50 years on from fall of Saigon: one of Australia’s first Vietnamese refugees shares the story of his dash for freedom
Tac Lam and his young brothers fled Vietnam in 1976, one year after the war ended, embarking on a clandestine operation in a dangerous dash for freedom across treacherous seas ending in Darwin and a new life.
Fifty years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, one of Australia’s first Vietnamese refugees, Darwin’s Tac Tam Lam, has shared the incredible story of how he escaped his home in a boat across 3,500km of treacherous seas to Darwin.
Wednesday marked 50 years since South Vietnam surrendered to communist North Vietnam on April 30, 1975, ending 20 years of hostilities that cost millions of lives, including 521 Australians.
For Tac Tam Lam, those days remain firmly etched in his memories.
Memories of the war and memories of the clandestine operation he, his family and three friends embarked on, meticulously planning and plotting their dangerous dash for freedom,
arriving in Darwin on a converted fishing boat April 26, 1976.
They were the first adult Vietnamese refugees to arrive in Australia, making a perilous journey across South East Asia, stopping over in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore on their journey.
The 69-year-old can remember the day the war ended, and South Vietnamese President Dương Văn Minh telling the army to lay down their weapons.
“On that day, we stayed home,” Mr Lam told the NT News.
“The government said we were not allowed to go out on the street.”
It was two months later that Mr Lam’s family began to plan their escape, after seeing the new government rounding up wealthier people like them.
They purchased a fishing boat, upgrading it in their family’s factory on the Mekong River Delta, a factory they had to rebuild after it was destroyed in the war.
Mr Lam said the new government didn’t suspect them of planning to escape due to the money they were investing in rebuilding the factory.
“A lot of people said ‘this family is preparing to runaway’, but the government said ‘no I don’t believe them’.”
In early 1976, the Lam family left Vietnam, leaving under the cover of darkness for Thailand, armed with a map pulled from a school atlas.
They had spent countless months planning their escape, doing dry runs to make sure their boat could out run Vietnamese patrol boats.
Mr Lam’s family stayed in Thailand, as he and his brother, along with three friends weathered a cyclone as they continued on through Malaysia and Singapore, hoping to eventually reach America.
An Australian fisherman told the five to make the safer journey to Australia, which they did, arriving on the shores of Rapid Creek, having travelled more than 3,500 kilometres.
After securing work on a construction site, building new homes after Cyclone Tracy, Mr Lam was given a visa and allowed to stay in Darwin.
For many years, he worked multiple jobs, including in a takeaway shop, prawn factory and at the casino, before becoming a restaurateur, all while starting what he calls his “multicultural family”, with his wife being born in Timor and his daughter born in Australia.
Nowadays, Mr Lam has a good relationship with his former country, welcoming Vietnamese delegations and has returned to Vietnam to promote tourism, but he is firmly settled in Darwin, with three generations of his family residing here.
Mr Lam plans to return to Vietnam next year with the two other surviving members of the voyage to Darwin to commemorate 50 years since their journey, and they’ll be taking it one step further, recreating their voyage on a new boat.
“We’re going back to Vietnam, to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,” Mr Lam said.
“We’re going to do the same trip again.”
More Coverage
Originally published as 50 years on from fall of Saigon: one of Australia’s first Vietnamese refugees shares the story of his dash for freedom
Touching memorial to fallen before fire season ‘turmoil’ hits NT
Firefighters have paid tribute to their fallen colleagues as the Territory prepares for the upcoming fire season. See how the frontline emergency services are preparing for their first ever solo budget.
NT council to impose 3pc rate rise as consultation opens for draft budget papers
Constituents of a regional council in the Northern Territory are facing the likely prospect of rate rises of up to 3 per cent, according to its draft budget. Read the details.