DescriptionThis interview consists of three audio recordings and transcripts. Dr.Tien Manh Nguyen was interviewed on 23 November 2000 at Cabramatta by Diana Giese.Interview SummaryDr. Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1948. From 1973 to 1975 he was Lieutenant medical officer, head of the medical section, 32nd ranger regiment. At the end of the Vietnam War he was taken prisoner and did three years forced labour in a camp. He was released to work in a provincial hospital near Saigon, in charge of the TB clinic. He left Vietnam in 1980 in a 12-metre boat with 30 other people. After time in a Malaysian refugee camp, he arrived in Australia, and two weeks later found a job as a process worker. Unfortunately, he was then involved in a car accident. While recovering, he read in the paper about a training scheme for refugee doctors. After passing an exam he was admitted to third year medicine at the University of New South Wales and graduated MBBS in 1984. For the next three years he worked in New South Wales hospitals, before setting up as a GP in Cabramatta where he still works today. From 1996 to 1998 he was general secretary for the New South Wales Australian Vietnamese Health Professionals Association.
Dr. Nguyen's community work includes service for the Vietnamese community in Australia, New South Wales chapter, from 1993 to '95 he was chairman of its advisory board. He's also been active in lobbying for the rights of Vietnamese refugees marooned in Hong Kong and southeast Asian camps. From 1987 to 1995 he was president of the New South Wales Refugee Fund Committee. Since then, he's been president of the Council of Vietnamese Refugees Supporting Organisations in Australia. In 1998 he was a founding member of STARTTS, Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors. In 1999, Dr. Nguyen organised the first large-scale participation of an ethnic community in the Clean Up Australia Campaign, Australia's largest community initiative. In 2000, involvement spread to Bankstown and Marrickville, and to the pre-Olympic Clean Up Sydney initiative.
Dr. Tien Manh Nguyen Oral History . Fairfield City Heritage Collection, accessed 10/03/2026, https://heritagecollection.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/3612
