MEMBERS of the board of the National Vietnam Veterans Museum have met with the Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh, in Canberra to make a pitch for a further $40 million in funding to build their new museum at Newhaven.

The group detailed its renewed pitch for funding on Tuesday this week with a feature of the new museum being a major collection relating to the history of the Vietnamese diaspora in Australia, one of the largest in the world.

“If you go to the War Memorial in Canberra you won’t see a lot of the history of the Vietnam War that we have here, and there’s little known about the story of how the Vietnamese people came to Australia, after the fall of Saigon, which happened 50 years ago on April 30 next year," said Deputy Chair of the board of the National Vientnam Veterans Museum, Phil Dressing.

“For example, little is known by the general community about Operation Babylift (between April 3 and 26, 1975) when more than over 3300 infants and children, most of them orphans from South Vietnam, were brought to the United States and other western countries like Australia.

“Tragically, one of the planes taking the children to a new life crashed and burned on take-off and they were all killed, including two Australian women, Lee Makk and Margaret Moses from Adelaide, who had volunteered to go and take care of the children.

“Tragic, but who knows about it?

“These are the stories and more that we want to tell at this new, bigger museum, as well as the story of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War," said Mr Dressing.

According to an account of the incident, the plane door blew off. The plane bounced over the Saigon River and exploded tragically killing most on board. The dead included 143 babies and two Australian women.

Major Vietnamese event

On Tuesday, December 3, members of the NVVM board including Phil Dressing deputy chair, Neville Goodwin board member, John Methven founder and board member met with Bass Coast Mayor Cr Rochelle Halstead and CEO of the Australian Vietnamese Women's Association (AVWA) Nicky Chung to discuss the museum’s involvement in a major program of events next year to celebrate 50 years since the mass arrival of Vietnamese people in Australia, following the end of hostilities.

More than 80,000 Vietnamese people moved to Australia in the decade after the Vietnam War, many as refugees. Between 1975 and 1995, Australia welcomed over 110,000 Vietnamese refugees.

In 2021, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that there were 268,170 Australian residents who were born in Vietnam.

According to Mrs Chung, a Wonthaggi resident, the State Government has already provided a grant to the AVWA for the ‘Victoria Remembers’ event next year which she said would include a program of celebrations in several Melbourne suburbs with strong connections to the Vietnamese community and also at Phillip Island.

“The Vietnamese have been in Australia for 50 years now and they’re thriving,” said Mrs Chung.

“It was hard yakka in the beginning but now we’re part of the fabric of Australia and that’s worth celebrating, I think.

“It was tough in the beginning but the Vietnamese community in Australia is extremely grateful for the support Australia provided during the war and afterwards with educational opportunities and the chance of a new life here,” she said.

One of the reasons the inclusion of Vietnamese people in Australia has been such a success is because, in general terms, they’ve been a community that’s been prepared to help themselves and the Australian Vietnamese Women's Association is a great example of that.

The Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association, formerly Australian Vietnamese Women’s Welfare Association (AVWWA) was founded by Mrs. Cam Nguyen when she invited 15 women to attend the inaugural meeting on 15th January 1983. Among the founding members, were Ms. Thanh-Kham Tran-Dang and a young student now Professor Nathalie Nguyen, author of several books on the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese Diaspora.

A not-for-profit organisation, it offers a wide range of services including Aged & Disability Services, Training & Vocational Services, Family & Children Services, Health & Community Wellbeing Services and Cultural & Language Services.

As explained by Mrs Chung, they’ve also pioneered a Dual Identity Leadership Program which aims to support people from Vietnamese background, but not exclusively, in taking leadership roles in the broader community through a better understanding of their own culture and the Australian way of life.

“It’s been so successful that it has produced a number of local councillors and MPs and we’re now extending the experience to other cultural groups,” Mrs Chung said.

As part of the Dual Identity Leadership Program, numerous groups have visited the National Vietnam Veterans Museum over the years that the program has been running.

“Through that program visiting the museum and also through Wonthaggi Rotary, I’ve made the connection with the museum board and we’re absolutely delighted with what they’ve done to date and what they are proposing.

“We’re keen to join with Destination Phillip Island, with the council and with the museum to hold an event here as part of the 50 years celebration and maybe we can get the Prime Minister down here to turn the first sod of the new museum.”

“Yes,” said Mr Dressing. “We’re looking at a couple of dates, the weekends of March 1 and March 29. We’ll firm that up later.”

As well as meeting with Minister Keogh in Canberra, the group broadened its advocacy via meetings with Dan Tehan the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Barnaby Joyce the Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and former ADF service person, Senator Jacquie Lambie.

“We’re very much apolitical but we got a good hearing from them all and while we appreciate the economy is tight, we’re hopeful of receiving a major project grant,” said Mr Dressing.

The inclusion of a feature on the Vietnamese diaspora, expanding the collection already on display, is seen as a broadening of the museum’s appeal, not only to the government but also to visitors.

“There are something like 270,000 Australian residents here today who were born in Vietnam, plus all their family members who were born here across two or more generations. There will be a lot of interest in this aspect of the new museum,” he said.

Funding for the museum

Questions were asked of Natalie Suleyman MP, Minister for Veterans, about the State Government’s promise of $10 million towards the cost of the project at the time Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny overturned an earlier decision by VCAT to reject the project in June this year.

At the time, Minister Suleyman said the funding would be there when the museum project needed it.

“The project has been paused because the Vietnam veterans’ museum unfortunately has faced some site issues and planning issues. I am in regular contact, and my office is in regular contact, with the Vietnam veterans’ museum committee, but this is a clear pause while the project repositions, as I said, in response to planning and site issues. We stand committed to funding our commitments for the museum,” Minister Suleyman said in June.

The issue has since been revisited by the museum board, through the intervention of Bass MP Jordan Crugnale.

If the State ($10 million) and Federal governments ($40 million) come through with the funding, the projected $48.5 million project will become a reality.