Fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese Australians are marking survival, settlement and contribution with a world-first museum in Melbourne dedicated to the refugee journeys that helped reshape multicultural Australia.

When the last helicopter left South Vietnam in 1975 – signalling the end of a long and brutal war – almost 20 million people were left behind. Frightened and with little desire to live in a communist one-party state, many started plotting an exit strategy.

Up to half of the daring 800,000 who risked all by boat would perish at sea, but many did find asylum in the west, an embarrassment for communist Hanoi, where leaders were trying to convince a skeptical world that South and North Vietnam were one and at peace.

Those who made it say the risks were worth the rewards and half a century later, this is proving a cause for celebration in Melbourne with the launch of the world’s first museum dedicated to South Vietnam’s refugees, spearheading commemorations.

“It is to tell the story of the refugees, why they fled, and then their boat journey, and then their settlement here,” said Tammy Nguyen, chief executive officer for Vietnamese Museum Australia.

“But it’s also to showcase the contributions that the community has made to the fabric of Australia in the last 50 years of settlement here.”

Thousands of stories will be told when the three-storey Vietnamese Museum, costing about US$14 million, opens in mid-October in Sunshine, a suburb of Melbourne’s west, after delays due to the Covid pandemic – which meant last year’s 50th anniversary of the war’s end was missed.

“We’re an industrious bunch. But people who had every intention to support, fund and contribute to the project all of a sudden found their business in absolute dire straits. Quite a few businesses closed down, some struggled to bounce back,” Tammy said.

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