Although Australia is the farthest continent from Europe, this was not an obstacle for Montenegrins. They sailed, "with a pear in their throats", for a month at a time in "the bowels of fiery vapors", in order to reach the developed world and, as they said, feed hungry mouths.
They were flint-stone!
Parting with Montenegro was painful, but Montenegrins conquered the world; to earn and return. Stayed forever.
A Montenegrin from Nikšić came to Australia in 1885, he says Dr. Đorđije Đoko Pejović in the book "Emigration of Montenegrins in the 19th century".
Then, in 1886, brothers came from Bijela Šerovići, Todor i The situation.
The richness of flora and fauna make Australia attractive. In her flowered coat of arms, a kangaroo and an emu bird, "which is faster than the fastest horse, and cannot fly..."
Montenegrins and Montenegrin captives arrived in Australia.
And when in 1927 Luka Markovic, headed for Australia, moving slowly away from the Montenegrin coast, he looked once more at the proud Lovćen and exclaimed:
- When will I see you again, crown of Montenegro!?
He left with the intention of staying no longer than four years. He determined the place where he will build a house upon his return, which will be the most beautiful in the village...
He was born in the village of Brijege in Crmnica, an integral part of the historic village of Brčeli.
...I overcame the world; and one fall, long ago, I was in Australia.
I am talking to Luka Marković. He was ninety-six years old. His confession is dramatic. He overcame all kinds of illnesses and difficulties.
After wandering around Australia, Luka got a job in the small town of Vajala. His job was to load and unload crates from the ship to the train and vice versa. But, alas. A rusty nail pierced his finger. The finger suddenly swelled, so they transferred him to the hospital and operated on him.
- The finger remained crippled, I could neither bend nor straighten it, but with the help of the other four, I managed somehow to do all the work - says Luka. - Treatment and sick leave lasted thirteen weeks. The group that was hired the same day as me was fired a long time ago, and I got it on the third day after my sick leave ended. What will I do now, I asked myself a question?
Some Montenegrins, who lived and worked in North Queensland, invited Luka to come to them. He obeyed them and settled in the beautiful town of Inisfel. It was sugar cane picking season.
- Ten of us stayed in one shack with five rooms. After a few months I got a sudden suffocation. They rushed me to the hospital. The specialist established that, sleeping with my mouth open, I was infected with the so-called "fly c". I knew she was dangerous in African countries, but I didn't expect her here - Luka tells me.
- None of the surgeons dared to operate on me, so they sent me to Townsville, three hundred miles away, to a private hospital. It cost me money and effort. The owner of the hospital and the chief surgeon was a Viennese specialist. My tongue was so swollen that he originally thought he was going to cut my throat to get air. Instead he accepted the alternative of having my sister hold my tongue out with special syringes. They operated on me, and three days after the operation they fed me hot milk mixed with honey, which I still take. I was discharged from the hospital not only with my tonsils removed, but also with my tongue cut off. As a result of the operation, my vocal cords were damaged, until then I had a normal voice, and after that it was hoarse...
That's not all.
One day he was passing by the river. Suddenly, a big crocodile jumped out in front of him!
- He was afraid of me, and I was even more afraid of him - says Luka.
- That day I felt very bad and they took me to the hospital. That was lucky for me. They saved me from severe shock, lack of blood flow to the brain. At the beginning of 1937, I visited my homeland on a special assignment, with the intention of going to war in Spain. Since the ship was broken into, that wish was not fulfilled. Then I decided to stay in Australia and settled in the small town of Boulder...
He never thought that he would become a miner, but he felt the coming of a great economic crisis, so he started working as a miner, which, he said, was still easier than cutting sugar cane! In the mine, a stone fell on his foot and injured his thumb; he broke his leg and two ribs on the left side, as well as his collarbone.
- Searching for the wisdom tooth that was "wisdom" in its socket for sixty years, the special team at the hospital tore out at least five centimeters of my jaw from my jaw - says Luka.
- I operated on the left eye first, and three years later on the right eye. In a clumsy fall from the tram, I broke my right arm in the shoulder. One day I fell backwards on an escalator; they took me to the hospital and diagnosed me with a concussion...
That's not all either.
In October 1941, Luka Marković volunteered to go to war against the then fascist Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis.
- On the shoulders of my uniform, the mark "Australia" is visibly written in metal letters. They also gave me a small locket. It had my initials and the number 18238 on it. It was supposed to be used in case of death or if by chance the enemies buried me so that I could be easily identified - remembers Luka Marković.
- After an intensive six-month training, I was assigned to an anti-tank unit, which was transferred from place to place, where they expected the Japanese to come. However, when they saw that the Japanese would not come, they decided that we should go towards them. My unit was transferred to where I had previously spent several years, which is North Queensland. One day we boarded the ship secretly and set off on a long journey. The ship moved very cautiously, fearing to run into mines. Especially through the famous Guadalcanal. We finally disembarked at the border between Indonesian and Australian New Guinea, on the second parallel of the hot belt. I don't even have to talk about how I felt when the sun rises and sets around six o'clock for months with little variation throughout the year...
Diseases pressed him again. First he got typhoid, his hair started to fall out, but later, although it thinned out, it grew back. And the most dangerous disease that befell him then was the so-called "black fever". In an unconscious state, they transferred him in a small "mosquito" (mosquito) plane.
- There was only room in the plane for the pilot, the paramedic and me - Luka remembers.
- They placed me in a makeshift hospital under big tents. Basically, I survived. The next disease that attacked me in New Guinea was severe dermititis, almost a little leprosy. My head was completely wrapped except for my eyes, and the upper part of my body was especially attacked. I still feel the traces of that dangerous disease now and then, almost half a century later, so I always have an ointment on hand that I rub on sensitive places. For us in New Guinea, the war ended in August 1945 with the famous atomic bomb attack. While we were on the island, every morning we took a piece of salt and a tablet of Atebren. Salt was taken for loss due to heavy sweating, and atebren was used to combat malaria. Those pills made us all turn yellow as if we belonged to the yellow race. They finally transferred us to the continent only in December 1945. That's when the real break occurred! Almost all of us, without exception, got tropical malaria. Not only were all the hospitals full, but they were also using many private buildings as hospitals. I finally entered civilian life...
...Autumn wounds; sydney. Charlie the breeze: a lovely panda is planning on a eucalyptus branch. We are sitting in the elegant restaurant "Don", not far from the wonderful building of the Sydney Opera House, a masterpiece of a Danish architect. Jerna Ucona. We are served by the owner of the restaurant, Don Rais, personally. In fact, he is Dobrivoje Raičević, from Trepča near Andrijevica... Trepča, Lalić's.
In 1973, Luka Marković published the book "Under the Australian Sky" in which he describes the life of Montenegrin emigrants. Luka Marković's book, as he pointed out in the preface Bozo Milacic, is an exceptional experience. According to Milacić, it is first of all a precious document about our emigrants in Australia, about their life and work, and especially about true patriotism and in their successful efforts to remain not only attached to the ideas of the National Liberation Struggle during the Second World War, but also to actively help the struggle and spread the noblest ideas...
Since 1930, he has also been engaged in journalism.
- I was a correspondent for one Croatian and one Serbian newspaper in the United States of America, one Serbian in Canada and one Yugoslav in Australia. As such, I was appointed to manage the well-known repatriation in 1948, when fifteen hundred of our emigrants returned to their homeland - says ninety-six-year-old Luka Marković.
- And then came the proposal of the General Consulate in Sydney to appoint me as a legal officer in the Consulate. Journalistic work was very tiring for me, because the articles were tied to deadlines. Many evenings I worked until two after midnight, and then went to my regular job in the morning. From that hard work, I often got severe migraines and lost weight...
The troubles of this resident Montenegrin emigrant did not end. One day he felt very weak and went to a cardiologist.
- When he examined me, the doctor said: "Well, how could you come on foot?!" He ordered me to lie down, they sent someone to my house to get a suitcase with the necessary things - Luka tells me.
- There they ordered me to rest strictly for at least five days and not to get up even for physiological needs. After that, they slowly let me join the others in the gym and start slowly training on the trim track. The first was one hundred, the second two hundred, the third three hundred meters. The paths gradually rose and descended. Later they allowed me to walk freely in the garden. They extended my stay for ten days, and today, thirty years later, my heart is stronger than could have been expected. A few years ago, I received a black report that my uncle's brother and his son had died. It shook me so much that I had a myocardial infarction and spent twenty days in the hospital, four of which were in the shock room. Somehow at the same time I got another disease, facial inflammation on the left side of my face. The lower jaw was completely lowered. They fed me only liquid food, and in addition to medication, I was treated with one device, an electric pad. The face recovered quite a bit, but now, after two and a half years, my left eye is constantly leaking. Perhaps it is important to mention this fact: for more than twenty years, every morning at an open window or in nature, I have been breathing in deeply thirty times through my nose and exhaling the same number of times through my mouth. After every exercise like this, I feel a stronger heartbeat... There, my dear Slobodan, this is the end of my confession. I will continue to fight as long as I can. I believe more in my help than in God's help, and I fear life more than death...
Somewhere in the distance, the shrill sound of a ship's siren soars into the sky; sydney.
Author Slobodan Vuković
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