General Practitioner, Australian National Champion Bridge player, Mother of four, Grandmother of seven, Competitive Tennis player and Parish Councillor.  Kinga Moses (Gorondy-Novak, 1962) has had a full, active and wonderful life since arriving on Australian shores as a Hungarian Refugee in 1957.

Kinga Gorondy-Novak was born as a refugee in Austria at the end of WWII.  She returned with her mother to Hungary when she was 18 months old.  The plan was to reunite with Kinga’s father, a high ranking officer in the Hungarian Army, who had fled Hungary for Argentina.  Sadly, their reunion never took place as the Iron Curtain descended.

Kinga grew up in Magyavovar, a small town in the north western Hungarian countryside.  She lived with her mother and maternal grandparents and the family owned a large factory which produced linen goods.  Her grandfather’s factory was nationalised in 1948 and in the final days of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, the factory was seized.  Moving to Budapest to join her mother, Kinga witnessed the revolution unfold and then with the dangers of the uprising, and the certainty of oppressive rule returning, Kinga and her mother fled Hungary, avoiding Russian guards by walking across the border to Austria in the middle of the night.

With the aid of her grandfather’s friend, Kinga and her mother were then transported to Vienna and shortly afterwards, applied to move to Australia as refugees.

Upon arrival in 1957, along with 150 other Hungarian refugees, Kinga and her mother were housed at Biloela. Kinga’s mother and paternal Grandmother had attended a Sacred Heart School in Hungary and she approached the Sister of the Sacred Heart at Kincoppal who accepted Kinga as a weekly boarder in Year 6 at the age of 12.   Kinga recalls not being able to speak a word of English and was eternally grateful to meet two sisters at the school who spoke Hungarian.

Kinga enjoyed her time at Kincoppal and excelled at Biology, Chemistry and Maths with a keen interest in studying Medicine at University.  On graduating, she studied medicine at Sydney University after earning a Commonwealth Scholarship.

In her second year at University, Kinga joined a tennis club at the CYO (Catholic Youth Organisation) where she met Neville Moses who had recently completed Law School and had begun to practise as a solicitor.  They married two years later.

By 1970, Kinga had graduated from Uni and began practising as a GP.  She had previously worked as an intern at Prince of Wales Hospital and Prince Henry Hospital as both a Junior and Senior Resident.  She then spent some time working as a Locum before joining a practice at Malabar.  During this period, Kinga also welcomed four children with Neville and whilst she worked less hours she filled the time with learning to play bridge.

In 1970, Kinga earned a place in the NSW Women’s Bridge team and she travelled to Perth to compete in the Australian Championships. This win was the first of seven as a member of the NSW Women’s Bridge team at the Australian National Conference (ANC).  Other winning years included winning the women’s pairs at the 1984, 1989 ANC, and being a part of the winning women’s teams at the 1990 Spring Nationals.  In 1993, Kinga formed part of a team with Neville as Playing Captain which won the NSW Open Teams competition.  Kinga also went on to win the ANC Women’s pairs in 1996 and 1998.

Kinga continues to play bridge today after almost 58 years of competition.  She is known for her aggressive bidding style and a never-say-die attitude which has rescued a number of matches over the years.  When she is not at the bridge table, Kinga can still be found on the tennis court.  She is a member of the St George Illawara Tennis Association and plays competitively twice a week.

Kinga has twice sat on the Parish Council at St Andrews Catholic Church at Malabar and St Agnes’ Catholic Church at Matraville.    She has enjoyed her work on such matters as purchasing the convent buildings from the Sisters, making recommendations and carrying forward the Plenary council.

Kinga enjoys spending time with her four children and seven grandchildren.  Her family has always been a priority and at one time in her house in Malabar there were four generations of her family living together.

And finally, although having reached 78 years of age, Kinga still practices medicine (although with reduced hours) at Maroubra Medical Centre and in 1995 completed a Masters degree in Gerontology.