The 1963 Skopje Earthquake was a natural disaster which struck the city of Skopje in what was then the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, a constituent part of communist Yugoslavia, on the 26th of July 1963. The earthquake measured 6.1 magnitude, but its occurrence so close to the city of Skopje caused immense damage and loss of life. Over a thousand people were killed, thousands more were injured and wounded and roughly 80% of the city was destroyed, rendering over 150,000 people homeless in the short term. The city was rebuilt and Skopje is the flourishing capital of an independent North Macedonia today, with over a half a million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. However, the disaster in 1963 also led to a wave of migration in the mid-1960s, with many Macedonians leaving their homeland. A substantial proportion of these moved to Australia and this in turn created further migration in the 1960s and 1970s and in more recent years. The sizeable Macedonian Australian community was created to a significant extent because of the earthquake in 1963. It consists of over 100,000 people.[1]
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Skopje Earthquake chronology of eventsSkopje Earthquake chronology of events
The 1963 Skopje Earthquake struck on the 26th of July 1963. Skopje at the time was the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of the seven constituent republics of communist Yugoslavia. The tremor was only a 6.1 magnitude earthquake, very powerful, but not typically of a kind that results in enormous destruction if it happens in some relatively remote region. In this instance the epicenter of it was very near the city of Skopje and it consequently leveled much of the city. Moreover, the earthquake happened shortly after 5am and many people were still at home and in bed, meaning that it led to an increased amount of deaths than would have otherwise occurred during the daytime when people were out of their homes. Although the main tremor lasted for just 20 seconds, approximately 1,070 people were killed in the earthquake. Thousands more were injured and the vast majority of the city was leveled, rendering three-quarters of its population of about just over 200,000 people at the time homeless.[2]
A national and international relief effort was immediately commenced led by Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslavian government and the United Nations. It was a rare moment of collaboration between the western and communist powers in the midst of the Cold War. Millions of dollars were quickly raised to facilitate the reconstruction work and Skopje was soon rising again from the rubble, often with prefabricated buildings quickly assembled and allowing people to return.[3] Much of the city as it stands today was reimagined in the aftermath of the earthquake, including the construction of a memorial that was designed by some of the same individuals responsible for the Hiroshima memorial in Japan. Nevertheless, while the Macedonians were soon returning to their lives, the disaster also led to a wave of outward migration.[4]
Extent of migration following the Skopje EarthquakeExtent of migration following the Skopje Earthquake
While most residents of Skopje remained in the general area and soon returned to the city, thousands did leave. A significant number relocated to elsewhere in Macedonia or Yugoslavia, but others left Europe altogether. By the time of the earthquake in 1963 there was already an established pattern of people from the Balkans in the post-war period migrating to and settling in Australia. Many people now left for the other side of the world. They settled in particular in Melbourne and Sydney, two cities with well-established Greek and Balkan communities. Wollongong was also an established center of Macedonian settlement. Moreover, once an initial wave of Macedonians was settled in these cities, more came later in the course of the 1960s and 1970s.[5]
Demographic impact of the Skopje EarthquakeDemographic impact of the Skopje Earthquake
The earthquake resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,070 people. More broadly, owing to the destruction caused to the city, Skopje experienced a temporary decline in its population, but it rebounded and today its population is over 600,000 people, nearly three times what it was prior to the earthquake in 1963.[6] Equally, North Macedonia did not experience any dramatic population decline as a whole because of the disaster. Therefore the immediate demographic impact on Skopje and Macedonia was limited.[7]
More significant was the development of Macedonian communities abroad because of the earthquake, particularly in Australia. While the earthquake might only have resulted in the migration of a few thousand Macedonians to Australia, these formed the core of the early Macedonian Australian community in cities Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Wollongong. Others later moved to Australia once they knew there was an established Macedonian community there, so in a way this early migration facilitated later migration in the second half of the 1960s and into the 1970s. Today the Macedonian Australian community is over 100,000 strong.[8]
See alsoSee also
Explore more about the 1963 Skopje EarthquakeExplore more about the 1963 Skopje Earthquake
- Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981 records collection on MyHeritage
- Australia, Marriages, 1810-1980 records collection on MyHeritage
- Australia, Death Notices, 1860-2019 records collection on MyHeritage
- Australia, Index of Burials, 1900-2019 records collection on MyHeritage
- Australia Newspapers records collection on MyHeritage
- Researching in Australian Archives at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
References
- ↑ https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/post/skopje-s-1963-quake-from-ruins-to-modernist-resurrection
- ↑ https://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/vol3_S-1.pdf
- ↑ Mirjana Lozanovska and Igor Martek, ‘Skopje Resurgent: the international confusions of post-earthquake planning, 1963–1967’, in Planning Perspectives, Vol. 34 (2019), pp. 497–513.
- ↑ Ljubica Spaskovska, ‘Constructing the ‘City of International Solidarity’, in Journal of World History, Vol. 31, No. 1, Special Issue: Liberal and Illiberal Internationalisms (March, 2020), pp. 137–164.
- ↑ https://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/mhc-reports/npws/npws-4_-2.html
- ↑ https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/post/skopje-s-1963-quake-from-ruins-to-modernist-resurrection
- ↑ https://worldpopulationreview.com/cities/north-macedonia/skopje
- ↑ https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/australias-policy-macedonia/