Historical information

Allan Doney was a tailer by profession, born in July, 1900 in East Ballarat. His family later moved to Dimboola in the Wimmera where his interest in photography began with his first camera, aged 15. He married and moved to Bendigo in 1949 where he set up business as a tailor. The 1950's was a time of great change in Bendigo, which was not well recorded photographically. Doney took and printed high quality photographs of events, scenes and buildings. Allan Doney (1900–1987) was a passionate amateur photographer with a keen eye for everyday life in and around Bendigo. From the 1950s through to the 1970s, he photographed streetscapes, events, industries, and ordinary moments that together form an extraordinary visual record of the region. Allan’s extensive body of work offers remarkable insight into the Bendigo region’s social and cultural history.
Doney sold his collection of prints and negatives to the National Trust for $2,000 in 1980 - comprising 14,000 negatives and 3,000 prints. For more than three decades, the negatives were loaned to the Bendigo Library (Goldfields Library Corporation). In 2024, the long-standing loan with the Bendigo Library concluded, and a new loan agreement for the negatives was established with the Bendigo Historical Society. In early 2025, using archival materials purchased by the NTAV, a dedicated team of Bendigo Historical Society volunteers carefully and methodically re-housed all 14,000 negatives into archival-grade folders, greatly enhancing their long-term preservation and accessibility.

Physical description

"Postwar Portrait. Photographs by Allan Doney. 1900-1987" written by Mike Butcher and Yolande M j Colllins. Contains images by the Allan Doney, photographer. Published in Australia by Holland House for the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) in 2002. Soft cover. Cover is primarily gold of different tones with a black and white image of the Alexandria Fountain, Bendigo, inset on front cover; and black and white image inset of Allan Doney on back cover. Book includes black and white images with brief description of each image. Forward by Stephen Hare, CEO, National Trust of Australia (Victoria). 148 pp. Contents page at the front of book lists each image and page number. ISBN 978-0-9871627-1-7.