Forty-plus years of Vietnamese migration to Australia and the contribution it has made to Victoria is being celebrated with the establishment of Australia’s firstVietnamese Cultural Centre and Museum.

The museum will serve as a dedicated space for Vietnamese Victorians, allowing them to collect, preserve, and share their culture and history, and celebrate their communities’ profound contributions to the state.

The centre has long been a goal for the Victorian chapter of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, and will be achieved thanks to the contributions and support from the state government, local community members and the City of Maribyrnong.

Located in Footscray, the Museum’s completion will be timed ahead of the 50^th anniversary of the settlement of Vietnamese refugees in Australia in 2025.

In the 1970s a significant wave of Indochinese arrived displaced by the Vietnamese and Cambodian conflicts.

More than 2,000 mostly Vietnamese refugees landed in boats on Australian shores in the mid-1970s, but the majority of the 80,000 Indochinese permanent migrants came by air after they were formally processed by Australian officials at refugee camps in Malaysia and Thailand.

The Victorian Government has earmarked 1.8 million in funding that will go towards making the centre a reality.

To help fast-track work on the project, the government has committed an immediate contribution of $750,000, delivered as part of the 2018/19 Multicultural Community Infrastructure Program.

The government also announced a funding boost of $75,000 for the Vietnamese community’s 2019 Tết Festival. The funds, delivered under the 2018/19 Multicultural Festivals and Events program, will help make the celebration bigger and better than ever.

As part of its Victorian Budget 2018/19, the Labor Government provided an extra $1.4 million over two years towards the Multicultural Festivals and Events program. A further $17.1 million was invested in the Multicultural Community Infrastructure Program, dedicated to improving facilities for local multicultural communities.

“With this investment, we’ll help build a space dedicated to celebrating the culture and contributions of our proud Vietnamese communities,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.

“This Museum will be an Australian-first – and it’s only fitting that we build it right here in the multicultural capital of our nation,” he said.

Footscray MP Marsha Thomson said the financial support was a sign of the government’s commitment to multicultural communities.

“This is an investment in our Vietnamese communities, who in, every way, have made Victoria stronger and more successful,” she said.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist