the 1980s, the Croatian-born population is ageing: 57% of the Croatian-born population was aged 65 years or older at the time of the 2021 Census. The 2021 data also revealed that 15% of Croatian born Australians spoke only Croatian at home, while 24% spoke only English at home, and 72% of Croatian born Australians recorded their religion as Catholic. [14]

Croatian Australians historically have an exceptionally low rate of return migration to Croatia. In December 2001, the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 1,000 Australian citizens resident in Croatia, mainly in Zagreb. [16]

Croatian Australians and sport

Fans of Sydney United 58 FC, a football club founded by Croatian Australians, at the 2022 Australia Cup Final 2022 Australia Cup Final fans.jpg
Fans of Sydney United 58 FC, a football club founded by Croatian Australians, at the 2022 Australia Cup Final

Sport is an important part of Croatian Australian culture, whilst they are visible in numerous different sports, they are most notably visible in soccer, with numerous clubs established by local Croatian communities throughout the country, [17] the most notable and successful being Sydney Croatia and Melbourne Croatia. These clubs nurtured the soccer talents of a large number of Croatian Australians, many of whom now play professionally overseas. Croatian Australians have played for both Croatia and Australia. In the 2006 World Cup, there were seven Croatian Australians playing for Australia and three playing for Croatia. A total of 47 Croatian Australians have gone on to play for the Australian national soccer team, including 7 who captained the national team. The Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament is the oldest running soccer competition in Australia.

Croatian Australian Socceroos

Croatian Australian Matildas

Croatian Australians in Croatian national team


Notable Croatian Australians to represent Australia in other Sports

Culture

Language

Periodicals

List of notable Croatian Australians

Entertainment and the arts

Music

Academia

Science and medicine

Business and work

Media

Politics

Other

Sport

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ante Pavelić</span> Croatian fascist politician and dictator

Ante Pavelić was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and was dictator of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state built out of parts of occupied Yugoslavia by the authorities of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, from 1941 to 1945. Pavelić and the Ustaše persecuted many racial minorities and political opponents in the NDH during the war, including Serbs, Jews, Romani, and anti-fascists, becoming one of the key figures of the genocide of Serbs, the Porajmos and the Holocaust in the NDH.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HNK Hajduk Split</span> Croatian association football club

Hrvatski nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split, is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ground has been the 33,987-seater Stadion Poljud. The team's traditional home colours are white shirts with blue shorts and blue socks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney United 58 FC</span> Football club

Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club and current NSW NPL Champions based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but it was renamed in 1993 as Sydney United after having the name Sydney CSC for a season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Knights FC</span> Australian semi-professional soccer club

Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, the second-tier of the Australian soccer league system under the A-League. It is one of the most successful soccer clubs in Australia, being a two-time championship and four-time premiership winner in the now defunct National Soccer League (NSL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ante Milicic</span> Australian soccer player and manager

Ante Milicic ( AN-tay MIL-ə-chitch; Croatian: Ante Miličić ; is an Australian soccer manager and former professional player who currently is the head coach of the China women's national football team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivo Herenčić</span> Croatian general and war criminal

Ivan "Ivo" Herenčić was a general in the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state. In 1941, he commanded a battalion of Ustaše Militia that committed many war crimes and atrocities on civilians during the Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia. Born in Bjelovar in Austria-Hungary, he completed his secondary and tertiary education in Zagreb and Sarajevo in what was by then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1933, he left Yugoslavia to join the fascist and ultranationalist Croatian Ustaše movement in Italy. Late that year, Herenčić participated in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the King of Yugoslavia, Alexander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ante Covic</span> Australian association football player

Ante Covic is an Australian football manager and former soccer goalkeeper, and is the current manager of Bankstown City (Women) in NSW League One. Covic was a member of the Australian national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and represented Australia on two occasions. In 2014 he was named Player of the Tournament for the 2014 AFC Champions League, keeping 8 clean sheets in 12 matches with the Western Sydney Wanderers as they defeated Al-Hilal in the final.

The following lists events that happened during 1939 in Australia.

The Croatian diaspora consists of communities of ethnic Croats and/or Croatian citizens living outside Croatia. Estimates on its size are only approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalization, but (highest) estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers between a third and a half of the total number of Croats.

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Eddy Bosnar is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a centre back.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia</span>

The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia involved the genocide of Jews, Serbs and Romani within the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state that existed during World War II, led by the Ustaše regime, which ruled an occupied area of Yugoslavia including most of the territory of modern-day Croatia, the whole of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and the eastern part of Syrmia (Serbia). Of the 39,000 Jews who lived in the NDH in 1941, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states that more than 30,000 were murdered. Of these, 6,200 were shipped to Nazi Germany and the rest of them were murdered in the NDH, the vast majority in Ustaše-run concentration camps, such as Jasenovac. The Ustaše were the only quisling forces in Yugoslavia who operated their own extermination camps for the purpose of murdering Jews and members of other ethnic groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zdenko Blažeković</span> Croatian fascist (1915–1947)

Zdenko Blažeković was a Croatian fascist official who held several posts in the World War II Ustaše regime in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). He was the student commissar at the Ustaše University Centre (USS), leader of the male Ustaše Youth organisation and a sports commissioner in the NDH.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ustaše in Australia</span> Croatian ultranationalist movement in Australia

At the end of World War II in 1945, members of the fascist Croatian ultranationalist and genocidal Ustaše regime from the collapsed Nazi puppet state of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) fled from the Balkan region to avoid imprisonment and execution at the hands of the Yugoslav Partisans. With the help of Western authorities, who now viewed the fiercely anti-communist stance of the Ustaše favourably in the emerging Cold War, thousands of members of the regime were allowed to migrate to other countries, including Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Srećko Rover</span> Croatian Australian Patriots

Srećko Blaž Rover was a member of the Croatian Patriot Ustaša movement. During World War II, he served as an officer in the Ustaše Surveillance Service and the Ustaše Militia where he was involved in the mass imprisonment and executions of people deemed enemies of the Independent State of Croatia. After the defeat of the Nazis and their collaborators, Rover escaped to Australia, where he became a leading figure of the Ustaše in Australia.

References

  1. ↑ "2021 Australia, Census All persons QuickStats". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Smoje, Neven (5 March 2017). "Summary of the history of Croatians in Western Australia". Croatians in Western Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "THE LOSS OF THE "STEFANO."". The Herald . Vol. X, no. 16. Western Australia. 20 May 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 24 April 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "CROATIAN REGIME". The West Australian . Vol. 57, no. 17, 132. Western Australia. 4 June 1941. p. 5. Retrieved 24 April 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ Persian, Jayne (2017). Beautiful Balts. Sydney: UNSW Press. ISBN   9781742234854.
  6. ↑ Aarons, Mark (2001). War Criminals Welcome: Australia, a sanctuary for fugitive war criminals since 1945. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN   1863953701.
  7. ↑ "Croatian Liberation Movement NAA: A6122, 313". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  8. ↑ Starcevic, Seb. "In Australia, Some Croats Openly Celebrate Fascism". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  9. ↑ David McKnight. Australia's Spies and Their Secrets. Allen & Unwin. St Leonards, N.S.W. 1994.
  10. ↑ Campion, Kristy (2018). "The Ustaša in Australia: A Review of Right-Wing Ustaša Terrorism from 1963–1973, and Factors that Enable their Endurance" (PDF). Salus. 6 (2): 37–58. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  11. ↑ "Parliament, Senate statement on terrorism". The Canberra Times . Vol. 47, no. 13, 394. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 March 1973. p. 14. Retrieved 25 April 2023– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ Cottle, Drew; Keys, Angela (2023). Fascism in Exile, Ustasha-linked organisations in Australia. New York: Routledge. ISBN   9780367638139.
  13. ↑ Croatian Embassy in Canberra – 1977–1978
  14. 1 2 "People in Australia who were born in Croatia". ABS 2021 Census data. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  15. ↑ "Cultural diversity". ABS 2021 Census data. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  16. ↑ "Estimates of Australian Citizens Living Overseas as at December 2001" (PDF). Southern Cross Group (DFAT data). 14 February 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 15 July 2008.
  17. ↑ "Football gives Australia's Croatian community heart and home". The Guardian . 14 October 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  18. ↑ "Snags high on Mark Bresciano's menu". Herald Sun. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2014. dad Prospero is Italian and mum Grace is Croatian
  19. ↑ Folkloric Arts Festival 2023 Adelaide trybooking.com. Access date 11 June 2023.
  20. ↑ "Australian sons of Croatian island immigrants off to the homeland for special anniversary". Croatia Week. 26 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  21. ↑ Poljaković Popović, Bojana (3 July 2024). "Nastup Folklorne skupine Zagreb iz Pertha na Zrinjevcu" [Performance of Folkloric group Zagreb from Perth at Zrinjevac]. msf.hr (in Croatian). Zagreb International Folklore Festival.
  22. ↑ "ACCS Australian Croatian Community Services". hobsonbay.vic.gov.au. Hobsons Bay City Council. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  23. ↑ "About CLA". cla-croatian.com. Croatian Language Academy. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  24. ↑ "IMPORTANT UPDATE – THE FUTURE OF CROATIAN STUDIES AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY". croatianstudiesfoundation.com.au. Croatian Studies Foundation. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  25. ↑ Croatian Herald on Facebook. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  26. ↑ "Caritas Croata : prvi hrvatski bilten u Australii". dabar.srce.hr (in Croatian). SRCE. 1953. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  27. ↑ "VIDEO: Meet the Croatian-Australian music entrepreneur once called the 'coolest guy' in Australia in the 90s". croatiaweek.com. Croatia Week. 4 September 2023.
  28. ↑ "Australian musician with ode to her Croatian heritage in new song". croatiaweek.com. 24 October 2022.
  29. ↑ "NBA champ Andrew Bogut: 'I grew up in Australia but was raised Croatian'". croatiaweek.com. 21 February 2023. Andrew, who learned the Croatian language and about customs at home growing up, says that made the transition easy when he finally did visit Croatia. 'I consider myself both (Croatian and Australian). A lot of ideals and hardheadedness come from my Croatian side, and I think that is a good thing at times, and I am also proud of the fact that Australia has provided a lot for myself and my family.'

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