Source: Courier Mail

HUGH DUNN Diplomat,academic Born Rockhampton, August 20,1923 Died Brisbane, November 5, 2005

HUGH Alexander Dunn, AO, was part of that extraordinary generation of Australians who joined the then Department of External Affairs, either during or shortly after World War 11, and who went on to lay the foundations of an independent Australian foreign policy.

They were generally academically accomplished and had a strong belief Australia should have its own distinctive voice on the international stage. Hugh Dunn personified the best of them: dedicated to creating a professional foreign service and, as time went on, especially committed to Australia’s closer engagement with Asia.

He was born in Rockhampton but his family moved to Brisbane where he was educated briefly at state schools and then Brisbane Boys’ College, where he was both an academic and sports star. He was captain and dux in his final year and received colours for the First XI in cricket, in rowing, in rugby, and in athletics.

He was an especially talented rugby union player, eventually representing Queensland. After leaving school in 1942, the war drew him into military service in the Australian Army where he served in New Guinea and the Philippines in an intelligence unit. At the war’s conclusion, he returned to Brisbane and a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland.

Here he began to explore the subject which was to become a defining dimension of his public and private life: a fascination with China and its place in the world.

When he was announced as the Queensland Rhodes Scholar for 1949, it gave him the opportunity to undertake Chinese language training at Oxford University where he studied with some of the most eminent names in the field.

He graduated with first class honours in Chinese in 1952. Mr Dunn joined the Department of External Affairs for a brief period in 1952-3 and was to return as a permanent officer in 1954 after a short time as a journalist on The CO urier-Mail.

He then spent more than 30 years in the foreign service with postings in places as widely diverse as Japan, New York, Washington, New Delhi and Saigon.

During the 1960s, Australia did not have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China so he was frustrated in his efforts to put his expertise in sinology to professional use.

An opportunity came, however, in 1969 when he was appointed as Ambassador to the Republic of China on Taiwan. He served in Taipei until 1972 when, at very short notice, he was required to close the Australian mission following the Whitlam government’s recognition of the People’s Republic in December 1972.

Afterwards, he hoped he might be sent as ambassador to Beijing, but it was not to be. He was, however, sent as head of mission to posts in South America and Africa.

Mr Dunn finally realised his life’s ambition when appointed by the Fraser Government as Ambassador to China in 1980.

He served there until 1984 and became one of Australia’s great heads of mission to China. His language skills and commitment to sinology as a field of study earned him considerable respect and made him widely popular in Beijing and it was with considerable pride that he recounted he was the only Australian Ambassador to China who had visited all of the then 30 provinces.

His posting came at a time of revolutionary change in China. Deng Xiaoping had only recently returned to the Communist Party leadership in Beijing and began turning Chinese communist orthodoxy on its head.

It was a period requiring diplomats with the classical analytical skills of the sinologist - to decipher the opaque messages being conveyed through China’s official media as to the depth of the political and policy change that was under way.

Profound political signalling was invariably conveyed through historical and literary metaphor. It was in this milieu that Mr Dunn’s skills came to the fore - proving penetrating, stimulating, elegant and, above all, accurate analysis of China’s transformation from the xenophobia of the Cultural Revolution to an increasingly open market economy that continues to shape the world’s future.

He was a man whose season had come - dedicating a lifetime of classical scholarship (he translated and published classical Chinese poetry) to the analytical and diplomatic needs of his country at a time of far-reaching change in our region.

For the Australia- China relationship alone, the nation owes him a great deal. Beijing was his last foreign affairs posting and he retired from the Foreign Service to take up a Visiting Professorship at the School of Modern Asian Studies at Griffith University in 1985.

In the same year, he was also made an officer of the general division of the Order of Australia.

In the years that followed, he was as dedicated an unremunerated public servant as he had been a professional diplomat. Griffith became an institutional base for an extraordinary full and rich retirement, allowing him to engage his many interests.

He served on the Queensland China Council, helping in particular to promote Chinese language teaching in Queensland primary schools. He served a couple of terms as the president of the Queensland branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

 He returned to his old school, BBC, on regular occasions and when time permitted, pursued his passion for golf, trout fishing, reading and conversation.

Perhaps one of his greatest legacies from this time was his editorship of the Australians in Asia monograph series, published by Griffith University’s Centre for the Study of Australia Asia Relations.

His own memoir, The Shaping of a Sinologue of Sorts began the series with a very personal, slightly whimsical account of his very active professional life.

He was then responsible for bringing 21 additional monographs to publication. The series stands as one of his most enduring legacies, representing a permanent record of Australia’s engagement with Asia after World War 11.

Mr Dunn was a wise, witty, generous, considerate and charming companion to his wide circle of friends. He was a devoted servant of Australian diplomacy and a leader in Australia’s engagement with Asia, especially China.

A man of conservative tastes, he was a professional public servant of the old school - serving with equal dedication governments of both political persuasions.

His wife Marney shared most of his life’s adventures providing support in his diplomatic role and becoming an equally devoted servant of Australian diplomacy.

They had an extraordinary and enduring partnership. He is survived by Marney, daughter Sabina, son-in-law Geoff and grandson Euan.

- Liberal Senator Russell Trood and Labor Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd