Terry’s sticking to a lifelong hobby

By Marc McGowan
PAKENHAM Upper stamp collector Terry Prendergast has indulged in the hobby of kings for 64 years and is showing no signs of subsiding.
Mr Prendergast, 74, was a founding member of the Berwick Stamp Club alongside fellow Pakenham resident Geoff Legge and the club is still going strong 20 years later at the Old Cheese Factory.
A famous women’s magazine was the unusual instigator of his philatelic interest.
“I was brought up in Wangaratta and in those days there was not a heck of a lot to do – no computer games and no skateboards or things like that,” Mr Prendergast said.
“My mother used to buy them from the Women’s Weekly. There were adverts in there to get a pack of stamps and I guess that’s where it all started.”
The first stamp that appealed to him was of the Belgian Congo, but he struggles to name a favourite single stamp.
“I haven’t really got a favourite, but my favourite collection would be of Indonesia, which I have got pretty well complete,” Mr Prendergast said.
“I’ve formed an attachment to it; my collection of Indonesia would be quite valuable.”
He believes stamp collectors have to be disciplined and smart about which stamps they target.
“You have to work in an orderly fashion. You will never collect all of the stamps in the world, because each country is producing more and more each year,” Mr Prendergast said.
“Australia produces about 250 each year, and when there are a Commonwealth or Olympic Games they go berserk.”
Despite his wealth of knowledge and considerable passion for the hobby, Mr Prendergast has been unable to pass it onto his children, but he has one more hope in the extended family.
“I started my four children off with stamp collections, but they didn’t stick with it that long,” he said.
“I have one grandchild (Morgan) that is vaguely interested in it, but with children these days, it’s a transient thing; they have so many other things to do.”