Youngest of three daughters of late middle-aged parents Osman and Mabel Boyce, Alison was encouraged from an early age to write, draw and appreciate music. One of her sisters is an artist at the SA museum, and a hobby writer, and the other is a writer in NZ. As a child Alison wrote and illustrated stories and poems, and made them into books. Outdoors, she enjoyed hours investigating the backwaters of the Port River, the mangrove swamps and the ships' graveyard with her father. She also went hiking in the hills and in the pine forests with her mother, and used these activities as backgrounds for her stories. Most of her education was at Largs Girls' School (which became Largs Girls' College), and she later went to the Convent of Mercy in Angas St and then to St Peter's Girls School.

After leaving school she worked in a theatre shop as a mask-maker and window-dresser, then trained as a kindergarten teacher. She worked for a while at the Adelaide Circulating Library, then was approached by the headmistress of her old school, St Alban's Church of England Grammar School, where she taught junior primary classes. After this she spent a year on a sheep station NW of Tarcoola as a governess, then became music copyist for the ABC.

In 1949 she married Brian Palk. They had two children, and when these were in their teen years, they adopted another two boys. She returned to writing and painting after some of the children left home. She also spends an hour or two at the piano. She has lived in Adelaide, Blakiston and Strathalbyn, and she and her husband retired to Goolwa eight years ago. She took up acting at the age of 60 with the Strathalbyn players. She belongs to the Sand Writers' Group at Goolwa.