Brozicevic Family

Among the first professional fishermen in Western Australia were three Croatians Josip Marian, Josip Katnic and Jere Lusic who, initially, were fishermen in Victoria. After sailing Marian’s fishing boat across the Great Australian Bight to Fremantle in 1890 (or 1897) they became commercial fishermen here.

Josip Marian, a vigneron, fisherman and sailor was born on the island of Hvar, Croatia in 1839 (or 1837) and, after working on the Suez Canal until its completion in 1869, migrated to Geelong, Victoria, where he became a fisherman.

After arriving in Western Australia, using Fremantle as his base, he fished the waters between Fremantle and Mandurah for many years. In April 1901 Josip Marian brought out his nephew, Anton Marian with whom he fished for a short time and with whom he set up the Slavonian Vineyard in Armadale.

Josip Katnic from Dvorske, a sailor on an Austrian ship, disembarked in Melbourne where he began fishing. He continued in the profession in Fremantle and, when the need arose, went sleeper cutting in Margaret River. When he had saved enough for fares he brought out his brother Jakov , who in turn brought out his son Joja to join him in fishing. In addition, he brought out his nephew Frane (Frank) Sr. Brozicevic who, in 1910, at the age of seventeen, initially stayed with Katnic and fished with him for several years. The Brozicevic’s went on to become a prominent family in the fishing industry in Western Australia.

Returning to his hometown of Crikvenica in Croatia in 1922, Frank Snr. met and married Angelica Alafetic. They had a daughter Marija (Mary) in 1923 and with the need to provide for his family, Frank Snr. returned to Fremantle in the same year and again began fishing the Fremantle waters, intermittently spending time in Margaret River cutting sleepers to supplement the meagre income he earned in fishing. Between the wars he spent time around Nannup and Kardup, once having to walk between the two towns to find more work.

Frank Snr. again returned to Croatia in 1925, stayed two years, during which time a son Frank Jnr. was born. He returned to Fremantle in 1927, and then finally, brought out the rest of his family in 1931. Frank Jnr. was just 4 years of age at the time.

The Brozicevic’s family involvement in fishing in Fremantle waters spanned over 80 years. Frank Snr., from the time he began fishing in Fremantle in 1910, had several boats – the Defiance, the May and the Margurita – all about 7 to 8 metres in length and continued fishing the local waters until his retirement in 1950. He passed away in 1973. However the fishing tradition in the family was continued by Frank Jnr. In addition, his sister Mary married Emilo Grizicic in 1946, who was also from a fishing family (father and grandfather were fisherman). Petar Grizicic (Emilo’s father) had a 7 metre boat – Bari- and fished the local waters.

Frank Jnr., even during his school days at the South Terrace (Fremantle) State school and Christian Brothers College, helped his father in the fishing industry during school holidays and on weekends. It was at school that his surname became shortened; from Brozicevic to “Broz”. Having put his age up, he left school at 13 years of age and began fishing fulltime with his father for eight years on the Margurita. He felt that the net fishing his father was involved in, was not very productive and also, because he wanted to get into deep sea fishing and crayfishing and generally work with a bigger boat, he left the industry in 1948.

Over the next 12 years he worked in the meatworks, owned a truck and worked on the wharf before returning to fishing in 1958. With the crayfishing industry developing rapidly Frank Jnr. built a 42 foot (12.8m) boat (Margurita II) in his backyard in Hilton and fished from Fremantle in 1960. The following season he began crayfishing at Jurien Bay and Green Island. Having inherited his father’s woodworking skills, he built several other boats. Over the next twenty six years he built Margurita III (17m) in 1972 (also known as “the Barg”) and Margurita IV ( 12m) in 1976. The Margurita IV was the first planing hull that he built using marine plywood. Frank started his journey into fibreglass hull boat making business in the late 1970s. This started out with recreational boats and eventually evolved into commercial boat sales the first two of which were sold to the Tatham family. Then Frank finally took on building the last in the Margurita series the 42ft Margurita V (13m) in 1980 which his son Colin joined him on. They spent the next 5 years fishing this boat together until Frank’s retirement in 1985.

He was also involved in the administration of the industry and became President of the Fremantle Fishermen’s Co-operative from 1974 up to 1986 before retiring in 1987. His Father was part of the inaugural committee that held its first meeting as a legally incorporated co-operative on 9 August 1947 – together with Frank Iannello, Sergio Cappelluti, Ugo Mandich, Frank Sidoti Snr, L. Sparks, Peter Casserley and Ben Saville. In retirement, Frank went on to build his last boat – the Dorothy. Other members of the Brozicevic family involved for a short time in fishing were Stjipe (Steve) around 1911/1912 and Miro around 1914.