Operation Babylift

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:40): I rise to speak about the evacuation of thousands of Vietnamese children during the fall of Saigon in April 1975. The evacuation plan was called Operation Babylift, involving thousands of orphaned infants being flown out of Vietnam to adoptive parents overseas, including 250 children and babies destined for Australia. On 3 April 1975, when the fall of Saigon was imminent, three South Australian women, Rosemary Taylor, Margaret Moses and Gyoparka Makk, also known as Lee Makk, were there ready to help evacuate children to safety.

The women had all attended St Aloysius College in Adelaide and were united by a strong sense of social justice that led them to care for abandoned children in Vietnam. Rosemary attended St Aloysius College from 1951 to 1955, then joined the Sisters of Mercy, a religious order for Catholic women. In 1967, she left the Sisters of Mercy for humanitarian work in Vietnam. Margaret, her close friend, graduated from the same college in 1956 and also joined the Sisters of Mercy. She then became a teacher before leaving in 1971 for Vietnam to support Rosemary's work with orphans.

Another former St Aloysius student, Lee or Gyoparka Makk, as I mentioned, who was born in Hungary, worked as a mental health nurse at Hillcrest Hospital in Adelaide. Lee took leave from work to volunteer with Rosemary and Margaret shortly before Saigon fell. On 4 April 1975, Margaret and Lee had originally been rostered to escort children bound for Australia, but when an American flight was short of adult escorts they stepped in to help on the American-bound flight.

Twelve minutes after take-off, the plane suffered a rear cargo door failure and crashed, killing 138 of the 314 on board, including 78 children, as well as Margaret and Lee. Not long before Lee died, she had sent an audio cassette to her family in Adelaide speaking of her admiration for the local girls she worked with, praising their diligence and love for the orphans.

A former student of Margaret's, Mary Cashmore, has written a biography about her former teacher, describing Margaret as witty, kind and clever. Mary said that Margaret lived her tragically short life with integrity, passion and courage. The week that Margaret and Lee died, the remaining St Aloysius College student, Rosemary Taylor, continued to help evacuate children with help from Sister Doreen Beckett and Ilse Ewald, a German nurse.

The women evacuated nearly 1,500 children to Canada, France, West Germany, the US and Australia before escaping themselves by scaling the embassy wall and boarding a rooftop helicopter to a refugee ship. Rosemary spent many years in Saigon establishing nurseries and the adoption agency Friends For All Children. In 1976, she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for her dedication and work.

As recently shown on ABC's Australian Story, Operation Babylift began a lifelong cross-cultural journey for hundreds of infants who are now turning 50. Many Babylift adoptees raised in Western families are using DNA tests and support networks to reconnect with their roots and explore questions of identity and loss.

St Aloysius College held a memorial marking 50 years since the fall of Saigon, honouring Operation Babylift and the heroism of their former students who saved thousands of children. Margaret's sister, Miriam Morrison, and Sister Ruth Edgar, who also worked in orphanages, attended the memorial. I thank all these remarkable women for their dedication, especially the St Aloysius College students who made the ultimate sacrifice.