Sally Dover grew up in Coogee, the third of five daughters. She attended Coogee Public School and Dover Heights Home Science High School where she did the Leaving Certificate in 1956. She married in 1960, and has four children. She and her husband moved to the Sutherland Shire in 1966 where they ran a number of businesses over the succeeding 30 years. They moved to Port Stephens in 1990 and ran a charter yacht business until 1997.

Sally was elected to the Port Stephens Council in 2004 and is now a member of many committees including Mambo Wetlands, Hunter and New England Health, Parks and Halls Committees.

Sally is a committed Christian and is involved in the women's ministry of her church. For many years, she was the co-ordinator for How to Drug Proof Your Kids and the Women's Information and Counselling Service in Nelson Bay.

Sources used to compile this entry: http://portstephens.local-e.nsw.gov.au/council/1084/1253.html (accessed 4 February 2005); http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/33990/20030321/www.liberal.com.au (accessed 5 June 2005); Correspondence with Sally Dover dated 11 July 2005.