Chippendale's refugee history

Today we spoke with a group of people who were photographing themselves in front of a home that's a few doors down from ours.

They were ethnic Russians who fled China as refugees, settling in Chippendale in 1961. We didn't ask the specific reason they left, but of course I knew there was a huge Mao-made famine early in the history of the People's Republic. Later, I checked Wikipedia. The famine, which killed between 14 and 43 million people, was still wrecking its havoc in 1961.

They told us that their family, with 13 children, occupied the top floor of the terrace house, while a related family with 9 children lived below. They were clear that Chippendale was a slum at the time, and yet they said it felt like "the land of milk and honey", because they could shoot pigeons with their slug guns to make soup, catch fish from the lake in Victoria Park, and score free lollies and cake from the nearby factories.

They volunteered that a refugee arriving in Australia today from the Sudan might take a while to adjust to a new way of living — just as it took them a while to adjust to not shooting their own food. But almost 50 years after they fled China, this family seemed completely at peace, having made a new life in a new land that they are now proud to call home. And Australia is a richer place because of it.