SAC Principals
130 Year Mosaic 2010,
St Aloysius College Archives
Sr Teresa Dunlevie
Principal: 1918 – 1944
Born in Adelaide in 1884, Ellen (Nellie) Dunlevie received her entire education at St Aloysius College. She then studied at Adelaide Teachers’ College before joining the South Australian Department of Education, where she taught for seven years. On 26 April 1913, she entered the Convent and became known as Sr Mary Teresa, She was the first nun in South Australia to gain a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
In 1918 she was appointed Headmistress of St Aloysius College, a position she held until 1944. She was the first old scholar of SAC to be appointed to this role. Under her direction, the College developed from a comparatively small school to one of the leading girls’ colleges in Adelaide. Part of this development was the introduction of an official college uniform incorporating the distinctive colours of brown, mauve and gold that remain part of the uniform today.
Sister Teresa was responsible for many innovations, fostering an environment in which the ideas, skills and talents of every teacher were encouraged and valued. Among her initiatives was the introduction, with Sr Carmel Bourke, of one of the first Montessori kindergartens in the state and Commercial classes, with Sr Brigid Walsh, to meet the expressed needs of the students. Her progressive approach saw the expansion of the curriculum to include such subjects as Art and Eurythmics.
Under her leadership, education was designed to develop the whole personality and give to the children the opportunity to cultivate their talents – religious, intellectual, artistic, physical. Sr Teresa was a prime mover in the formation of the Catholic Girls’ Sports Association and she introduced an annual Sports Day on a grand scale, the first Catholic Girls’ School to hold one.
After her retirement as Headmistress in 1944, Sr Teresa continued to teach at SAC before moving to Mercedes College where she died in 1958 aged seventy four and was buried at West Terrace Cemetery. In 1995, the building that was originally known as McAuley House, was renamed the Dunlevie Building in memory of Sr Teresa.
Neville Stapleton
Archivist, St Aloysius College, 2020
You may also be interested in
Dunlevie Building
Uniforms
Sports Carnivals