Here we have a growing collection of stories of Czechs and Australians. From those, who paved their way overseas, to those who remained largely unrecognised, but whose stories nonetheless highlight interesting aspects of relations between the Czech Republic and Australia

Czechs in Australia

Stanislav Brzobohatý-Berton

Stanislav Brzobohatý was born on 2nd March 1924 in Brno, where he also graduated high school. During the Second World War he made a living as a stage manager and actor in Hranice in Moravia, but he unavoidably ended up as forced

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Czechs in Australia

Farmers from Tasmania

I’m sure that our readers know the story of Milan Vyhnálek, known as the „King of Cheeses“, who founded and built the Lactos factory with his own bare hands. Before long it became the largest cheese factory in the southern

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Czechs in Australia

Australia through the eyes of Czech immigrants

The Czechs left their mark on Australia at various points throughout the eventful 20th Century. Czechs fled to the other side of the world during the era of the First Republic, after German Occupation in March, 1939, after the Communist

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Czechs in Australia

First Epimoni-AC Podcast episode in English: Andrew Greene

Alena from Epimoni-AC Podcast sat down with Andrew Greene, a broadcast journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Canberra, for the first episode of her podcast in English! Epimoni-AC is a podcast about unique Czech and Slovak compatriots living abroad. Recently the

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Czechs in Australia

František Mlejnek

Frantisek (Frank) Mlejnek, left his village of Lestkov in 1949, at the age of 25. After experiencing life through WWII and then the experience of post war Czechoslovakia under communist rule coupled with the lack of opportunity, Frank decided to

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Czechs in Australia

Odona Farska

Before she became a professional yoga instructor, Odona Farska worked as a flight-attendant. As a result, she is very well-travelled and has spent almost more of her life living overseas than in her home country. Odona has been living in Canberra for over

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Czechs in Australia

Andrew Greene

Andrew Greene, a broadcast journalist in Australia, talks about his Czech roots. At the beginning of the 1950s his grandparents fled from Czechoslovakia and settled in Australia. Andrew held on to their language and culture. In the early 1950s my maternal

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Czechs in Australia

Miroslav Bukovský

The story of a unique jazz musician, Miroslav Bukovský, who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1944 and emigrated to Australia in 1968, where he and as compositions became a jazz sensation. He had a significant impact on the teaching of jazz at Australian

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Czechs in Australia

Karel Halla

Thanks to the project Czechoslovak Talks, we are sharing the story of Karel Halla with you, who fled from Czechoslovakia to Australia in 1949. At the start of 1953 he returned to Europe thinking that communism would soon fall. When

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Jiří Chaloupka
Czechs in Australia

Jiří Chaloupka

The story of Jiří Chaloupka, a Czech who emigrated to Australia and dedicated his life to the documentation and preservation of the rock paintings of Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory. In 1948, right after the Communists seized power in the

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Articles

Czechs in Australia after 1948

After the communist coup d’etat in February of 1948, thousands of people fled from Czechoslovakia. They then spent long weeks and months in the inhuman conditions of refugee camps in Germany, Austria and Italy, waiting for the chance to emigrate.

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