Merica (Maria) Zaknich Petkovich
| Town/City | Broken Hill |
|---|---|
| First name | Merica (Maria) |
| Last name | Zaknich Petkovich |
| Country of Origin | Blato Korcula, Croatia |
| Date of Birth | 1949 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1961 |
| Submitted by | Christine Adams |
Story
In the beginning, it was scary, very frightening at school, with all the kids around you and you thought you were downhill and they were all uphill but it didn\’t seem to last for long because we had a good teacher. If she saw kids laughing at us, she would go crook at them.
The Napredak Club [Club established for persons of the former Croatia in 1936] used to run lessons in English. There was a teacher from the High School and he had the job, obviously through the government. There were English lessons because there were just so many migrants; Yugoslavs for a start and others.
A lot of people say, ‘Why Broken Hill?\’ But it was the only place grandpa could get a job. That\’s why everybody came, because the grandparents were here.