75th Anniversary Rally 2019
Wagga Wagga, September 12 - 15
report by new member Karla Pincott
Photography
Photographs were taken by Krystyna Andreoni, Syd Reinhardt, Karla Pincott, Tim Shellshear, Phil Guilfoyle, Robyn Mackay, Warwick Gordon-Smith, John Grant and Margaret Edmond
Viewing photos: Click on photos to enlarge them. Once enlarged, use arrows to scroll through photos as a slideshow. There are about 180 photos in this gallery.
Review of the 75th Anniversary Rally
by new member Karla Pincott
Around 5,500 cumulative years’ worth of stunning vehicles owned by 79 entrants cruised through Southern Tableland and Riverina for the VSCCA’s recent 75th Anniversary Rally.
With roughly one car for every year celebrated (give or take a couple that failed to proceed) the ‘grand dame’ was Greg and Gillian Roberts’ 1921 Vauxhall D. But there were others nearly as senior — and just as spry — in attendance, rolling through the mild spring weather.
Those of the Sydney contingent who were paying attention to Tim and Margaret’s detailed navigation notes left Camden early on the brisk Thursday morning — and those who weren’t paying attention caught them up later after a thorough familiarity tour through Camden’s streets. In some cases, apparently every street.
The Southern Highlands members met up with Sydney at Exeter, with a relaxed coffee break, and — for those who can never have too much old stuff — an optimistic browse through some antiques.
From there it was over great rolling roads to Bungonia, where the Bungonia Progress Association dished up the kind of hearty lunch you can only ever find in the bush, seasoned with tall tales about the bears (although the size of the well-fed wombats seen just outside town suggests what seeded the stories).
The joy of the planned route was deviating off the major roads onto ones that carried little other traffic, allowing us all to choose the pace that suited best; to arrive at Yass for a lively long-table dinner at the Yass Soldier’s Club.
More great roads the next morning took us to Cootamundra for lunch provided by the Anglican Ladies Group; again from tables stacked with so much food that the Ladies were pushing doggie bags of delicious cakes and slices onto us in case we got stranded and needed a week’s supply of carbs until help arrived.
Perfect weather saw us on to Wagga Wagga, where we joined the Victorian members and pretty much took over the International Hotel, with sign-in accompanied by a car park happy hour. Dinner that night for 140 was backdropped by a wonderful slideshow of the club’s history, and the many events mounted over the years.
Saturday morning gave relaxed time to look at the civic end of town including Wagga’s National Glass Gallery’s prized collection of art and also, by chance, allowed some of us to mingle with the MG Car club that had taken over the council car park — where some wags thought Todd Barker might be able to pick up an axle to replace the one he’d broken outside Yass. After this is was on to Junee, for lunch at the Licorice-and-Chocolate-wicked-combination Factory, and then on to the fascinating Railway Roundhouse Museum for a nostalgic step back in time and into some well-preserved rolling stock, with the steam loco and the first class sitting and sleeper carriages among the favourites.
Buses that night carried people to the out of town Wild Vine restaurant with mountains of Italian food and allegedly rivers of vino to wash it down with.
Sunday, at a leisurely start time, took us out on the Narrandera Road and then up to the village of Ganmain where the facades of the bric-a-brac shops and the old pub’s lace verandahs were a taster for the glorious heritage buildings that awaited us at Coolamon.
Here, most of the town has been unmolested by the kind of progress that demolishes heritage buildings to make way for ones of unremitting awfulness. The architecture is an understandable tourism drawcard, and so is the wonderful Cheese Factory, where the club indulged in some of the tastiest products for lunch.
With our cars lining both sides of the Main Street, Coolamon seemed to have stepped back in time to its glory days, and it was almost a surprise to find the perfectly preserved and Heritage Listed Up-To-Date department store building was now a museum — and not bustling with ladies browsing the lace and parasols while their husbands picked up a new plough, their money being sent to the back cashier office via the ‘Lamson ball cash railway’ (the only one still operable in its original location).
Back to Wagga for the final happy hour and dinner, including the 75th birthday cake cutting by Past Presidents and awarding of rally honours. The Hard Luck prizes went to Michael Carr whose MG K1 stayed on the trailer all weekend, and Greg Mackie whose Vauxhall 23-60 failed at Bungonia, having him miss most of the Yass happy hour. Oily Rag went to David Beaumont’s remarkably original Bugatti type 40 from Adelaide and the Exxon Valdez award to Richard Walton’s leaky Vauxhall 30-98. Best Provenance to Peter Holbeach’s Vauxhall 30-98 that attended the first ever VSCCA event at Bondi Beach in 1945.
The Entomological Award for biggest collection of insects in the face went to Nick Patrick in the Bugatti 37A — together with a toothpick to get the bugs out of his teeth. And a special Harvest Moon Award to Tim Shellshear and Margaret Edmond for organising the event during the first such moon for 27 years.
A few people had final nightcaps in the car park, where it was acknowledged that the Vauxhall family claimed the biggest reunion, with 14 mustering up at night in an orderly testament to the popularity (and durability) of the marque.
The Bentley bloodline was a close second with 10 cars sporting the variety of its family tree.
Clusters of good British machinery, MG, Rolls-Royce, Alvis, Jaguar, Bristol and Riley increased the look of a Downton Abbey set — with support solos from Rees and Robyn Mackay’s Sunbeam, Warwick and Rosemary Gordon-Smith’s Armstrong Siddeley, Graham Lawrence’s Lagonda M45, plus a 1960s dash of Austin and Wolseley and all capped off with Jeremy Morris’s Frazer Nash TT.
The tricolor’s 1920s manufacturing was championed by the trio of Bugattis, Don Harrington’s Hotchkiss AM and Bruce and Mary Smeaton’s colourful little Amilcar C4.
Flying the flag for Italy were Les and Sue Miller’s Ferrari 250 and a quad of Lancias ranging from the early Lambdas to Brian and Shiela Wilson’s Fulvia S.
The stars and stripes were championed by Doug and Fitz McKay’s 28 Chrysler Special and John and Jan Grant’s 29 Studebaker.
John Close and Jim Weir’s little Porsche 356 had no compatriots, but more than made up for it by getting along swiftly enough to often seemingly be in several places at once!
The region seemed to enjoy the rally as much as the rally did the region, with tipped-off locals in several of the towns clearly racing home to get their own loved cars out of the road to touch base — including the enthusiast at Bungonia who declared he’d swap his Gulf-liveried Ford GT-40 replica for nearly anything else there. And who would blame him?
Karla
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