Yass Rural Australians for Refugees recently held The Gift of Unity event to celebrate the resettlement of three Vietnamese families in Yass in 1980. Speakers Sue De moor and Kate Walker movingly retold the stories of the community working together to give these people anew home and the lasting friendships forged with the Van Nuoi Ngo family. Guest speaker and journalist Paul Buongiorno gave the background to these events. Yass Parish priest Father Peter My, himself a refugee as were all members of the Vietnamese Choir who came from Canberra, vividly recounted the horrors of what it meant to be an escaping refugee.
Australian and US troops had withdrawn from Vietnam in 1975. The Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser acknowledged Australia’s responsibility to assist Vietnamese refugees escaping a country left in the hands of the Communist North Vietnamese, ravaged by years of war. In response Archbishop Clancy of the Canberra Goulburn diocese called on communities to help. And the Yass community joined forces to make it happen. A public meeting called in August 1979 “endorsed action and spread support over the whole community”. The Yass Refugee Resettlement Committee was set up with the Yass Mayor Syd Dobbin as chairman.
The St Augustine’s Parish Refugee Committee donated the empty house next to the church and working bees–“bring along a hammer, broom or paint brush”-continued over the next months with volunteers and local tradesmen such as plumber Peter Wells donating skills. John and Peggy Wells donated a second house. Paint and furnishings were donated and Yass High School students made curtains. A poster competition and street stalls all helped to raise money.
The fund raising dinner with traditional dishes prepared and cooked by Vietnamese former diplomat and refugee, Phillip Bui and his recently arrived family was definitely a highlight; a tangible and tasty introduction to Vietnamese culture for the Yass community.
Van Nuoi Ngo and his heavily pregnant wife Anh Nguyet and children Hanh, Loc and Toai arrived in Yass in December 1979. Nuoi had been a medic with 15 years’ experience in the South Vietnamese Army and Anh the daughter of a prosperous rice farmer. Unfortunately, the day before the fall of Saigon April 14th1975 Anh had banked their money. They lost everything. Forced to flee to the farm they hid out in the fields as the communists rounded up the men and boys. Four failed escape attempts saw Nuoi gaoled twice. Even though both eventually returned, Anh never forgot her youngest boy also being taken from her. Eventually, like many others, a desperate escape by sea faced with overcrowding, food and water shortages and the ever-present threat of brutal pirate attacks brought them to the relative safety of a refugee camp in Malaysia. When given the chance Nuoi quickly accepted the offer of resettlement in Australia even though he had never heard of Canberra.
With a roof over their heads and basic necessities in place Nuoi accepted a job feeding Keith Johnson’s prize show birds cycling five kilometre each cold winter morning on Kate Walker’s old bike. Dr RAG Holmes delivered Anh a healthy baby Bui Yass, named for his new home town. Nuoi went on to learn new paint decorating skills which he employed along with four young Vietnamese university students from Canberra in refurbishing the Walker house “Normanton”. Len McGuigan helped Nuoi get his painter’s licence so he now had a profession which would give him a steady income. Following a move to Canberra Anh began working in the Department of Transport.
Yass had given this family a start and a warm welcome; their hard work and determination had done the rest. Their daughter Hanh completed a degree in Fine Arts and now lives in America. Loc became a robotics engineer, Toai went into IT and Bui Yass is involved in property development in Sydney. Nuoi’s skilful bonsai work is now housed in the National Arboretum.
Paul Buongiorno stressed the importance of leadership in deciding the compassionate and unifying national and local response in 1979. Yass Mayor Syd Dobbin at the time summed it up by saying you can ignore statistics but you can’t ignore the plight of a family that needs help. In 2021 Biloela seems to agree. But that was then and unfortunately this is now.
This is but one story of a family that made a life changing decision to leave their homeland and found their way to Yass. Here they made a new future and thus become part of our community’s history. The Yass and District Historical Society is keen to know of other refugees or immigrants who settled in the Yass area and are willing to share their story.
Judith Davidson for the Yass and District Historical Society.
