In 1994, Elton John released the song ‘Circle of Life’, which would later be nominated for an Academy Award in the ‘Best Song’ category.
Just four years later, I commenced a new job, which would eventually lead to a new career – journalism.
The job was at the Croatian Herald (Vjesnik) and it coincided with the birth of a new supplement that would ultimately have a major effect on the community, the Croatian community.
But not just the Croatian community, rather the wider mainstream community.
The advent of ‘The New Generation’ English language supplement in the Croatian Herald, which had risen to the mantle of the No. 1 selling Croatian weekly newspaper in Australia – if not the entire Croatian diaspora worldwide – since starting back in 1983, would ultimately prove to be one of the most significant reasons the Vjesnik didn’t go down the path of so many other ethnic newspapers in Australia – dying.
With no formal journalism education, I learnt everything on the job at the Vjesnik. Consequently, in years to come, I was able to give many a budding journalist their first opportunity. And not just young Australians of Croatian descent.
As for its effect on galvanising entire generations of young Aussie Croats to become involved in their local community, to develop and maintain their pride in their Croatian heritage and to one day pass on this pride on to the next generation – the ‘new generation – justice could certainly not be done in this short ode to this groundbreaking supplement.
Which, by the way (or as Zagrepčani would say in their broken English infused localised slang… ‘baj da vej’) this week has officially reached its 1300th issue.
I owe the Vjesnik a great deal….
Fast forward to 2012 and I was the editor of the Vjesnik. Four years earlier, I had been reluctantly thrust into the hot seat after the sudden passing of my boss, my best friend and the previous editor of the Vjesnik, the legendary Tom Starčević.
I was recently married, had just become a new father to a beautiful girl Maja. Commuting each day from Geelong to the Vjesnik office – which was at the time based at the Croatian Catholic Centre in the inner northern Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill – had started to take its toll and the Vjesnik was being somewhat neglected. It needed a change and it needed a new leader to save it.
In what was supposed to be a temporary fix, in jumped the current head honcho, Zoran ‘George’ Sabljak. Years later, he is still around and so too is the Vjesnik, despite a volatile media landscape that has greatly transformed the way we devour our news on a daily basis.
Let’s be brutally honest. If it wasn’t for George – and Tom (as well as the inaugural editor Ivan ‘Buco’ Butković) before the both of us – quite simply, the Vjesnik would have folded in the same manner as many other illustrious Croatian community publications over the years such as Osvrt, Hrvatski Tjednik, Domovina, Novo Vrijeme, Cro Express and Spremnost.
As for me, I will be honest. With a new family – son Tomi followed my daughter less than 15 months later – a fledgling personal training business and a new life to boot, I pretty much found myself withdrawn from the Croatian community. A community that had played such an integral and significant part of my life, up ‘til then.
And it wasn’t until, ironically enough, my daughter – and son – wanted to both start playing soccer for the Croatian community backed North Geelong Warriors’ U5s team (which I ended up co-coaching) that I found myself playing the role of the ‘Prodigal Son’ and returning to the same community that had been so important to me in a previous life.
Take the Seljak out of the selo, but not the selo out of the Seljak!
I guess, as the old (Australian) Croatian saying goes, “you can take the Seljak out of the selo, but not the selo out of the Seljak”.
In the same breath, you could take the Prusac out of the Croatian community, but fate would prove that you could not take the Croatian community out of the Prusac.
What’s funny – and sad, at the same time – is that a few months ago I was cleaning out the garage and came across an old clipping of an article I had written in the Vjesnik in the mid 1990s.
It was an opinion piece that was scathing of the overall apathy that was reigning supreme amongst the younger members of the Croatian community and the stubbornness and narrow mindedness of the older (first generation). Believe me when I say, the issues of yesteryear are virtually identical to many of the issues faced by the same Croatian community but now forwarded to the mid 2020s.
Back then, the mission of ‘The New Gen’ was to strive to leave a Croatian community in better hands than it currently found itself in, for the next generation. The ‘new generation’.
Today, in 2025, as we embark on a bold new, digitalised future for the Vjesnik, the very same values, mission statement and motivation exists… to ensure we have a better Croatian community for the next generation for many years to come.
And just like way back in 1994 when Elton John sang about the circle of life, my life indeed seems to have followed those iconic lyrics and turned full circle.
Back where it all began.
