National Forum

Alison Doley

Alison was born in 1938 and has lived all her life on the family farming property, "Koobabbie", in the Waddy Forest district, 250 kilometres north of Perth.

Having completed secondary education, Alison worked on the farm and became a very active member of the Junior Farmer organisation. She represented Western Australia on an exchange trip to Great Britain in 1961 and spent six months studying British agriculture and the Young Farmer Movement. This resulted in winning a three year scholarship to the University of Western Australia to complete a degree in Economics.

In 1965 Alison married John Doley and since then they have farmed "Koobabbie". The farm produces sheep for wool and meat, beef cattle, wheat, barley, oats, lupins and chickpeas.

Alison is very interested in natural history. Most of the remnant vegetation on the farm has been fenced from stock, an area of 2 857 hectares. She is chairman of the Waddy Forest Land Conservation District and the Coorow Heritage Committee and she is a member of the Natural Heritage Trust Regional Assessment Panel for the Northern Agricultural Region.