Us Fremantle Dockers supporters are a long suffering mob – its been over 15 years of disappointment. But so far this year its been different – 3 wins from 3 games. And today was the biggest victory so far – beating last year’s AFL premiers – Geelong. And Best-on-Ground was Matthew Pavlich – Fremantle’s captain – and a South Australian-Croatian.

Western Australian-Croatians have supplied many great footballers to the State and National Leagues.

Players such as:
Adrian Barich
Jon Dorotich*
Gaspar Brothers*
Jakovich Brothers*
Craig Starcevich
Peter Sumich*
Parentich Brothers*

John Gerovich* (Responsible for the mark above – a statue of which stands in front of Fremantle Oval.)
Jacob Surjan*
George Grljusich*
Ray Gabelich
Steven Bilcich
Tony Begovich*
Scott (Ivankovich) Watters* (His mother is Croatian.)
John Gavranich
Shane Beros

Though an East Fremantle Sharks supporter in the WAFL (the local league) I have to admit that all those marked with an asterisk played for the South Fremantle Bulldogs Football Club – mainly because Spearwood, the suburb in which many Croatian immigrants first settled in Perth, was included in its draft area.

Australian Rules Football has been exported back to Croatia – the first team was setup in Zagreb – the Zagreb Hawks. (Two other teams have now been started.) There is also a Croatian national team – the Croatian Knights – who hosted the EU Cup last year – finishing third.

We have another family link to Fremantle Football Club – block branding, my brother’s company, is responsible for their latest TV commercial.

When we are not on the water in Croatia, we like to escape Split by heading into the hills behind the city.

Our favorite trail is up from the village of Sitno Gornje to the peak of Mosor. On the way is Planinarski dom Umberto Girometta at 868m above sea level. (A planinarski dom is a hiker’s hut.)

Hiking Club Mosor, Split (HPD Mosor) is responsible for maintaining the refuge – and one local family has been making the trek up there each weekend, with the supply-laden donkey, for the last 35 years, to feed us hungry hikers.

The rooms are basic (open every weekend of the year), but the food is hearty – especially the pasta fazol – bean soup with sausages.

Our Danish friends came with us one weekend – their report can be read here.

Dropping Roklan off at day-care the other day I noticed the kids running around the playground with familiar brown seed pods – though I have never seen them in Perth before. The pods come from a carob tree – a rarity here, but numerous in Dalmatia – where they are called rogač.

Today carob is used as a chocolate substitute – historically the drought-resistant plant has served many purposes – mainly using the powder made from the skin of its seed pods, but the seeds themselves were useful as well.

In ancient Egypt, carob was used as a sweetener.

Saint John (the Baptist) is said to have survived in the wilderness by eating them – giving the plant another name – Saint John’s Bread. During WW2 the Maltese and Greeks used the pods as extra sustenance.

The Venetians are responsible for the most of the carob trees in Dalmatia – they fed the meal to their galley slaves – not only is it high in carbohydrates, but, and probably, more importantly, in the bilge of a ship where toilet-breaks were discouraged, if a lot of it is eaten it causes constipation.

Julie found the recipe below for Carob Cake on allrecipes.com. (To make carob powder, take the pods, remove the seeds and then roast and grind up the husks.)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 banana, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup carob powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup honey
1 cup dry milk powder
1/4 cup carob powder
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and flour a 20cm square pan. Sift together the flour, 1/3 cup carob powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup butter and 2/3 cup of honey until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the banana and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the 3/4 cup water. Stir in chopped walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

To make the frosting – in a large bowl, cream 1/4 cup butter and 1/3 cup honey until smooth. Blend in the milk powder, carob powder, 1/4 cup water and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth and spread on cooled cake.

In Dalmatia, the powder is mixed with water, and then distilled to make a spirit – rogačica.

The cake goes well with good Dalmatian dessert wine – maybe Prosek Hektorovich from Tomič’s winery on Hvar Island.

Finally, for what were the discarded seeds used? As a standard unit of weight measurement for precious stones and gold – and Ceratonia siliqua, the plant’s scientific name, evolved into ‘carat’ – our measurement of diamond size…

Last week we received the invitation from Plamenko Bavcevic to participate in the 2nd Rota Palagruzona – a traditional boat event starting on Hvar Island, crossing to Komiza, on Vis Island and then crossing to remote Palagruza Island.

Professor Josko Bozanic started the regatta to honor the old fisherman who used to make the marathon journey from Komiza to Palagruza to take advantage of the rich fishing grounds. (The currents of the Adriatic Sea sweep up the rocky islet from the depths bringing nutrients with them – attracting fish from all around.)

Last year we took the Labud to Komiza to take part in the crossing. Unfortunately we had some mechanical issues – so it would not have been safe for us to take-on the 45 nautical miles of open sea – but as it turned out the weather was against the rest of the fleet, and no one went.

Instead a small race was organized to Brusnik Island.

That night, upon the boats’ return, a festival was held in Komiza, with a presentation, klapa (traditional singing) and a brudet (fish stew) cook-off.

This year the regatta will be from 20th – 25th June. It will coincide with one of our Vis and Hvar Islands Kayak Adventures.

More information about the fishermen of Komiza and crossing to Palagruza can be found in articles Ray Fusco and I wrote about our attempt to cross the Adriatic by kayak – here and here.

The Western Australian Croatian Chamber of Commerce held another guest speaker night last month. This time Fred Botica, radio star on Mix 94.5, gave the presentation.

The Chamber was set up in 2003 to promote business links between the State of Western Australia, with its large Croatian population, and Croatia. It has sent 3 delegations to Zagreb, introducing companies, such as Austal Ships, to counterparts over there.

Brian Rakich, Founding and Current Chairman of the WACCC and a Seashells Hospitality Group director, hosted the night at Rosie O’Grady’s Irish Pub in Northbridge.

Also there were Ljiljanna Ravlich, the former Minister for Education in the last State Labor government and a current Shadow Minister. Ljiljanna, born just south of Split, was the first woman from a non-English speaking country elected to our State Parliament, and Hrvoje Petrusic, current Croatian Consul in Perth.

The WACCC also helped Croatia in its selection as a special guest nation at this year’s Perth Royal Show.

This week I had a second meeting with Dr Michael McCarthy, Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the WA Maritime Museum. His department is responsible on behalf of the Federal Government for all the historic wrecks off the coast of Western Australia. The reason for the meetings – Mack has a small project for me.

As mentioned before, one of Western Australia’s most important wrecks is that of the Dubrovnik-flagged vessel, the Stefano. Numerous studies and books have been written on the subject – but there are some gaps in the information published.

More research needs to be done in Rijeka where the boat was built about its construction and fit-out, and the Dubrovnik’s archives need to be plundered for anything else important.

Also Mack would like some design input on a possible monument to the men of the Stefano and the local aboriginals who saved the survivors.

There is a small mention in their latest newsletter.

And why do this research? For a possible future Masters in Maritime Archaeology.

While there I showed Roklan his great-grandmother’s and great-grandfather’s names on the Immigrants’ Memorial in front of the Museum. Dida (Ante Pecotich) arrived on the SS Cephee in 1927 and Baba (Danica Panzich) on the SS Otranto in 1937. Neither of them looks particularly luxurious.

The best reflection of the Dalmatian locals’ rediscovery of their maritime heritage is the yearly increase in the number of participants in the Latinsko Idro (Latin Sail) Regatta. We have mentioned Latinsko Idro previously.

A Latin-rigged boat has a single triangular sail – only such boats can enter the regatta.

The fleet of gajetas and leuts grew again this year – and the late-season weather was perfect for the event.

More pictures can be found here.

Early this morning the Aussie expats and Aussie tourists in Split gathered at Cafe Libar to watch the Aussie Rules Football Grandfinal via satellite from the MCG in Melebourne.

The game between the Geelong Cats and Saint Kilda Saints developed in the one of the greatest finals ever. Most in the cafe were cheering for the underdogs, the Saints, who were trying to win their first flag since 1966 and only their second in the club’s 112-year history. The Cats, the wonder team of the last 5 years, were playing in their 3rd grandfinal in a row.

After 6 lead changes, in front of nearly 100,000 spectators the game looked as though it may end in a draw, with the teams tied 3 minutes before the siren, but the Cats kicked to late goals to win by 12 points – to give them two of the last three AFL flags.

Slobodna Dalmacija, the local newspaper, sent a reporter down to watch this strange sport; he called it Australian rugby in the article below. An over-excited Tony Šarić can be seen on the right, in his Saints jersey.

Today we decided to go to the Irish Pub in Split to watch the rugby union test match between Australia and Italy (Australia won 34-12). There wasn’t a large crowd – just a nice group of 6 Aussies (for Queenslanders) who have just finished a week out on the islands.

One of the group turned out to be one of Australia’s top actors (and one of Julie’s Top 10 Sex Symbols) Ray Meagher. (Julie commented later that it was a bigger thrill for her to meet Ray than to have had Brad Britt brush past her breast in a New York bar 10 years ago!)

If you grew up in Australia in the 80s and 90s, Ray was a part of your nightly life as he has appeared since 1988 as Alf Stewart on Home and Away, one of the longest-running series on Australian television.

We were chuffed to see Split is now starting to attract some glitterati - after all Dubrovnik gets Tom Cruise and John Malkovich, and apparently one of the Princesses of Monaco as well as a Princess from Morocco were on Hvar last weekend.

To show Ray we weren’t just crazy soap opera groupies but were in fact famous ourselves, Julie showed him the picture of us in today’s Slobodna Dalmacija – he definitely seemed very impressed! And even asked to have his picture taken with Julie…

All joking aside – Cheers Ray!

Today the local newspaper, Slobodna Dalmacija (Free Dalmatia), published a story about our plight to get our boat, the Labud, out of Arista Nautica‘s shed.

It was a good article, describing how we want to use the boat to promote ‘real’ Dalmatian tourism.

Unfortunately it doesn’t mention the work I did for Arista Nautica and David Hicks – but that aside it is was very positive.

The fight between the Arista directors Don Marshall and Ivica Viljac is made evident with Don saying the boat will be released shortly, and Ivica contradicting that by saying it will not.

(It should be noted that Arista has decided to hire a Public Relations consultant, Lori Vitaljić from Predikat d.o.o., to help with their image.)