Port Pirie
One man left Senj for a lead-smelting town on the far side of the world, and his name changed on arrival. Twenty of his descendants are in this tree, and every one of them is a Zubrinich.
The first of them is Joannes / Juan / Ivan / Ive / John Žubrinić — a man carried in this tree under five versions of one given name — born 1860 and died 1930 at Port Pirie, South Australia. His eldest recorded child is born there in 1885, which puts his arrival at about 1884.
From that child onward the surname in the register is Zubrinich. Not once does it revert. The names →
Why Port Pirie
Port Pirie is not a random landfall. Smelting began there in 1889, and it grew into one of the largest lead smelters in the world — heavy, dangerous, continuous work that paid, and that hired men without English. Croatians began arriving in South Australia from the Dalmatian islands in the 1890s, and many of them went to Port Pirie and Broken Hill. Further groups came with the economic depression in Dalmatia and Međimurje between 1910 and 1913, and again after the political unrest of 1922.
The family's later moves confirm the pattern exactly: this tree records Zubrinich deaths at Broken Hill and Whyalla — the silver-lead mine and the steelworks. They followed the metal.
The Australian records in this tree
21 people with an Australian birth or death place. The infant deaths — Robert Emmett in 1888, Susannah in 1889, Stanley in 1897 — are the ordinary arithmetic of a smelter town.
| Name | Lived | Born | Died |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joannes Juan Ivan Ive John Žubrinić | 1860–1930 | Senj, Split-Dalmatia, Croatia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
| John William Zubrinich | 1885–1953 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia |
| Katalyn Zubrinich | 1886–1927 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Quorn, South Australia, Australia |
| Kate Zubrinich | 1886–1927 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Quorn, South Australia, Australia |
| Robert Emmett Zubrinich | 1888–1888 | Port Germein, South Australia, Australia | Port Germein, South Australia, Australia |
| Susannah Zubrinich | 1889–1889 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
| Annie Maud Zubrinich | 1890–1970 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Whyalla, South Australia, Australia |
| Mathew John Boras | 1892–1923 | Yarraville, Victoria, Australia | Marrickville, New South Wales |
| Thomas Leo Zubrinich | 1892–1965 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
| Leonard James Zubrinich | 1894–1985 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia |
| Edward Malcolm Zubrinich | 1895–1983 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
| Stanley Zubrinich | 1896–1897 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
| Arthur Leslie Zubrinich | 1897–1978 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
| Michael Valentine Zubrinić | 1899–1985 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Ardrossan, South Australia, Australia |
| Maurice Joseph Zubrinich | 1900–1973 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | South Australia, Australia |
| John Stephen Zubrinich | 1907–1999 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | Whyalla, South Australia, Australia |
| Leonard Francis ZUBRINICH | 1908–1981 | Port Pirie, South Australia | Adelaide, South Australia |
| Phyllis Zubrinich | 1909–1984 | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia | South Australia, Australia |
| David John Boras | 1919–? | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, Australia |
| Maurice William ZUBRINICH | 1922–1995 | Port Pirie, South Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia |
| Terrence Joseph Zubrinich | 1924–1987 | Solomontown, South Australia, Australia | Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia |
How this branch joins the family
Not yet proved. Ivan Žubrinić of Port Pirie is in the tree, and he is of the right name, the right town and the right generation to be close kin of Tereza Žubrinić (1867–1931), Hedviga's grandmother. But the document that joins them — a shared father in the Otočac or Senj baptismal register — has not been produced here. Given how rare the name is (about 312 bearers on earth), the relationship is very likely. “Very likely” is not “shown”.