Australia’s First Vietnamese Museum Opens in Melbourne’s Sunshine After a Decade-Long Campaign

The first Australian museum dedicated to the Vietnamese refugee experience has opened in Melbourne, ABC News reported on 17 October 2026.

Vietnamese Museum Australia was built on a council car park in Sunshine. Its opening marks the end of a decade-long community campaign for a permanent monument to the community’s pioneering generation, the ABC said.

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll officially opened the centre on Saturday alongside MPs from across the political divide. The project has had bipartisan support, and both the federal and Victorian governments contributed millions of dollars alongside grassroots community donations.

The ABC noted that Vietnamese-Australians are one of the country’s largest migrant groups, and that many fled after the Vietnam war ended. Five decades on, the museum recognises refugee beginnings and generational achievement.

Source: ABC News (Alex Sinnott).