Date2022DescriptionDuong first came to Australia in the early 1980s.
She was part of the migration of ‘boat people’, 12 million people fled Vietnam over that decade as refugees. She says, “the boats were made to hold 14 people but instead were transporting 80 people at a time across the ocean for days.”
While in Vietnam she was working as a bookkeeper where she met her husband and they had their first daughter together.
Mrs Duong was lucky enough to have an uncle already in Australia who enabled her to make it out safely. She recalls settling in Australia and living in Fairfield was very easy with a vibrant Vietnamese community already formed in Cabramatta.
Her skills in accounting and bookkeeping couldn’t be put to use here in Australia because of the language barrier but she very quickly adapted and became a seamstress for some of the local alterations shops clothing manufacturers in Fairfield and Cabramatta.
She says life was much easier back then, they were able to buy their first home for $61,000 and pay it off in only 2 years on her and her husband's labourer salaries all while raising 3 kids.
Family is extremely important and she lived out a dream in the early 2000s to buy a plot of land big enough to build two homes and live next to her sister with whom she is inseparable. Just down the street were also her parents and
Over the years she has grown a fondness for gardening, growing many beautiful plants, vegetables and fruits in her garden that remind her of Vietnam and what would be readily available there. There are also many different types of cacti and succulents which according to her buddhist faith keep away bad spirits and energy.
When asked if she misses Vietnam she says no. She feels like at that time it was incredibly hard, and her youth was stolen. Australia is home.
The grand brick home is somewhat empty now that all 4 of her children have grown up and moved out to follow their own life path; but she is hopeful that one day this home will be full again with her kids and future grandchildren.
- Renata Dominik, March 2023PhotographerRenata DominikNotesThese photographs are part of the 2022 City Photographer project.
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Image ColourColourTypeDigitalCopyrightPartial restriction. Please contact Fairfield City Heritage Services for image use.AcknowledgementRenata Dominik, 2022 Fairfield City Photographer. Image courtesy of Fairfield City Heritage Collection.
