An unlikely Illawarra friendship between a Vietnam War veteran and a Vietnamese refugee has highlighted the positive contribution that refugees make in Australian communities. 

It was through the efforts of war veteran Ian Birch and Vietnamese refugee Teresa Tran OAM, the president of The Vietnamese Community in Wollongong, that the Vietnam War Comradeship Monument was built. The monument was unveiled at MacCabe Park in 2016. On ANZAC Day this year, during a ceremony commemorating 50 years since the fall of Saigon, Teresa said the Vietnam War Comradeship Monument wouldn't have been created without Ian's help. 

“Myself and my community give 100 percent credit to Ian. Without Ian, we would not have this memorial – he fought for us," she said.

"I know that he changed his perspective about our community for the better – and we are forever grateful to his leadership, because if he wasn’t supportive, we would not have this memorial.

"That’s why we call this a friendship place."

To mark Refugee Week 2025 (June 16-22), Ian and Teresa shared the inspirational story of their enduring friendship with The Illawarra Flame.

Ian's story

Ian Birch was 21 years old when he was deployed to Vietnam in 1970. His father suffered a heart attack and died three months later, and despite his mother's best efforts to have the army send him home, the young soldier continued to serve in Vietnam for 12 months and a day.

“I was the oldest of five children, and my dad was my nominated next of kin. After he passed, mum was trying to get me home, but the army wouldn’t allow it. So that experience coloured my time in Vietnam,” Ian says.

Upon his return in Australia, Ian was further impacted by the cold welcome Vietnam veterans received here.

“When we came home, we landed in Sydney in the early hours of the morning, around 2:30am, because they were trying to hide us away from everything,” he says.

“This war was the first shown in our living rooms, and people were sitting at home seeing things happen – there were a lot of protests against the war and people turned against the soldiers.

“The same thing happened with the RSL. We were told by the army to join the RSL, that they would help us with any problems we had. But they turned their backs on us – they’d take your money and all, but then say ‘Oh, you haven’t been in a war, sonny’ – so I walked away from it completely.”

Now 77, Ian is a former president of The Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia (Illawarra sub-branch).

This year marks 50 years since the fall of Saigon in 1975 and Vietnamese refugee settlement in Australia. Today Ian is keen to attend any celebrations to commemorate the anniversary. But in the 1970s, Ian says that he – like many veterans at the time – opposed Vietnamese refugees' arrival by boat in Australia.

“I was totally against it,” Ian says.

“I think it comes back to the way we’d been treated – we’d been over there and it was the government’s will that we go, and then you come back and think 'What was that for?' No one wanted us.”

Over time, Ian's opinion of Vietnamese refugees in Australia changed. He'd been working as a technical advisor for the Australian division of a multinational company, Unilever, when he met a Vietnamese refugee who was the manager of a Melbourne bakery.

“We had a bakery division, and I had to go in at midnight when they started work to help this guy, and observe their processes. We had a language problem, but through shaking heads and things like that, we got there,” Ian says.

“I learned a lot about him, he was a doctor in Saigon, but in Australia we didn’t recognise his qualification. So this guy is getting up at midnight and going to work in a bakery. A lot of the breadshops ended up being managed by Vietnamese people, so I met more and came to understand them.

“I don’t know how, but I met Teresa and [her husband] Phong before I became president of Vietnam Veterans Association, and they changed my opinion completely – for that, I’m forever grateful," Ian says. 

"Joining with the Vietnamese community has been one of my life’s great pleasures.”

Teresa’s story

Teresa and her husband, Hong-Phong Le OAM, had always supported the Vietnam Veterans Association, attending the Vietnam memorials held at Flagstaff Hill, even though veterans didn't always reciprocate their support.

“Not everybody has the same perspective about our community that Ian now does,” Teresa says.

“We hope that people can see the contributions we are putting into Australia and Wollongong. We aren’t jumping queues, as refugees – nobody wants to be in a different country where you don’t know the future. Nobody wants to jump on a boat that’s only 15m long, and be one of 180 people without food or water – it’s not queue-jumping that makes us come here, it’s hardship.”

Teresa escaped Vietnam at age 14, after three highly dangerous attempts to do so. Before that, she had been unjustly placed in a prison, without knowing where her parents were or whether she'd see them again.

“I was put in a room with about 45 or 50 women, and we were not given any food at all. Every day I cried and asked them to release me,” Teresa says.

Teresa was released after about a month in the prison and made her way back to her family home 500km away thanks to a kind bus driver. She still has nightmares about loved ones who she lost track of in those years.

“I could have died, I could have been taken away by the communists, I’m so grateful that the bus driver was a good man, if he had taken me elsewhere, I wouldn’t be standing here,” Teresa says.

“There’s a lot of tragic stories that happened to the Vietnamese people. We will never forget the journey we went through, but I survived the trip here. So I thought to myself, what I went through made me stronger, and I would never give up, I’d never take no for an answer.”

In the Illawarra, Teresa had been making the case for the Vietnam War Comradeship Monument to be built for three years prior to its unveiling. She says that without Ian’s support, she might have given up along the way.

“Council kept knocking it back, I lost all hope. But every time I was about to give up, I got an email from Ian: ‘How’s everything going?’,” Teresa says.

“He would give me hope, I’d be thinking ‘This gentleman, he doesn’t want me to give up, so why would I give up?'

“He gave me a lot of enthusiasm and positivity – every time I’ve been let down, I think about Ian – he’s gone through so much, but he’s still supporting our community, going to our events, he will be there for us, if we need something, and I will be there for the veterans no matter what’s happened.”

Teresa says she believes in the enduring friendship between Ian and herself and, on a larger scale, Vietnamese refugees and Vietnam veterans. The memorial gives both communities a place to come together and share their experiences of loss, freedom and friendship.

“At the end of the Vietnam War, there was so many lost lives, innocent people killed and a lot of veterans died during the battles, but we have this place that we can come to every year to celebrate our friendship and remember those who sacrificed their lives and pay respect to all of the lost lives, civilians and refugees we lost on the journey as well.

“I know that today there is a lot of fighting about the Australian soldiers' presence in Vietnam. I’m sorry that when they came back they did not receive the due recognition that they should have. They went to Vietnam defending freedom and democracy.

“But if it wasn’t for their presence, we wouldn't be able to live in peace and enjoy the freedom and democracy – the veterans may not realise what they did and the impact they had, but it’s a profound impact, and I’m not speaking for myself, but for thousands and thousands of Vietnamese refugees in Australia and around the world.”

'We have a duty to remember'

Teresa and Ian welcome everyone to visit the Vietnam War Comradeship Monument at MacCabe Park and spend a couple of minutes paying their respects, remembering those who came before us.

“We have a duty to remember and be grateful for what’s been given to us, lest we forget,” Teresa says.

“We can celebrate our friendship, and share love and compassion – we can all live together happily and just be kind to one another. I have so much respect for Vietnam veterans and I would do anything to support them and their community. In another 20 or 30 years, we hope that the next generation carry on a legacy to be grateful for each other.

“I think investing in refugees is one of the best investments, because the next generation will contribute a lot as well, they grow up being grateful. People who are qualified to be a doctor in Vietnam escape and they come here, and they do a labour job for the children, for the next generation.”

On 26 January 2025, Teresa and her husband Hong-Phong Le were both awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for their service to the Vietnamese Community of Australia. Thirty-four years prior, the pair were married on Australia Day, and every year they celebrate the anniversary, grateful for each other and the life that Australia has given them.

“Teresa and Phong are bringing their son up to do what they’ve done," Ian says. "They have supported small groups of people and so many Australian and international charities. They’ve just raised $22,000 for the Ukraine.

“We are lucky that Teresa survived her journey to Australia, and she has put so much into the community.

“There’s still some older guys who think the same thing that I thought of the refugees after the war, but I think we’ve turned a huge corner in some respects. Now we have the incense ceremony up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the monument in MacCabe Park – better days ahead.”

What's On in June

The Vietnamese Community in Wollongong warmly invites everyone to the following community events:

• 50th Anniversary of the Vietnamese Refugees Journey and Settlement in Australia/ Wollongong – Dinner at Dapto on Saturday, 14 June (ticket $30, buffet dinner). All proceeds raised will be donated to St Vincent De Paul, Wollongong, an organisation that has made a profound impact in the lives of Vietnamese Refugees who settled in Wollongong. 
• Exhibition launch at Wollongong Library, Friday, 20 June – free event, includes lion dance and talk by Teresa Tran. During June, Refugee Week, the Vietnamese Community of Wollongong's exhibition at the Wollongong Library will showcase the early arrivals' journey, achievements and invaluable contribution to Australia and the City of Wollongong over the past five decades.