Chris Dunk was born in Yallourn Victoria in 1952.. He grew up in the country in the 50’s when Victoria was still very much a wild natural environment, forest and the Australian society still had it feet in the 19th century, with few cars and before much of the technological changes and infrastructure that came with the 1960’s onward arrived. Chris grew up in the immediate vicinity of the primary school where the Quang Duc Monastery in Fawkner now resides when the landscape was open pastureland.

Chris left school early in 1967 but continued his studies part time and later gained an adult entry into tertiary studies in 1981 after working many different jobs, gaining experience and seeking a suitable vocation to which to pin his experience. At aged 34 he graduated with a Bachelor of Education in Visual Arts and Technology Education tying together his varied experience as a wood and metal worker, a printer, an artist and as a youth worker within Juvenile Justice Centers, to mention a few of his jobs he had held since 1967 to the time he entered teachers college. He was employed by the Northern Territory Teaching Service upon his graduation, and worked in remote locations in northern Australia before he returned to Victoria to take a position in the Ministry of Education in secondary colleges. He went to the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system working as a Koori Education teacher in the early 1990’s working in Pentridge Prison, the Melbourne Assessment Prison, Fairlea Women’s Prison, the dame Phyllis Frost Center the and Melbourne Juvenile Justice Center in Melbourne. he also worked some years in the Indigenous Land Rights Corporation for Victoria as an Office Manager and also the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service as a Research Officer. He is Currently back working for the TAFE sector as a Koori programs in the Broadmeadows community where he develops and delivers community development projects and training. Chris gained through part time studies during the 1990’s a further Graduate Diploma in Technology a Bachelor of Art Degree in the Social History of Science, and a Graduate Certificate of Educational Studies in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). His TESOL training took him to Vietnam doing teacher training English classes briefly in the University of Education and Secondary Schools and also evening Adult Education classes in Ho Chi Minh City.

April 19th, Chris's birthday.
I still can't believe I lost him.
This photo was Chris and me in 1995 (Yumiko)

Chris Dunk's art painting

Chris Dunk's Car

Chris has been aware of Buddhism most of his life due to the influence of his grandmother who was born in Shanghai, China. He remembers being deeply effected by the protest Death of the Monk Venerable Thich Quang Duc in the early 1960’s. Chris has sought Buddhist knowledge throughout his life received some Buddhist training in Vietnam and China and it was when he found that the Quang Duc monastery had been established in Fawkner in what was a primary school close to one of his childhood homes in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, he felt he had come full circle. He became involved as the English Editor of the Quang Duc web site since 2001. He is married to a Japanese national, travels regularly and escapes computers, teaching and the world in general by reconditioning old cars as a hobby