Ivan Zupan

Ivan “Jack” Zupan was born in Yugoslavia in 1899. He moved to Western Australia in 1924 aboard the Citta de Genova, in a third-class cabin. When he was 25 years of age, he married Marija, and they had two daughters, Mary and Kate. Ivan was naturalised in 1935, after his first 10 years in Australia. His immigration passage in 1925 states he was a farmer in his home country, however he and his brother settled in Fremantle in 1939 and ventured into fishing.

Ivan and his brother Stjepan [“Steve”] bought a 12 ton, 38 foot [11.6 metres] fishing boat. Further details are unknown as Slavia was unregistered and uninsured. She was valued at £900. Slavia anchored in the lee of the mole at the fishermen’s jetty at Fremantle, near Howard Street. On 10 September 1946 there was a heavy squall and around 9pm Slavia dragged her anchor until it parted, allowing her to crash into the rocks until she broke into pieces. She came apart easily and by the next morning, it was clear her beam stoved in. Ivan was still hopeful of saving the masts once the weather calmed.

Wild Rose was a two-masted 8.92 ton yawl. Her dimensions were 31.6 x 10.5 x 4.2 feet [9.63 x 3.2 x 1.28 metres]. She was built in Melbourne in 1890 for a Cottesloe man and was registered in Fremantle as 10/1906. Her official number was 120018. Initially she fished at Shark Bay. Then she worked around Fremantle, Geraldton, West Wallabi Island at the Abrolhos group and Shark Bay from 1936, with various crews. There was an 18 ft [5.5metres] smack at the Abrolhos Islands called Wild Rose, which occasionally caused some confusion with the fishermen there.

In 1929 the Geraldton Ice Works purchased Wild Rose and relocated her from Shark Bay. She left Denham on 26 June. Her sails were in poor condition and were blown away about 75 miles from Geraldton. G. Bombara had sent the Curlew to meet Wild Rose with new sails, but they missed each other.

Wild Rose escaped a sad plight when the Fremantle boat Invincible took her in tow. After breaking three tow ropes and managing to secure Wild Rose again each time, the two vessels finally made the 75 mile [120 kms] voyage to Geraldton at 10pm on 28 June and Invincible was able to unload her 6000 lbs [2721.5kgs] of fish.

She held a Geraldton fishing licence from that time. In 1939 Wild Rose was engaged in crayfishing between April and October. Phil Travia skippered her and took Salvatore Caponi and Rincie Miragliotta as deckhands.

Ivan fished from Fremantle to Shark Bay, following the seasonal fish in the fleet of wetliners that made the journey each year. They started at Fremantle and fished their way to Jurien Bay, then Geraldton and the Abrolhos Islands. When the snapper and other fish were running at Shark Bay, the fishing fleet moved there before heading back to Fremantle.

On 11 April 1949 Ivan was fishing onboard the Wild Rose at Wreck Point, about 40 miles north of Fremantle with John Reinhold. At 2pm Ivan collapsed. John dropped his fishing line and held Ivan, but within minutes he had passed away. John sailed the boat back to Fremantle, arriving at 10pm, and reported Ivan’s passing to the police.

Ivan’s body was taken to the Fremantle Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The evidence showed Ivan had died from natural causes at the age of 49. The family placed a funeral notice in the newspapers, and Ivan was buried on 13 April in the Roman Catholic section of the Fremantle Cemetery.

Wild Rose met a sad end. She was dashed onto the rocks at Fremantle at the foot of Fitzgerald Terrace (present day Marine Terrace) in 1957.