Macedonians in Newcastle
The following information was sourced from the wikipedia page dedicated to Macedonian Australians on 7th May 2009. The latest version of the page can be found here.
Many of the first Macedonians would often go to work at the in the Newcastle Steelworks. By the early 1930s various "Kafani" had been established. As whole families began to immigrate many social and cultural amenities were established. In 1946 the Newcastle branch of the Macedonian-Australian People's League From the 1960s many Macedonians from the Socialist Republic of Macedonia came to Newcastle. A KUD was established and theMacedonian-Australian People's League helped to engage the Macedonian Novacastrians with the rest of the Macedonian Australian community. Many would attend dances in the Trades Hall, Sydney. The first time the Macedonian language was broadcast in Australia occurred in Newcastle in 1949 as the local branch of the MAPL held a commemorative Ilinden broadcast.
After the decentralization of the Macedonian-Australian People's League the Greek orientated, "Pavlos Melas" society was founded. This in turn was replaced by the "Macedonian Community of Newcastle". In 1970 the community built the Света Богородица/Holy Mother of God Macedonian Orthodox Church in Adamstown. The soccer clubs of Red Star, Newcastle-Macedonia, The Macedonian junior soccer club and Broadmeadow Magic were all founded by Macedonians. Another 3 KUD's, KUD Ilinden, KUD Bitola and KUD "Stiv Naumi" were all founded, the latter which still operates today. A sredselo was established as another church was constructed. In 1986 the first Macedonian Cultural Day was held and the "Goce Delcev" ethnic school was founded. The first non-English language Newspaper in Newcastle was the Macedonian paper "Kopnež" which was launched in 1984 by the "Macedonian Community of Newcastle". After the Breakup of Yugoslavia a number of Macedonians came to the Newcastle region. In the early 1990s a branch of the VMRO party was set up. A Macedonian welfare centre was built on the site of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Peter Hill estimates that there are 3,600 Macedonians in the Newcastle region. In 1996, 2,095 people spoke the Macedonian language at home compared with the 1,863 in 2006. In 2006 the number of people with Macedonian ancestry in the Newcastle are was 2,424 of whom Aegean Macedonians comprise 20%.
A number of community organisations and projects have been created, many of which are still running. Those include:
- The Macedonian chess club
- Macedonian Pension Association
- Macedonian Ethnic Food Kit, which acknowledged Macedonians dishes and tested and approved by qualified dietitians
- Macedonian Welfare Association
- Macedonian Day Care Center
- Macedonian Human Right Association, (which published two books on Macedonia: The real Macedonians, publish in Newcastle by Prof. John Shea, and Macedonia and Greece, The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, also by Prof. John Shea publish by McFarland, USA.)
- Macedonian Ethnic School
- Macedonian Saturday School
- Kopnež, the Macedonian newspaper
- Newcastle Suns Football Club
- Broadmeadow Magic Football Club
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