F E AT U R E
The Ngo family An Australian success story The family was taken to Japan and looked after by a religious group, and later transferred to Australia where Thuy reunited with her father.
Floating at the mercy of the sea, their food supplies exhausted and their boat broken down, Son Ngo and his mother were waiting to die. It was 1982 and the pair were attempting the perilous journey from Vietnam to Australia on a rickety boat, fleeing their homeland after Son’s father was killed in the war.
It took several years for both families to get back on their feet and there were many people along the way that made a difference to their lives in Australia, including Lynne and Miles Moody. The Moodys will soon become a fourth generation BGS family – Frank ’27, Miles ’61, James ’93 and James’ two sons enrolled to attend the School.
Found by Thai pirates, their boat was searched for valuables and even their teeth were checked for gold caps. With nothing to take, the pirates attempted to kidnap a young girl, but tossed her back after realising she was too sick. In the end they took pity on the boat people and left a small amount of food and water.
“My family have known the Moodys since I was six years old,” Thuy said. “My parents used to own a Chinese takeaway restaurant in Everton Hills, where they were frequent patrons. They noticed how my siblings and I would help our parents every evening and then huddle together in the dining area after trade to do our homework.”
The extra supplies saved their lives, lasting for three days until the boat was found by an oil ship. Son, 10 years old at the time, said the moment he was lifted to safety stays with him today. “It was like stepping on to heaven,” he said. “As soon as we got on to the ship our boat sank. We were that close to drowning.”
“Mrs Moody was an English teacher at St Margaret’s and Professor Moody was the Dean of Engineering at QUT at the time. They both assisted my older siblings with English, Maths and the Sciences. They not only became our mentors, but second parents to us all and their children are like siblings to us.”
Son and his mother were taken to Bidong Island, known as Refugee Island, off Malaysia and later transferred to Australia.
Son and Thuy attended the same primary school, though didn’t meet officially until university in 1995. They started their careers in engineering and law respectively and married in 2000. Their careers saw them move between Australia and Vietnam, before settling in Miles in regional Queensland.
It was a similarly difficult story of survival for Son’s wife, Thuy Nguyen and her family. With their lives in danger in Vietnam, her father prepared a fishing trawler for their escape in 1976. He was discovered, and the trawler shot at, killing two people. He was forced to flee without his family, as he would have faced a firing squad for the escape attempt.
It was there that they moved into the supermarket business. By that time their first son Eagle was born, and he was followed by Jaguar, Saigon and Marlin. They lived on a hobby farm in Miles and embraced country life.
Thuy, just a year old at the time, and her mother, brother and sisters followed a few months later in another boat. It broke down and an oil ship proved the saviour again.
16
