Stoneleigh and the Allinghams

When your only water supply is rain water you have to think about how you use every drop. Joan Allingham recalled that when she lived at Stoneleigh: "The day I shampooed my hair, I washed Jerry's work socks in the same water."
I had the privilege to work with Joan Allingham when we were on the founding committee of the Herbert River Museum Gallery - the initiative of Vi Groundwater (Councillor) and and her good friend Josie Sheahan (Shire Librarian). She and I formulated the Acquisition Policy. An acquisition policy is important to a local museum because it ensures that the collection items are strictly local, and that there is a provenance for each item so that labelling of the item, whether it be held in the storeroom for static display, or displayed permanently, is correct and  permanently filed for changing museum 'curators'.
I loved Joan's stories of her time spent at Stoneleigh. Joan was a nurse and I recall one story of a friend she had who nursed at the Tully Hospital who rode her BICYCLE from Tully to Stoneleigh to visit Joan. Imagine how long and strenuous that ride would have been on the road/highway as it was then. A feat of daring for those days.
She also told me of how one day when there was an escapee loose from the Stone River Prison Farm, a friend played a trick on them while they were away from the house. On their return they found evidence of somebody having been in their house. They thought it was the escapee and got quite a fright!
She also was interviewed for the little publication: As We Were Volume 1 Doorways to the Past.
Here is her story in her own words: