Filip Vlahov (b. 1875), my great grandfather and his younger brother, Pere (b. 1881) were born into a poor Dalmatian family in Šepurine on the island of Prvić. For hundreds of years, Dalmatia had been the prized goal of the Ottomans, Venetians, French and Hungarians who attacked the shores and islands and the rugged Dalmatian hinterland. At the time of Filip and Pere’s births, Dalmatia was under Austrian rule.

 

Kriška and Matija

The brothers were born in a small, dark stone house, tucked away in a congested part of Šepurine. Their father, Frane, whose legendary strength has become village folklore, was known by his nickname, Kriška. Stories told how he was the strongest and fastest worker in the fields and how he could lift a barrel full of wine and drink from it.  One story tells how early one morning a neighbour’s mule refused to step onto the deck of a rocking boat. The boat’s owner began to get angry as did his passengers who were keen to begin the day’s work in their fields on the mainland, but the animal refused to move despite the owner’s efforts. At that point,  Kriška stepped in to assist by picking up the whimpering beast in his arms, as if it were a lamb, and carried it onto the boat himself.

 

  Left: Kumpa’s wife Matica with her youngest sons Frane (left) and Branko; Right: Vara’s wife, Križanka with her son Ivan and daughter Andjelka circa 1926

 

Kriška married Matija Kale from the island of Žirje. They had four children: two sons – Filip and Petar (Pere) and two daughters – Barica (b 1870) and Šimaka (b 1884).[1]  During the 1870s and 1880s – during Kumpa and Vara’s childhoods – Šepurine was at its economic peak.[2] The quality and quantity of its wine production brought in revenue like never before. The benefits of success and sound reputation were evidential everywhere: more children survived making families larger, new houses were built or an extra floor was added, skilled workers from nearby towns moved their businesses and families to Šepurine, people bought more land, had boats custom-made, commercial fishing began, sons were sent to train as blacksmiths, builders, stone masons, coopers, caulkers or carpenters. In 1868, a group of 118 villagers cooperatively purchased the entire island of Tijat,[3] Šepurine’s first public school opened in 1877 and the Skroza Ivićin[4] family donated land on which a second, uncharacteristically large church was built in 1878.[5] During those prosperous decades, Šepurine was known as the Golden Threshold (Zlatni Prag).[6]

 

The Wine Clause

In 1891, a singe clause in a trade agreement between the royal governments of Austria-Hungary and Italy was the beginning of the decline of Šepurine’s prosperity. The Vinska Klauzula (Wine Clause) allowed the importation of almost tariff-free Italian wine into Austria-Hungary, flooding the Austro-Hungarian market with which Dalmatian wine-makers could not compete, not even on local markets. Village economies collapsed and many families were on the verge of economic ruin.[7] In 1892, the bimonthly Split periodical, Pučki List, reported that the regular number of people migrating to America has turned into a never-before-witnessed rush.[8] Dalmatians left their hearths in their hundreds, settling permanently or looking for work in places such as America, Australia, New Zealand, Argentine, Chile, Uruguay, South Africa and German South West Africa.[9]

 

Africa

In 1896, Kumpa married Matica Antić, one of four daughters of Ante and Matija Vlahov. In 1908, Vara married Matica’s younger sister, Križanka. The couple lived together in their small damp house where Kumpa and Matica lost a son and daughter. Life was undoubtedly difficult, and prospects were negligible. Their financial hardship worsened with the scourge of the phylloxera insect plague which had been devastating vineyards across western Europe since the 1860s.[10] Vines all over Dalmatia soon dried up causing more men to look for work abroad and more families to migrate. Kumpa looked to Africa.

 

In April 1906, Kumpa left his wife, Matica, and daughters, Milka (8½)[11] and Tomica (1½)[12] and travelled to Hamburg with five others from Šepurine where they boarded the German steamship, Gertrud Woermann II, disembarkin in Lüderitz in the German colony of South West Africa.[13] It is uncertain what Kumpa and his co-travellers did in the German colony but it’s likely they witnessed horrific scenes of suffering, starvation and death of the indigenous people. It is estimated that between 1904 and 1907 as many as 85 000 indigenous people died either in battle against Imperial German forces, through forced labour, starvation, or disease in enormous concentration camps such as the one known as Shark Island in Lüderitz Bay.[14]

 

  SS Gertud Woermann

 

The men from Šepurine may have worked in the diamond or copper mines but considering they were registered as farm labourers, they may have worked in the farming industry which Germany was keen to advance in the colony.[15]

 

A New House

By early 1909, Kumpa had returned to Šepurine. He may or may not have attended his brother’s marriage to Križanka Antić in April, 1908 but he was there when his brother’s first child, Valerija, was born in May 1909.[16]  After Kumpa and Matica had another child, Andrija Paško, in November 1909, the brothers decided to build a new house on Vlahov family-owned land, near the new church. The two adjacent land parcels they decided on was large enough for a house, far more spacious than the old house, in addition to a large garden which they eventually surrounded by a dry-stone wall.

 

  The Vlahov brothers’ house cpmleted in 1911 is now falling into disrepair. The current owners of the house are three of Kumpa’s grandchildren and one great-grandson

 

By the beginning of 1911, the lower level of the new house was finished consisting of one large open room for sleeping, a konoba of equal size, a small kitchen for summer use and a hearth built in the roof space beneath a small roof window for winter cooking. The tiny window, known as a humar, allowed smoke to escape and let in some light. Almost as soon as they moved into their new house, Matica gave birth to a son, Branko, in January 1911.[17] The bothers obtained permits from authorities and neighbours for an additional storey to accommodate an expanding family but for many reasons expansion was never realised.[18] By the time Kumpa’s youngest son, Frane, was born in June 1914, he was working halfway across the globe.[19]

 

Western Australia

It is likely that Kumpa and Vara ran out of money before the house could be finished and that financial hardship was why Kumpa made the journey to Western Australia where a substantial number of fellow villagers were working on the goldfields. Along with four others from Šepurine, he set out for Naples to board the SS Otranto[20] and on the 3rd of February 1914, Kumpa disembarked at Fremantle Harbour.[21] With him was Petar Ukić Parin who was returning to Fremantle and who, no doubt, led the way.[22]

 

  SS Otranto

 

Kumpa’s brother, Vara joined him in Western Australia by the end of 1914, leaving his young wife and daughter in the new house they shared with Kumpa’s family. Arriving with little luggage, little money and no English, the brothers each made their way to Kalgoorlie where they met fellow Dalmatian Croatians and were employed on the woodlines at Lakewood and Kurrawang, felling timber which was used to reinforce the mine tunnels or to feed the gold industry’s roasters.

 

War and Internment

In August 1914, Britain, and consequently Australia, declared war on Austria-Hungary and the brothers, probably having little idea what was happening in Europe became “enemy aliens”, a term used by the Australian Government. Citing the War Precautions Act of 1914, and their general dislike of working with foreigners, the mining unions persuaded the Australian Government to arrest Austrians as a way of ridding themselves of non-British labour.[23]  Together with hundreds of others, Kumpa and Vara were arrested in their camps on the woodlines and sent to Rottnest Island, 23 km off the coast of Fremantle where they were housed in crowded tents near the Bathurst Lighthouse, together with hundreds of Germans.[24]

 

They slept on the bare ground all through the winter. Fresh water was scarce, and sanitation consisted of open pits near the tents.[25] By the end of 1915, there were 1104 men interned on the island: 426 Germans and German Austrians and 678 others, mostly Dalmatian Croatians, [26] among them thirty men from Šepurine, including Ivan Marinko Antulov who was only twelve years old.[27]

 

  Filip Vlahov Kumpa and Pere Vlahov Vara in Holsworthy Concentration Camp in 1915 holding their  photo identification number

 

The photo was taken in 1917 or 1918 in Holsworthy Concentration Camp in New South Wales, Australia. The pictured men were all from Prvić Šepurine. Filip Vlahov is seated third from left; Petar Vlahov is standing fourth from left.

 

In November 1915, the Australian Government closed the Rottnest camp and transported its 1104 internees to the Holdsworthy Camp in Liverpool, NSW, known then as the German Concentration Camp.[28] The camp’s harsh conditions were exacerbated by a lack of proper sanitation, while extortion and corruption were rife and, in what was essentially forced labour, the iternees built prison huts, guard towers, a railway to Liverpool and bridges in the local area.[29]

 

At the end of the war, the government’s policy was to deport most internees back to Europe; however between the end of the war and deportation the pneumonic influenza began to spread through the camp.[30] By that time, the camp’s medical staff had returned to civilian life leaving only a few guards to watch over hundreds of sick internees.[31] Those still in camp were inoculated in May but by June the internees succumbed to the flu. Of the three ships repatriating the German internees in 1919, two boats were returned to Australia because so many were sick, and the prisoners were re-interned. By the time the third ship, the SS Kursk, arrived in Durban, South Africa, 98% of passengers and crew were infected with at least twenty dead.[32] Over one hundred died during the summer and autumn of 1919, including at least 23 Dalmatians, among them Jakov Paškov Turtin[33] and Tome Vlahov Ivanov from Šepurine.[34]

 

Deportation

On the 18th of September 1919, Kumpa and Vara and hundreds of others were transferred to Sydney Harbour for deportation on the SS Frankfurt bound for Marseille, France.[35] On board ship, Kumpa and possibly Vara and others, contracted the Spanish flu. The ship stopped at Durban, where the brothers were taken to a South African quarantine camp while the SS Frankfurt continued its way to Europe. While convalescing, the brothers occupied themselves, each crafting a wooden box with a hinged lid, crafted from hand carved pieces of various southern African woods, decorated in floral and geometric patterns. Both boxes survived and have been passed down to family members.[36]

 

  Vara’s box made in Africa in 1919 now in the possession of his granddaughter Hedviga Ukich

 

Eventually the brothers were picked up by another vessel and made their way back to Croatia. Kumpa’s health had been damaged, and he never fully recovered. Vara, younger and healthier, set to work on the family’s land while his wife gave birth to a daughter, Andjelka in 1920 and a son, Ivan in 1923.

When the Australian Government repealed the 1920 Enemy Aliens Act in 1925, both Kumpa and Vara returned to Western Australia.[37] Vara returned to Fremantle on the 24th July 1924, disembarking from the SS Moncalieri, and going to Fimiston near Kalgoorlie where he most likely stayed until his brother’s return to Australia before moving to the Cowaramup, near the small town of Margaret River.[38]

 

  Vara and his nephew Andrija Paško Vlahov Kumpin, feeling timber in the South – west of Western Australia, circa 1930s

 

  Vara’s son Ivan Vlahov Varin

 

Kumpa returned to Western Australia in 1925 and in the same year made an application for his son, Andrija Paško, to be admitted into Australia.[39] Kumpa and Andrija spent four years in the southwest of Western Australia as sleeper cutters and machinery operators. By 1930, Kumpa’s health was deteriorating so he decided to return home to Šepurine. In his later years, he suffered what was likely an arthritic condition which caused the fingers on both hands to be permanently curled.[40]

 

  Vara’s daughter Andjelka Mišurac nee Vlahov Varina, Kumpa’s daughter Tomica Bijonda Kursar Kumpina nee Vlahov with a young patient

 

In the mid-1930s, Vara applied for his own son, Ivan, to come to Australia. Vara may have had optimistic plans for his son and himself but, unfortunately, Ivan died of tuberculosis in 1942 and was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery. He was only nineteen years of age.

 

World War II

Back in Croatia, Vara’s only surviving child, Andjelka, married Stipe Mišurac Bijondov and had a son, Ante, whom they named after the baby’s paternal grandfather. During World War II, while her husband was fighting with the Partisans against the NAZI army’s offensive, Andjelka and her son joined the steady flow of refugees, first to Italy and then to the British-Yugoslav displaced persons camp in El Shatt, near Suez, Egypt, where her four-year-old son died of cholera. She returned to Croatia a childless widow, never remarrying.[41] While Vara was still away in Western Australia, his wife Križanka moved into her parents’ house to look after her elderly mother. After the war, Andjelka moved in with her mother and worked in the sardine factory in Prvić Luka.

 

  L – R: Kumpa’s son Branko Vlahov Kumpin, Branko’s wife, Milka Vlahov Kumpina nee Antić – Polić with her granddaughter, Lena. (Author’s maternal grandparents and sister)

 

After surviving the Italian occupation of Šepurine, then it’s surrender, then the Ustaša period, the impending NAZI occupation proved too much for Kumpa and thousands of others. He left Šepurine as a refugee with many others and was picked up by American patrols in the Adriatic and taken to the island of Vis, where there was a British base. From there, the refugees were transported to one of the camps set up by the allies on the Italian peninsula after Italy’s surrender in September 1943. [42] As the camps became overcrowded, the Allies began moving large groups of refugees to El Shatt in Egypt. Kumpa was among the 39 647 who were transferred to El Shatt along with his eldest daughter, Milka Mijat, and with Vara’s daughter, Andjelka. When Kumpa left Šepurine as a refugee, he left behind his wife, Matica, his son Branko and his family. He never saw his son again.

Branko was a handsome man, large dark eyes, wide shouldered, with a cheeky sense of humour. He married Milka Antić-Poluš whose parents were displeased with the union for several reasons, among them was that Milka was two years older than Branko. Also, her family considered themselves better off – her father had been the village leader, he was literate and Milka’s younger brother, Slavko, was going into the priesthood which brought additional prestige to the family.

 

Branko and Milka had three children: Karmela (b 1932)[43], Hedviga (b 1935) and Ante (b 1940).[44] Branko was a hospital orderly, working in Šibenik Hospital with his sister, Tomica (Bijonda) the nurse. When the NAZIs occupied Šibenik, Branko was still working at the hospital and became an informant for the Partisans.[45] He was captured and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp just north of Munich, Germany. While out of the camp on forced labour, Branko and several others escaped. He stealthily walked some 550kms from Dachau, through Germany and German-held territory to Zagreb. He contracted typhoid along the way and died in a Zagreb hospital. Relatives, living in Zagreb during the war saw him and eventually relayed the story of his escape and his passing to his family. Branko died without seeing his wife, Milka, his children, or his parents again.

 

  Karmela, Hedviga and Ante

 

Milka and her children, together with Kumpa’s wife, Matica escaped the NAZI occupation of the central Dalmatian islands by fleeing Šepurine in a boat under the cover of darkness. The escape boat, filled with women and children, was picked up by American patrol boats and taken to the island of Biševo where they were processed and assigned to the Santa Maria di Leuca UNRRA camp in southern Italy. By that time, Kumpa, had already been transported to El Shatt. Milka and her children and their Baba Matica were in the last small group of refugees who remained in Italy until the war’s end. They were repatriated in November 1944 on the SS Ljubljana embarking in Monopoli, Italy and transferring in Split to a smaller vessel that took them to Šibenik.[46] It wasn’t until May 1945, after Dachau Concentration Camp was liberated by the Americans and Marko Antić Šimerin returned to his home in Šepurine, that Milka learned the fate of her husband. Marko Antić Šimerin had been in Dachau with Branko and had passed through Zagreb on his way home to Šepurine and learned what happened to him, when he died and that he had been buried in a communal grave in Zagreb’s Mirogoj Cemetery.[47]

 

Death

By the end of the war, Kumpa had deteriorated significantly. His family had lost a son, two grandsons and two members of Vara’s family. They faced extreme poverty and starvation. His son, Andrew, would send supplies from Australia but often the packages were raided, confiscated, or simply disappeared. Branko’s widow, Milka, made leather sandals from bull and cow hide which she would sell in the village. Often, the sale of sandals was their only source of income.[48]  Kumpa died on the 7th of March 1954. His wife, Matica passed away three months later on the 18th of July 1954.

 

In 1948, Vara returned to Croatia. He was getting old, but he and Križanka worked their fields, made their wine and olive oil until they no longer could. Their daughter, Andjelka cared for them both until their deaths.

 

  Filip Kumpa Vlahov’s funeral, March 1954 in Šepurina. The second pall – bearer on the right is Selmo Ukić Parinov, who married Kumpa’s granddaughter Hedviga. Behind him is Zdravko Franić Kletov, the author’s father, who married Karmela

 

 

     

Filip Kumpa Vlahov                            Petar Vara Vlahov

 

Legacy

In Australia, Kumpa’s son, Andrew, and his wife Rose (nee Ukić Parin) had six children who survived into adulthood. In the mid-1950s, Andrew sponsored two of his brother’s children who migrated and settled in Perth. Branko’s son, Ante and Karmela’s husband, Zdravko Franić Kletov arrived in Fremantle in January 1956. Ante was only 16 years old and stayed with his uncle and aunty for eleven years. When Karmela and her daughter, Lena (2) arrived in Fremantle in April 1957, the reunited Franić family moved into a small fibro dwelling which they rented from Roko and Vera Antulov Fingerovi in Osborne Park. Later, they rented an acre of land and an old house in Macdonald Street, Osborne Park, from Victor and Millie Vlahov Čučovi, and began establishing a market garden. In May 1965, Hedviga’s husband, Selmo Ukić Parinov arrived in Western Australia, and lived with Karmela and Zdravko until Hedviga and their sons, Zoran (b 1955) and Edo (b1960) migrated to Perth in August 1966.

 

Today, there are no living descendants of Vara and Križanka Vlahov, but there are over one hundred living descendants of his brother, Kumpa and his wife Matica. Some of their descendants remained in Croatia, others move to Zemun, Serbia immediately after World War II, some now live in Queensland, Melbourne, New Zealand but the vast majority live in Western Australia.

 

By:

Lino Franich

July, 2022

Perth, Western Australia

 

 

[1] The family was known by their father’s nickname, Kriškini, meaning,“belonging to Kriška.”

[2] Ljubomir Antić in Slavica Vlahov, ed (1998). Šepurinski Zbornik. Šibenik: Matica Hrvatska Šibenik, p.51

[3] The uninhabited, neighbouring island of Tijat had been leased to various noblemen or wealthy locals since the 1300s. In 1865, it was purchased by twelve Šepurine families. In 1868, another 106 families bought into the cooperative ownership. It was purchased from the Šibenik nobleman, Frane Draganić-Vrančić who inherited it via his mother, the Countess Margarita Vrančic who died in 1766.  Don Krsto Stošić in Slavica Vlahov, ed (1998). Šepurinski Zbornik. Šibenik, Matica Hrvatska Šibenik, p.44

[4] Šepurine family nicknames have been included in italics. They were an important part of village life where many families had the same surname. Filip’s individual nickname was Kumpa. His wife, children and grandchildren all carried the family nickname, Kumpini. Pere’s individual nickname was Vara, therefore his family were known as the Varini.

[5] Ante Ukić (2005). Stanovništvo i obitelji otoka Prvića: Prvić u prvoj polovici 19. stoljeća. Zagreb: Vlast. Nakl., p.326

[6] Ante Ukić in Slavica Vlahov, ed (1998). Šepurinski Zbornik. Šibenik: Matica Hrvatska Šibenik, p.102

[7] Ljubomir Antić (2004). Šepurina u dalmatinskom tisku 1876. – 1914. Zagreb: Selbstveri, p.35

[8] Pučki List, 18 November 1892, Split in Ljubomir Antić (2004). Šepurina u dalmatinskom tisku 1876. – 1914. Zagreb: Selbstveri, p.34

[9] German South West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884-1915. Today, it is the independent state of Namibia.

[10] The aphid-like grape phylloxera devastated vineyards all over Europe from about 1860 to 1910 by feeding on the roots and gradually starving the vine of nutrients and water. Locally, it was known as the žiloždera – the root devourer.

[11] Milka Vlahov (1896-1874) moved to Srima when she married Luka Mijat in 1919. She had five children and became a widow in 1931, when her youngest child, Frane, was four. Two sons were killed during World War II: Ante was a Partisan fighter who was executed by an Italian firing squad and Roko, who was killed in combat as a member of Ustaša army.

Frane Mijat (1998). Kronika Mjesta Srima, self-published, p. 38

[12] Tomica Vlahov was known as Bijonda (Blondie) her entire life. She married Petar Kursar Kirčev from Šepurine. After she became a widow in her 20s, she moved to Šibenik and became a nurse working in Šibenik Hospital for over thirty years until her retirement. After she retired, she moved back to Šepurine and lived in the house her father and uncle built.

[13] Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Volume 373-7 I, VIII A 1 Band 177; Page: 1053; Microfilm No: K_1794.

Travelling with Kumpa were Tome Kursar Grgićin (b 1865), Lovre Paškov Turtin (b 1864), Mate Bile Skroza Ivićin (b 1880), Mate Vlahov (b 1875) and Zore Vlahov Batalo (b 1876)

[14] Norimitsu Onishi & Melissa Eddy. (2021, May 29) A forgotten genocide: what Germany did in Namibia, and what it’s saying now, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/world/europe/germany-namibia-genocide.html

[15] Onboard the SS Gertrud Woermann II were 209 sheep destined for the colony. Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Volume 373-7 I, VIII A 1 Band 177; Page: 1053; Microfilm No: K_1794.

[16] Marija Valerija Vlahov, born 1909, passed away as a child, possibly while Vara was in Western Australia during World War One. She was buried in the communal section of the Šepurine Cemetery beneath slab No 8.

[17] Ante Branko Vlahov, (1911 – 1944), the author’s grandfather.

[18] The original hand-written permits are in the author’s possession.

[19] Frane Vlahov (b 1914) died in 1930 when he was 15 years old.

[20] Built in 1909 in Belfast, Ireland, the passenger vessel, Otranto, was owned by Orient Line and operated the route between the UK and Australia via the Suez Canal. On board were 900 third class berths. Its maiden voyage was on 1st October 1909. In 1914, it was commandeered as an armed merchant cruiser. In 1918, the Otranto was almost cut in half while colliding with the SS Kashmir killing 431 men. The vessel was wrecked and broke up off the Scottish coast. Peter Plowman (2009). Migrant Ships to Australia and New Zealand 1900-1939. Wellington: Rosenburg Publishing, p.100

[21] Apart from Petar Ukić Parin, the others travelling to Fremantle with Kumpa were Andrija Rade Vlahov, Sidin (b 1873), Filip Antić Čagaljov (b 1868) who was married to Kumpa’s sister Barica, Krste Ukić Ivanov who was only 21 when he disembarked. NAA. Passenger Schedule Fremantle, List of Passengers disembarking at Port of Fremantle, 3rd Feb 1914

[22] Petar Ukić Parin first arrived in Fremantle in October 1908 returning to Dalmatia in September 1912. Later, his daughter Ruža (Rose) married Kumpa’s son, Andrija Paško (Andrew).

[23] ALIENS IN THE MINES. (1916, August 19). The West Australian, p.7. www.nla.gov.au/nla.newsarticle26988824

[24] The camp was on the site of the present-day Caroline Thompson Chalets.

[25] Gerhard Fischer (1989). Enemy aliens: internment and the Homefront experience in Australia 1914-1920. St Lucia Qld., University of Queensland Press., p.188-194

[26] Of the Slavic internees, there were two Czechs, two Serbs, one Hungarian, one Pole; the rest almost all from Dalmatia. Alexandra Ludewig (2019). War time on Wadjemup: a social history of the Rottnest Island internment camp. Crawley. WA. University of WA Press, p. 73

[27] Ivan Marinko Antulov (b 1901) migrated to Western Australia in 1912 with his father, Jakov. Jakov was back in Dalmatia at the time of internment. NAA, Series No: C440, Item No: 851857, Register of World War 1 Internees in NSW.

[28] Holdsworthy is sometimes spelt Holsworthy.

[29] Gerhard Fischer (1989). Enemy Aliens. p.200-201

[30] Also known as the Spanish Flu, it caused the deaths of at least 15 000 Australians between 1918-1919, at a time when Australia’s entire population was approximately five million. National Museum Australia (2021). Defining Moments: Influenza Pandemic. NMA. https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/influenza-pandemic

[31] Gerhard Fischer (1989). Enemy Aliens. p.228

[32] Criena Fitzgerald (2021). For a better life: Yugoslavs on the Goldfields of Western Australia 1890-1970. Perth, Criena Fitzgerald, p. 145

[33] Jakov Paškov (b 1882) was the son of Love Paškov who was with Kumpa in German South-West Africa.

[34] National Australian Archives: MP1565/1 box 1, Nominal Role of Deceased Internees.

[35] National Australian Archives: D1918, Deported Aliens

[36] Vara’s box (pictured) is in the author’s possession; Kumpa’s box is with his granddaughter, Hedviga Ukich.

[37] The 1920 Enemy Aliens Act prohibited Germans, Austrians, former Austrian subjects, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Turks from entering Australia for five years from 2 December 1920. It was repealed (with the exception of Turks) in 1925.

[38] NAA: PP302/1, WA3009

[39] NAA: A261, 1925/635

[40] Another version of why Kumpa’s hands were permanently curled involve two injuries. Firstly, that a sharp awl accidentally went through his hand and secondly that his had was bitten by a donkey.

[41] Andjelka’s husband, Stipe Mišurac Bijondov was died in combat near Velika Popina, Lika, Croatia on 6th January 1944, the same year his four-year old son died in the El Shatt refugee camp.

Dane Berović (urednik) (1978). Žrtvama do pobjede i slobode: Zbornik poginulih boraca, žrtava rata Šibenske Općine od 1941-1945 godine. Šibenik. Općinski Odbor Subnor-Šibenik.

[42] The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was established in November 1943 by a 44-nation agreement but largely funded by the United States. Australia was one of the initial signatories.

[43] Karmela Franić nee Vlahov (b 1932) is the author’s mother.

[44] Hedviga Vlahov married Selmo Ukić Parinov; Ante Vlahov married Zvizda Kursar Trkešina

[45] Vladimir Marković Inđo (1973) Nepokorena Mladost. Šibenik, self-published.

[46] Mateo Bratanić (2016). Hrvatski zbjegovi u Italji of 1943. do 1945. godine, Časopis za suvremenu povijest. 48 (1).

p 161-196. Retrieved from  https://hrcak.srce.hr/clanak/250045

[47] Told to the author by his grandmother, Milka Vlahov nee Antić-Poluš and by Marko Antić Šimerin in 1986

[48] Told to the author by his grandmother, Milka Vlahov Kumpina

 

Lino Franich sent us more information about his family:

 

BROTHERS, JOSIP AND IVAN FRANIĆ KEŠIĆ

Josip Franić-Kešić was born in 1871 in Prvić Šepurine near Šibenik. His brother, Ivan, was born in 1880.

After spending two years in the Austro-hungarian army, Josip left Šepurine for South Africa where he stayed for five months before journeying to Melbourne arriving some time in 1901. For at least the next year, Josip’s movements are uncertain but by 1903 he was on the Western Australian Goldfields where he reunited with his brother, Ivan, who disembarked at Fremantle, Western Australia. in February of the same year.

It’s likely that Josip was the first from his village to come to WA, followed by Ivan who arrived in 1903.

In 1909, Josip left Western Australia on the S.S. Ville de la Ciotat disembarking in Marseilles, France on the 22nd of October 1909 and from there returning to Šepurine. He stayed home long enough to marry Jerka Rodin from Prvić Luka and to see the birth of their only child, Andjelka, in October 1910. It was the only time he would see his daughter and the last time he would see his wife.

Josip’s brother, Ivan, also returned to Croatia in 1909, married Matija Kursar from Šepurine, who gave birth to their daughter, Roka, in March 1911. By the end of the same year, Josip and Ivan were back on the Western Australian goldfields working as miners. Both joined the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Slavonic Society and the Jugo-Slav Committee which had a strong pro-Allied purpose to it, as well as cultural and social purposes.

When being interviewed by the Enemy Alien Commission in 1916, both declared their support for the Allies and stated they would fight against the Austrians if called upon. Their allegiance declarations were printed the Kalgoorlie Miner in October of the same year.

In 1917, as the war continued there was unrest among the workers on the goldfields. Technically, Josip and Ivan were Austrians and regarded by many co-workers as enemy aliens. In a bid to avoid conflict and unemployment, they applied and were granted provisional naturalisation (citizenship) by the Russian consulate. Although the Commonwealth government didn’t recognise the provisional Russian naturalisation, it did determine that Josip and Ivan were of good character and not hostile, granting them an exemption from internment. Consequently, they were able to remain working on the goldfields.

Ivan eventually leased a small mine in the southern section of the Lancefield Mine near Beria, eight kilometres north of Laverton. He named his lease, Roka Gold Mine after his daughter whom he only ever saw as a new-born baby.

In 1928, Josip made an application for his wife, Jerka, and daughter, Andjelka, to migrate to Western Australia but their journey to never eventuated. It is possible that by this time Andjelka was courting or even engaged to her future husband, Ante Antulov, known locally as Knjajo.

Ivan’s wife, Matija, migrated to Western Australia, arriving on the 22 April 1929. They had their second child – a son, born in Kalgoorlie on the 5th March 1932. They named him Joseph, after his uncle.

The 1943 WA Electoral Roles, show that Ivan, Matija and Josip were living in Beria, 8 km north of Laverton (965km north, north-east of Perth). Four years later, in June 1947, Josip died in Kalgoorlie hospital and was buried in the cemetery there.

Ivan continued working his mining lease in Beria and was joined by his son-in-law, Miroslav Grubelich in 1937. According to the Kalgoorlie Miner, between 1929 and 1949, the Roka Gold Mine yielded 1500oz (42.5kg) of gold from 6,500 tons of ore, most of it found at the 136ft (41m) level.

Ivan died in the Laverton District Hospital in April 1950 and was buried in the Leonora District Cemetery. An article in the Leonora News described him as a “Laverton identity”. Matija lived with her Kalgoorlie-born son, Joseph, and passed away in 1977.

Roka and her youngest son, Miro, migrated to WA in 1954, after a sixteen-year separation from their husband and father. Roka’s eldest son, Ante, migrated to Western Australia on January 4th 1957 on the SS Toscana.

****

Archival documents show variations in Josip’s name: Josip Kesich, Josef Franich, Joseph Kesich Francih, Giuseppe Kesich.

Variations of Ivan’s name include Giovanni Kesich, Ivan Kesich Franich, John Kesich Franich, Ivan Kesich.

Lino Franich

April 2024