Donald MacDonald began his career with a brief period as a teacher in the Victorian Education Department, and then obtained a position on the Corowa Free Press. In 1881 he moved to Melbourne and joined the staff of the Argus, for which he continued to write for over fifty years. He first made his mark as a cricket reporter, and his vivid accounts, written under the name 'Observer', revolutionised cricket reporting. His nature work appeared in both the Australasian and the Argus, and in 1887 a collection of his sketches was published as Gum Boughs and Wattle Bloom.
MacDonald was the first Australian war correspondent at the South African War. There, he was besieged at Ladysmith, delaying his dispatches for the Argus and damaging his health. After his return, the reports were published in the Argus, and in 1900 as a volume, How We Kept the Flag Flying. He subsequently embarked on a lecture tour about his experiences, travelling through Australia, New Zealand and Britain.
MacDonald established a column in the Argus called 'Nature Notes and Queries'. The popularity of this led to another column, 'Notes for Boys', begun in 1909, and there followed his next work, The Bush Boy's Book (1911). His other works included the Tourists' Handbook of Australia (1905).
MacDonald died in 1932 after many years of ill health, remembered as 'one of the best-known journalists in Australia'. (Hugh Anderson, 'Macdonald, Donald Alaster (1859 - 1932)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, p. 249.)
