Kopnez was founded in 1984 as a monthly periodical newspaper which was distributed to the Macedonian Community in Newcastle, Australia. The newspaper was produced locally by its chief writers Blagoja Bozinoski, Lillian Sazdanoff and cartoonist Vlado Krestevski.
Kopnez offered a unique proposition to the local migrant Macedonian community of Newcastle as it provided stories and information in both their native Macedonian language and their newly adopted English language. The creators of Kopnez saw the paper as an important link between parents and children of Macedonian-Australian families as relevant stories could be shared amongst the family with articles predominately concentrating on local Macedonian community events, community awareness programmes and the local sporting teams printed in both languages. Stories about world events, politics and cartoons beautifully illustrated by Vlado Krestevski were also a regular feature in each issue.
Kopnez was free to all members of the local Newcastle Macedonian community group and was also subscribed to by many members of other Macedonian communities around Australia.
Kopnez was created on a voluntary basis and various local businesses in the Newcastle area supported its publication by placing advertisements in the paper. The paper was produced for 15 issues between April 1984 and December 1985. The popularity of the first four issues saw the paper change from a small booklet format to a full “Tabloid” newspaper layout for the remaining issues.
Kopnez 