People Australia

Zelda Doon, n.d.

photo provided by family

Doon, Zelda, née Fuller (1927-2023) community worker, political activist and shire president.

Birth: 23 November 1927 at Tumut, New South Wales, daughter of native-born parents Arthur Neiberding Fuller (1893-1987), mercer and politician, and Vera Leila, née Hoad (1894-1959). Marriage: 11 December 1954 at Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, to Eric Charles Doon (1924-2011), a wool-classer and skin buyer, born in Tumut of Chinese ancestry; he also worked in the family transport company. They had three daughters and one son. Death: 12 November 2023 at Morningside, Brisbane, Queensland. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated at Tumut Public School to Leaving Certificate. She was an active president of the Young Anglicans for quite a few years. Worked for a time in her father’s mercery then moved to Sydney in the early 1940s to train and work as a secretary and stenographer.
• After working in the Federal parliamentary offices, Sydney, she returned to Tumut to marry her long-time sweetheart Eric Doon. She ran a gift shop in Tumut from about 1967 to about 1972.
• Active in the Australian Labor Party, she “managed her father’s numbers” in the Tumut branch, becoming branch secretary for some twenty years after he retired. She was a crucial supporter of Bill Sheahan, father and his son, and was campaign director for Terry Sheahan in the State election in 1988. In 1993 she was awarded life membership of the ALP. W. F. Sheahan regarded her as “one of the best political thinkers and strategists he ever encountered”.
• In 1960 she was one of the conveners who established a pre-school in Tumut, and become president — remaining in this position for ten years — and was a long-time trustee.
• She was a director of the Kosciusko National Park Advisory Committee from 1979. As well, she was active in the establishment of the Neighbourhood Centre and Women’s Refuge and was closely involved in the Community Support Scheme.
• In September 1977 she was elected to the Tumut Shire Council, serving as councillor for six years and was shire president in 1980-1981, the first woman to occupy that position.
• Other community positions she held included membership of the Tumut Land Court for the welfare of the local Aboriginal population; the board of the safety council of the Department of Main Roads; the committee for the restoration of the township of Kiandra in the Kosciusko National Park; the council of the traffic committee of the Pushkbike Safety Council; and the Riverina Industrial Development Board. She was also shire representative on the Housing Application Council of the Housing Commission.
• In 1948 W. F. (Bill) Sheahan secured Doon’s appointment as a board-member of the Tumut Hospital; she was chairperson from 1978 to 1989. She was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia in June 1990 in recognition of her service to the community.
• From 1991 Zelda and Eric Doon lived at Toowoomba, Queensland, where Eric had bought a hotel. In 1996 they moved to the Gold Coast then to Brisbane, where their daughters had settled.
• Cause of death: gastro-intestinal haemorrhage, hypertensive cardiomyopathy and cerebrovascular disease.

Sources
Tumut and Adelong Times, 13 June 1990, pp 1 & 4; information from Lel Doon and Terry Sheahan, December 2024.