Cabramatta, New South Wales, Australia

Cabramatta, New South Wales, Australia

This article relates to All That's Left Unsaid

Tracey Lien's debut novel, All That's Left Unsaid, follows a Vietnamese Australian family in Cabramatta, which is a suburb of Sydney, capital of the state of New South Wales. The presence of a migrant hostel in the area in the 1960s and '70s made it a hub for Southeast Asians fleeing the Vietnam War. By the mid-1990s, around a quarter of the population was Vietnamese, and Cabra — as it is affectionately known to locals — continues to be home to the largest Vietnamese community in Australia as well as a significant and diverse Asian population in general, with a city center that has been said to resemble Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam.

Now a go-to food destination for Vietnamese fare and other Asian cuisines, Cabramatta is abundant in restaurants and market stalls serving delicacies. Before its culinary reputation took hold, however, the area had a much less favorable claim to fame: Gripped by a heroin epidemic, it was known as the drug capital of Australia, with the train into the suburb cruelly dubbed the "junkie express." While the Vietnamese were associated with the local drug trade, heroin was mostly being brought in from Southeast Asia by American servicemen when Cabramatta began to develop its reputation for crime in the '70s.

Vietnamese Australians who lived in the area as young people when gang culture was prevalent have spoken of feeling adrift. Marked out as different from their white peers, they struggled to feel accepted and respected. This allowed gangs, with their misguided promises of community and kinship, to flourish. Conflicts with police and systemic racism led to the vilification of the Vietnamese population — many of whom were already skeptical of uniformed authorities due to traumatizing experiences in Vietnam.

This tension arguably reached its fever pitch in 1994 when John Newman, Cabramatta's representative in the state parliament, was shot and killed shortly after he spoke out about the need to address the area's gang problem. This became widely known as Australia's first political assassination. Phuong Ngo, a businessman and political rival of Newman's believed to be involved in criminal dealings, was eventually held responsible for the murder, but the event allowed for the stirring up of general anti-Asian sentiment.

It took a concerted effort from local community groups, health department interventions, and policy changes putting limits on police activity to finally turn the tide in Cabramatta. Though many feel a sense of pride in how far the suburb has come, there remains a legacy of loss that continues to be felt, as is explored in Lien's novel.

Cabramatta Pai Lau Gate in Freedom Plaza. Photo by Maksym Kozlenko (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Filed under Places, Cultures & Identities

This "beyond the book article" relates to All That's Left Unsaid. It originally ran in October 2022 and has been updated for the September 2023 paperback edition. Go to magazine.