Bendigo with Love

This exhibition is a snapshot of life in Bendigo through the eyes of one of our city’s most prolific photographers, Allan Doney (1900 – 1987). Doney was a tailor and amateur photographer with a particular sensitivity for capturing everyday people: children at the fairgrounds, commuters in Pall Mall, and shoppers in Bendigo’s historic arcades – he recorded the onlookers as well as the main events.

Bendigo in the 1950s was a conservative city whose politics were reputedly directed from the pulpit. Rivalries between communities, especially Bendigo and Eaglehawk were old and deep. Its citizens were predominately Anglo-Celtic though the decedents of the once large Chinese population became visible each year at the Easter Fair.

In the years of Allan’s photography, landmark buildings succumbed to fire, neglect and redevelopment. He photographed the grey sandhills from Bendigo’s mining past, the streetscapes, poppet heads, miners’ cottages, gracious homes with ornate verandas, trams and much more. Above all, his photographs show how much of the city has survived from the 19th century – and how much has not.