THE BEGINNING OF THE MG
NATIONAL MEETING
The first National Meeting was held in Sydney at Amaroo Park in early January
1970 but attracted only a few interstate visitors.
Subsequently, the date for the National Meeting was changed to Easter, and the
venue rotated in sequence between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. It wasn’t
until 1976 that we broke this pattern and the Nat Meet was held in Launceston, Tasmania, with the next break from the pattern being in 1978 when we made the first
expedition to Perth.
Up until this point in time, the rules were fairly basic, and non marque cars were
accepted provided you were a member of one of the invited MG Car Clubs. There
were also more non marque-owning members in the Clubs at that time, and it
helped boost the number of competitors and participants. In 1978 an SA member
towed a full house open-wheeler Elfin behind a ZB Magnette to Perth, and won the
fastest outright award for the speed event in the Elfin. He then went to the Delegates Meeting and asked why this should be allowed to happen – this being an
award for an MG National Meeting. With the events now becoming much larger,
and the increasing number of MG’s owned and taking part, it was agreed that participation be restricted to MGs.
Since then The National Meeting of the MG Car Clubs of Australia has continued to
grow, and the event now attracts a number of overseas visitors to Australia.
The host centre now incorporated many other activities over the weekend to ensure
both Social and Competition Registrants have a variety of events in which they may
participate.
It is a great weekend of MG camaraderie and many friendships formed.
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