From volunteering at the Olympics and Commonwealth games, to being on the leadership team of just about every sports club in the Mt Evelyn region, Terence Dunn could quite possibly be the world’s most sport-crazed person.
Mr Dunn has received an Order of Australia Medal for his service to community sport.
“I had no idea until I got a letter from the Governor-General’s office letting me know I had been nominated and was under consideration,” Mr Dunn said.
“I really do love helping people, and I feel pretty proud,” Mr Dunn said.
At 88 years young, Mr Dunn is still a whizz on the Cricket field and trains regularly in the nets.
“Things haven’t changed because I’ve just come back from rolling my arm over at the nets,” Mr Dunn said.
“I play veterans cricket, and I’m actually playing on Monday in a special one-off over-80s match”.
Alongside his extensive list of sports volunteering and community service, Mr Dunn was a sports teacher and head of the sports faculty at Mount Lilydale for over forty years.
Responsible for running many extracurricular activities and inspiring young people to participate in sports both inside and outside of school, Mr Dunn made it onto the school’s Mercy College Honour Roll in 2024 for his outstanding service.
“I took an interest in everyone I taught,” Mr Dunn said.
“Weightlifting at school was run at lunchtime so that the kids that didn’t normally participate in sport had something to do and somewhere to go and something to put their energy into,” he said.
“A lot of the kids needed to find their place, and so getting them to go from school into a club and provide some opportunities for people to see what is beyond their little bubble and keep them busy and connected.”
Mr Dunn would arrange after-school running events to connect the teachers with the local athletics club, too.
Before he entered the teaching field, Mr Dunn was a full-time hairdresser.
“I left school in year eight and started hairdressing. I kept it up on the weekends while I was teaching, Mr Dunn said.
“We moved to Mt Evelyn, and I saw an ad in the local paper saying that Mount Lilydale College was looking for a part-time sports teacher, so I applied and got the job,” he said.
Mr Dunn also has a House named after him at the college.
While Mr Dunn stated that he is happy he “got the blue house” which his daughters had also been in, Mr Dunn expressed his apologies for “Kicking a nun out”, as the house was originally named after Catherine McCauley, a former nun at the school.
After being captain of the over 60s team at Mount Evelyn Cricket Club, Mr Dunn represented Australia in the over 70s Cricket Ashes series in the United Kingdom in 2013 and 2015.
Mr Dunn said, “I didn’t even know there was a team going when I got a phone call from the president of veterans cricket saying I’d been selected.”
“There were lots of forms to fill out and I’m not that good on computers and stuff like that so one chap called Michael Johnson who worked at the school with me, helped me get all the paperwork done”, Mr Dunn said.
“Then I went to England and played, but unfortunately, it was a pretty wet summer over there, and we got washed out a fair bit. But it was fun, I enjoyed it.”
Volunteering at the Sydney Olympics and Melbourne Commonwealth Games were also major highlights for Mr Dunn.
“I got to see the basketball, volleyball, badminton, and the European handball,” Mr Dunn said.
“I particularly enjoyed seeing the men’s final of the 100 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne,” he said.
“That was really exciting, particularly because I competed in veteran athletics for about 40 years.”
From founding the Mount Evelyn Veterans cricket side, to volunteering for the Red Cross Collection and being a Justice of the Peace for 32 years, helping the local community has always been a large part of Mr Dunn’s life.
“When I was a JP, I liked to help people who were having trouble sorting out their finances and stuff like that,” Mr Dunn said.
“Helping the people that sometimes get overlooked has been a big part of what I have tried to do”, he said.
Described as a “connector” by his daughter Sally Dunn, Mr Dunn treasures and excels at the social aspects of teaching, hairdressing, and sports.
“I love talking to people,” Mr Dunn said.
“I am always interested in finding out their stories.”
“You meet some interesting people, and it is fun getting to know them,” he said.
Football player for the Melbourne Demons, Brian Dixon, was just one of the many friends Mr Dunn made through hairdressing.
Mr Dunn said, “One Saturday morning Brian hopped in the chair, and I said, ‘What are you doing today?’ He said, ‘I’m playing footy.’ I said, ‘Whereabouts?’ He replied, ‘The MCG’.”
“He was a customer for life until he left teaching and he went into politics,” Mr Dunn said.
Mr Dunn’s daughter, Sally Dunn, confirmed that her father has been an incredible role model for her.
“I always saw my dad as a connector because he could talk to anyone. He just starts talking about sports, and that’s it”, Ms Dunn said.
“While I have a completely different personality to him, and don’t really talk to randos, that aspect of connection and the sense that everyone deserves a fair go has definitely been passed down to us,” Ms Dunn said.
“That’s where teaching comes into it. We are all teachers, and we all put in that effort to find a way to get kids who wouldn’t usually be involved, involved, and help them connect.”
“For us as Terry’s daughters and our kids, it’s about feeling connected to others and to what’s going on in the world via sport.”
Mr Dunn was nominated by Mount Lilydale Mercy College, much to his own surprise and that of his daughters.
“We were all so shocked when we found out Dad had been nominated,” Ms Dunn said.
“We looked up the process, and it actually takes a lot of work to nominate someone,e and so Dad is really proud and shocked that they bothered,” Ms Dunn said.
“For them to want to take the effort to do that, it’s just really, really beautiful.”
Revisiting their father’s achievements has been a joyous occasion for Mr Dunn’s daughters.
“For us as Terry’s daughters, we have just seen Dad do this his whole li,fe and I think all of us are a little bit complacent in thinking that this is how people live and this is what people do,” Ms Dunn said.
“Reflecting on what Dad has done and how people view him has been a bit of a shock to us as well. He actually is a little bit extraordinary,” she said.
“It is wonderful that he is being recognised for being a good person.”
Ms Dunn, incredibly proud of her father, noted his selfless nature.
“It was never about the accolades. It was never about being seen. It was just second nature to connect and draw people in”, she said.
