Perth Voice Interactive

THE Wade Street Reserve will now be called Tự Do Park, Vietnamese for “Liberty” Park.

The park already hosts a sculpture sponsored by the Vietnamese community, thanking Australia for accepting refugees in the 1970s.

Vietnamese Community WA president Anh Nguyen says the community picked a name that is easy to pronounce and represents “the liberty of leaving the country and the brutality of the regime”. A plaque will explain the meaning to the curious.

About 1.5 million refugees fled Vietnam but only 1 million survived.

“A lot of people perished on the sea by pirates, big waves, the weather,” Dr Nguyen says.

He says his family was “lucky that we never saw any pirates” but his wife’s family lost members.

“It was horrible. If someone gave me a wooden boat, leaking on the sea, we would never do it again.”

The name change is supported by 79 per cent of locals. Vincent council supported it Tuesday night and now it’s off to the WA government’s geographic naming committee.

by DAVID BELL