Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Thursday, 18 August 2011 the Australian Macedonia Parliamentary Friendship Group hosted His Excellency Mr Pero Stojanovski, Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Macedonian independence. I could not attend the event, but I was represented by Andrew Hunter from my office.

The date of this event fell roughly between two significant dates in modern Macedonian history. I understand that 2 August is St Eligius Day, celebrated in Macedonia to recognise the anniversary of the beginning of the Ilinden uprising. This uprising against the centuries long Ottoman occupation occurred in 1903 and was a key event in the development of Macedonia. The Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 led to the dissolution of the Ottoman empire. This period coincided with the first wave of Macedonian migration to Australia, almost entirely from the Aegean Macedonia.

The country officially celebrates independence day on 8 September because on that day in 1991 a peaceful democratic referendum endorsed the country’s independence from Yugoslavia. Last week His Excellency, Mr Pero Stojanovski, spoke of what had been achieved in the first 20 years of independence and of the challenges still to be met.

According to the 2006 census, over 80,000 Australian residents identified themselves as having Macedonian ancestry. The South Australian Macedonian community was established by migrants from the Aegean region of Macedonia in the 1920s and 1930s. The majority settled in the inner western suburbs of Adelaide, but many later moved to Adelaide’s northern suburbs. A subsequent wave of Macedonians came in the 1960s and 1970s.

Australians of Macedonian ancestry have made a considerable contribution to all walks of Australian life—in the professions, in business, the arts and sports, where most notably Australian Rules footballer and 1990 Collingwood premiership player Peter Daicos is still referred as the Macedonian Marvel.

In South Australia there are a number of organisations and groups that identify with the members of the Macedonian community. The Macedonian community of Adelaide and South Australia was established in 1947. This community group is the home to the Macedonian United Lions Soccer Club and the Macedonian School of South Australia. It also publishes the quarterly journal Iskra.

The annual Macedonian cultural day festival, which was first held in 1983, was a successful part of South Australia’s 150-year anniversary in 1986. In 1969 the first Macedonian Orthodox Church in South Australia was built adjacent to the Macedonian Hall in Findon. Another church, Holy Mother of God in Woodville South, was established during the late 1990s.

A range of Macedonian radio programs exist in Adelaide. In more recent years the Macedonian Social Club was established in Brahma Lodge to cater for Macedonians living in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

I grew up with many people of Macedonian descent as neighbours and friends and to this day the Unerkov family are neighbours of mine. I congratulate the Republic of Macedonia on its 20th anniversary of independence and acknowledge their contributions to Australian society.