BEATRICE Hawkins (DN 18.04.17) might consider the words of another wise lady: "We have nothing to fear for the future except that we be misled by inaccurate reporting of the past."

As chair of Glengallan Homestead Trust (GHT), curator, an original director (1993) and project director of the 2001 centenary of federation restoration project, I can accurately inform your readers in relation to Glengallan.

Should the council decide to re-locate the gates they would be erected on their original footings at the formal driveway entrance to Glengallan House (as stated in the 2017 project plan presented to Southern Downs regional councillors together with our assurance of critical repair and maintenance and provision of an ongoing memorial on the Leslie Park site).

The sandstone building was not maintained after 1927 but gifted by new owner O.C. Slade for use by Slade School which, on failure of plans to demolish and re-erect in Warwick, allowed the building to fall further into dereliction.

The house we see today retains original cedar windows, doors, architraves and skirtings, plaster cornice and ceiling roses, not replicas.

I and others witnessed, over a period of years, french polisher and Glengallan Homestead Trust chairman the late Bill White remove and restore every piece of cedar, with the help of volunteers and the Women in Custody program.

Still more original fittings, including doorknobs and finger plates, curtain rods and rails, have been returned to Glengallan. To suggest that such are fake is an insult to the integrity of donors including Deuchar, Slade and Gillespie descendants and owners of Warwick buildings to which original pieces had been removed, and thus saved, over the years of neglect of the stone house.

Yes, there are some reproduction furnishings in the house today: the drawing room includes pieces crafted by Warwick (then Allora) Woodcrafters with the late Ken Mitchell and fellow craftsmen skilfully replicating from a 19th Century photograph of the room; other pieces were sourced by GHT directors the late Sue Cowley, Ross Fraser and myself, trawling antique shops from Brisbane to Byron Bay with the same photograph in-hand.

Another former GHT director, Ian Macdonald, produced extant drawings to guide accurate representation in faux marble of downstairs fireplaces sold and removed from the deserted House; Former GHT director and stonemason Graeme Gillatt replicated a damaged stone chimney hood; skilled artisans re-created delicate acanthus leaves in horsehair-plaster repair to the chandelier ceiling rose, GHT Director retired mechanical engineer Bill Goddard, together with heritage architect John Hoysted, re-assembled the slate bath and flushing toilet mechanism returned to Glengallan by Warwick Historical Society which had held the pieces in safe-keeping at Pringle Cotttage; Bill White, Nick Perquin and Les Donges were responsible for restoration of the magnificent cedar staircase; Immediate past-chair and continuing GHT Director Gary Hayes created the site plan with a compelling case for a sustainable business based on the heritage asset. These are just a few among many local people who shaped and formed the present-day Glengallan enabled by the Centenary of Federation Fund demonstrating, on behalf of the people of Australia, faith in the future of this iconic place.

If Beatrice Hawkins and any other misguided or misinformed person should wish to visit Glengallan Homestead & Heritage Centre, I would be happy to personally guide a tour verifying the authenticity of the offering that is Glengallan today.

Donna Fraser, Warwick