In our last weekly walk video, I chatted with Kim and Carl Robinson in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown, about their 1969 wedding in the Mekong Delta town of Go Cong. In this week's weekly walk, we headed to Cabramatta, another Vietnamese area of Sydney, for lunch and a visit with Kim’s 95 year old mum who lives nearby.
We got to chat about Cabramatta, the first big settlement of Vietnamese in Sydney after 1975. And we had lunch at Dong Xanh Restaurant - one of Kim’s favourites.
The family that owns Dong Xanh restaurant are friends of Kim’s and Carl’s, and they have their own interesting stories. They arrived in Darwin in December 1977 aboard a large Vietnamese fishing boat, the Song Be 12, with 177 other refugees.
The arrival of the Song Be 12 created great controversy during the 1977 Australian federal election, and much of the language of the refugee debate is remarkably similar to what we hear today. You can read more about the arrival and that election here.
We grabbed some takeaway noodles from Dong Xanh and some Vietnamese “che” dessert from a small stall and headed to meet Kim’s 95 year old mother. What an amazing woman and what an amazing life.
Carl, originally from the US, and Kim from the Mekong Delta, shared stories of the difficult years after 1975 making a life in Australia with their young family, while perennially concerned about family members left behind in Vietnam. It was 10 years before the family was finally re-united in 1985.
Photo: Supplied Family reunited - Sydney 1985
Kim and Carl returned to Vietnam for the first time in 1995, 20 years after the fall of Saigon. Nowadays they head back most years.
Thanks for joining the weekly walk! See you next week.
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