Alison Dolling grew up in Tranmere, South Australia. She was educated at Ellerslie College and Methodist Ladies College in South Australia. She studied journalism in the United States and in London, United Kingdom. Dolling also received a BA in Classic Studies from the University of Adelaide and studied art history at the Adelaide School of Art. She taught English to school students and in the 1950s and 1960s English as a second language. In the mid-1960s Dolling was appointed editor of the Adelaide Advertiser's rural weekly newspaper the Chronicle. Using the writing name Mary Broughton she wrote on South Australian rural heritage. During her career she was editor of various publications, including the bi-monthly newsletter of the Friends of the State Library of South Australia, and edited Shirley Cameron Wilson's From Shadow into Light : South Australian Women Artists Since Colonisation (1988). Dolling also wrote works on family histoy in collaboration with family members, The History of Marion on the Sturt (1981), Chronicle Cameos (1977), a collection of writings from the Chronicle newspaper, and a memoir. Dolling was a member of various organisations including the Greek-Australian Writers and Artists Association of Australia and the Lyceum Club. - Source: 'A Woman of Words', The Advertiser, 12 August 2006.
