Cafa Huynh was the youngest Vietnamese refugee to be pulled off a sinking boat in a daring rescue in 1981. Today, he is clinic director of franchise optometry practice in Hurstville, Sydney. He speaks with Insight about his road to optometry in Australia.
In June 21, 1981, Cafa Huynh was one of almost 100 men, women and children saved from a sinking fishing boat in the South China Sea by the Royal Australian Navy.
They were among millions of people who fled Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam war in 1975. Their fishing boat, the Nghia Hung, was built to carry just 30 people, but was reportedly “up to the gunwales” as it pulled out of the mouth of the Saigon River under the weight of 99 passengers.
Stormy seas and monsoon winds engulfed the boat on the second day, with water getting into the diesel compartment, blowing the engine. By the fourth day at sea, the drinking water was contaminated, their food stocks had diminished and the overloaded boat was badly leaking.
Cafa Huynh, eight-months-old, with his parents after being rescued by HMAS Melbourne.
When their fate seemed sealed, fortune intervened. A Royal Australian Navy plane spotted black smoke and descended for a closer look in the deteriorating evening light. It notified the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, 10 nautical miles away, which came to the rescue. By the time the rescue began, it was in big seas in the pitch dark.
Huynh was eight months old at the time – the youngest refugee to be rescued that night in what became known as Melbourne Group 99 — or MG99.
He was on the fishing vessel fleeing Cholon – Ho Chi Minh’s Chinatown – with his mother, 20, and father, 27.
“I’m their first-born and was their only child at the time. We didn’t have any relatives in Australia – we were the first of our family to leave Vietnam. My siblings were later born in Australia,” Huynh says.
His parents initially settled in Lakemba, a multicultural suburb southwest of Sydney.
“I went to kindy and started primary school at Lakemba Public School. The school opened in 1983, and I started there in 1985. We moved during primary school, and I spent the second part of primary school at Beverly Hills North Public School. Then I went to Sydney Technical High School, where I did my HSC,” he says.
His interest in optometry developed early when he was diagnosed with myopia as a child.
“I’ve been wearing glasses since my first year of primary school,” he recalls.
“My first memory of the optometrist was receiving a pair of 1980s-era- fashion glasses. I distinctly remember they were government-subsidised glasses because we couldn’t afford to buy a pair. Ironically, when we could later afford to buy glasses, I still preferred those ’80s pair.”
In high school, Huynh elected to complete Year 10 work experience in the eyecare sector.
“I did my work experience at Daniel Tilia Optometrist in Rockdale – which has now closed,” he says.
(Daniel Tilia is now undertaking a PhD in associations between binocular vision disorders and contact lens dissatisfaction at UNSW).
“I chose optometry, and that work experience, plus parental support, cemented my interest in the profession as a career.”
After completing high school, Huynh was accepted into the Bachelor of Optometry at UNSW in 1999 and graduated in 2004, in the time before therapeutics was included in the degree.
After graduating, he was offered a job with OPSM in Singleton, a rural town on the banks of the Hunter River, 200km north of Sydney.
“I was interested in going to the country, and seeing a different part of Australia,” Huynh says, who knew only Sydney and Canberra, where his family went on holidays.
Before commencing in the role, where he would be the only optometrist employed in the practice working alongside an optical dispenser, OPSM first sent him to Adelaide for three months to work with another optometrist as way of induction into the workforce.
Following a short stint in Adelaide, he moved to Singleton, where he spent a year as one of only two optometrists in the town.
“Singleton is small … I was exposed to different pathology and had to learn to triage patients, as some travelled a long distance to see me,” he says.
After a year in Singleton, Huynh moved back to Sydney, and joined Paris Miki Optical in Eastgardens. Three years into the role, he began to get “the itch” to open his own practice.
With his then girlfriend, now wife Shirley Lam – an optometrist – they opened their own wholly independent greenfield practice in Hurstville, a suburb 16km south of Sydney’s CBD, which Huynh describes as similar to Box Hill in Melbourne’s east.
“We were ambitious. It was a completely new practice, starting from scratch. It was tough, doing everything ourselves, even the smallest of things.”
Having been bitten by the travel bug, Huynh started working with CliniCall, a domiciliary service, part-time, in addition to working in his own practice.
“I travelled to Adelaide and up to Queensland, providing optometry services to aged care. But after four years, I was getting tired from managing the Hurstville practice, and the everyday administrative tasks that came with that,” he says.
At around that time, about 12 years ago, Specsavers entered Australia.
“Specsavers were asking for people interested in opening new stores. My wife (then girlfriend) and I decided to close our practice after four years in business,” he says.
Specsavers opened a practice in Hurstville, and Huynh joined as clinic director. His wife now works as a locum.
Full circle
Huynh has been back to Vietnam once since his arrival in Australia as an eight-month-old.
He says relatives on his father’s side have also emigrated to Australia, but relatives on his mother’s side stayed in Vietnam, so he has extended family there.
“My daughter came to Vietnam with my wife and I, when we went for a holiday. She developed a swollen eyelid while we were there, so we took her to an ophthalmology clinic in a general hospital. I saw what eyecare was like first-hand in Vietnam. It may seem chaotic, however it felt more like an efficient assembly line due to large volumes of patients.
“I have a cousin there that works in a hospital [in Ho Chi Minh], and they were able to get us an appointment. Being an optometrist, I was concerned about orbital cellulitis which could be more serious,” he says.
Earlier this year, Huynh received a Facebook message from fellow rescued refugee, Mr Stephen Nguyen, who was organising a 40-year reunion for MG99 survivors.
ABC’s Australian Story featured the reunion in an episode in August. It was held at HARS Aviation Museum at Albion Park, where the Royal Australian Navy plane that spotted their sinking fishing boat is housed.
Mr John Ingram, a former commander in the Royal Australian Navy who was in charge with bringing the refugees on board the HMAS Melbourne, and the ship’s crew, attended the reunion, along with Australian Story producers and film crew, and SBS radio journalists.
Huynh enjoyed the opportunity to meet those who saved the lives of himself and his parents in person.
“It was nice to shake their hands and show what I’ve accomplished and how I’ve developed a life in Australia. I want them to feel proud of what they’ve done,” he says.
As the youngest to be rescued and immigrate, Huynh has largely been raised in Australian cultures and customs.
“I feel a sense of proudness to call Australia home and to carry on the Australian dream.”
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