November 2016
In order to appreciate the idiosyncrasies of the Magnette group going to
the GOF the general rule is to assemble on the Thursday before the actual
start of the Gathering, the Noggin and
Natter on the Friday evening. The reason to get there an extra days early is
so that each and everyone of the drivers and passengers can sort of
“bond”. Part of this process is when
one arrives at the City Central Motel
one unpacks and then heads off to
the supermarkets to purchase more
than one would normally eat at that
evenings Bar B Que. There is plenty
of time to catch up with all the other
Magnette friends who have driven to
Wagga during the afternoon and our
catch-up continue at the BBQ into the
evening.
On Friday morning things start off
very quietly with help to anyone Magnette owner having difficulties following their journey. Previous times at
the Gathering one may have washed
the car but the weather reports that
morning indicated that we were in for
damaging wind and lots of rain. As the
Noggin & Natter didn’t start until 7.00
that night we had plenty of time to go
for a drive to fill in the time, the country town of Junee only 35 Kms from
Wagga was suggested as there is a
historic building there which has been
turned into an organic licorice and
chocolate making factory. Initially the
building was a flour mill until the
1950’s subsequently it became derelict & had been partly burned out but
then a local farmer, Alan Druce was
concerned about all the chemicals
being introduced to the land and he
became involved in organic farming,
he bought the derelict building and
started the organic licorice process
using all organic materials, some
wonderful organic chocolate products
are also produced and today the
building employs local Junee people
who proudly manufacture these products under the “Green Grove Organics” label and these are sold worldwide. The fourth generation members
of the Druce family now run this business which also has another building
in Corowa, near Albury. Apparently
much bigger.
The rain had started to come down by
the time we got to Junee and it was
still very cold, so it was great to get
inside the building and have a good
look around & after an explanatory
tour of the processes of making both
licorice and chocolate organically we
did what all tourists do! We sat down
and had a coffee or a bit of lunch right
beside the combustion heater! What
more could one ask for!
In an adjoining shed there is also a
number of old vehicles so we had to
go and investigate these, some old
veteran Fords plus some much more
recent cars in pretty good shape were
all parked, some would need very little
maintenance to get them back on the
road. A number were quiet rare models.
A spirited drive back saw us back well
in time to go to the Noggin & Natter
back to Wagga; from about 4.00 pm in
the afternoon the rain was getting seriously heavy. Literally sheets of rain
coming down in squals.
The Noggin & Natter was held at the
Wagga RSL on the other side of town
to our motel. This gave us our first
opportunity to see all the other MG
owners and partners who were staying in other motels to ours plus the
local MG Car Club members from the
Wagga Club. There were some 180
27