Nikola Tulic

Story

Nikola Tulic

I, Nikola Tulic was born in born in Blato, population approximately 9,000 on an island, Korcula in former Yugoslavia now Croatia on the 22nd April 1915, during a very difficult time.

My father Franko was away somewhere on the Russian front, serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War One. During those three years that my father was at war, he had no contact with us and received no news on what was happening to us in Blato.

My father returned from war in poor health to his five young daughters and me almost three years old to learn that his wife and my mother had passed away six months earlier from tuberculosis.

Most families in Blato were living in poverty with very little food available. It was a struggle to provide enough food, restart the vineyard and fields that were neglected because of the war.

I was raised by my sisters who also assisted our ill father on the land as best as they could.

Harder times arrived when a disease spread across Europe and almost wiped out the wine production, our main source of income.

Due to my father’s ill health, I left school at 13 and assumed responsibility for the family as the male figure. It was a hard struggle for many years just to survive.

I married Danica in 1939 and a year later our first daughter Frana was born.

World War Two separated my family and I ended up in the Bosnian mountains, whilst my wife and daughter were evacuated with others to Africa with the Red Cross. We lost contact for over two years, not knowing if we would ever reunite.

After the war we reunited in Blato and increased our family with another daughter Danica and a son Franko (Frank). I had to restart the vineyards and fields to feed the growing family, also acquired more land to cultivate and started to renovate the family home out of necessity.

The political and economic situation forced me to immigrate to Australia in 1956 onboard a ship to Australia.

I disembarked in Sydney; age 41 and two days later was working with the Waterboard, digging trenches for the expanding sewerage system across the city’s suburbs. The work was hard with a pick and shovel, but I was used to harder times and for far less income. Here on labourers wages, I felt rich, but most of all I felt free!

Within 1 years I had paid a deposit on a block of land with a large garage and was living in Merrylands, Sydney. With the assistance of the Catholic Immigration Scheme, I was able to bring my wife and three children to Australia to join me.

Over the following five years, I sponsored seven relatives (one from each family) who were in similar or worse situations than I was. They in turn sponsored their families so many lives were changed for the better and being from a hard work culture and background, Australia benefited from their efforts.

By working as much as I could and saving well, I paid off all my debts, built a new house far better than I could ever hoped for in Blato, my old town.

We raised our children and helped out where we could and I became an old aged pensioner at 65 in 1980.

I have outlived all my friends, my five sisters and my wife.

I have a deep, strong gratitude to this beautiful country Australia for accepting my family and me and for giving us the opportunity for a quality of life that would never have been possible in my old country. Maybe that’s why I’m still going ok at 93!

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