October 9, 2013
A capacity crowd of 60 turned out for Wondai’s Progressive Dinner on Saturday night as part of the South Burnett & Cherbourg On Show long weekend celebrations.
The dinner allowed guests to enjoy entrees, mains and desserts at three of Wondai’s tourist icons (the South Burnett Timber Industry Museum, the Wondai Regional Art Gallery and the Wondai Heritage Museum) by taking a short stroll from one venue to the next between each course.
Entrees were served at the Timber Industry Museum near sunset which allowed guests to mingle, get acquainted and inspect the displays before being called to dinner at the nearby Wondai Art Gallery.
The floor area in the main Gallery had been cleared before their arrival and was packed with tables and chairs but the walls were covered with artworks entered in this year’s South Burnett Art Competition, officially unveiled the night before.
Guests served themselves from a smorgasbord table holding a variety of mains while they admired the artworks.
After they’d finished eating, Dennis Cotter from Freeman Estates carried out a spirited auction of last season’s “pole art” pieces (ie artworks mounted on poles around the town, and changed every year) which raised almost $1000.
Guests then strolled another block to the Wondai Heritage Museum for coffee and cake and a special appearance by a “surprise guest”, who turned out to be former nurse Alison Iszlaub.
Alison was dressed in a nursing uniform from the Museum’s collection (the same as one she’d worn many years before) and she shared several stories about what it had been like to be a nurse in Wondai in the age before emergency helicopter services and all the other wonders of modern health care.
After a tour of the museum, guests either went home or – in a number of cases – rounded off the evening at the nearby Wondai Hotel and Cellar, which had held its official opening earlier the same day.
Dinner organiser Elaine Madill said response to the Progressive Dinner had been so good that she’d had to limit it to 60 tickets because that was the maximum number of diners that any of the three venues could hold.
However, she promised to hold more Progressive Dinners in future.
“They’re very relaxing, a lot of fun and a really great way to get out and meet people,” she said.
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