Mario Despoja

Mario Dešpoja
Born	Croatia
Years active	1963-1995
Known for	"Croatian Embassy" in Australia 1977-1979

Mario Dešpoja is a Croatian Australian who opened an unofficial Croatian embassy in Australia's capital city, Canberra in 1977. The embassy was on a main road and attracted much publicity until it was closed down two years later.

He is the father of former Australian Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja.

Despoja arrived in Australia in 1959 without any English. He regarded himself as a political refugee. Four years later, he won the grand prize on a television quiz program, Coles £3000 Question, broadcast around Australia. His special category was Australian history, and he was able to name the five convicts transported to Australia in 1794 now known as the Scottish Martyrs. Despoja said that "their case stuck in (his) mind" because they were political exiles like him.

At the time of his big win, Despoja was working as a press operator at the Chrysler Australia factory in Adelaide. He was earning £12 a week. The prize money enabled him to buy a block of land on which he built a house and to attend University to obtain a bachelor's degree with an honours thesis on Yugoslav history. In addition to operating the unofficial Croatian Embassy, Despoja has worked in the Australian Commonwealth's Department of Aboriginal Affairs and as a real estate agent.

Despoja met his first wife, journalist Shirley Stott, through the quiz show. In their 12 years of marriage they had two children, Natasha and Luke.

He now is married to Wendy Austin, and lives with her in Canberra, as a retired diplomat, quiz champion, public servant and real estate agent.

Despoja first came to mainstream public notice as a campaigner for Croatian independence in June 1977 when he was nominated as a candidate for an international Croatian National Council. In August, a letter from him headed, "Nationalism in Yugoslavia" appeared in The Canberra Times. It pointed out that a previous anonymous correspondent on Croatian issues probably was a Serb. Then, on 29 November 1977, Yugoslavia's National Day, the Croatian community in Australia opened its "Embassy" on Canberra Avenue, Forrest, with Despoja as the "chargé d'affaires".

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