Tamworth Things to Do

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After viewing the Big Golden Guitar, we ventured inside the Cafe and to the Wax Museum.
This wax museum is one of only three in Australia, and it salutes many of Australia’s famous Country Music Stars & Pioneers.

This was my first visit to a wax museum and I was impressed. Each of the life-like figures depicts a country music star. I remembered most of them, so for me it was interesting seeing just how much these models looked like the "real" person. They were dressed in original clothing and displayed in natural settings, pretty good is what I thought. Beside each was a display board full of interesting information about each of the Stars. New figures go on show every two to three years.

At the moment, on display are...........
Rick & Thel CAREY
Johnny CHESTER
Beccy COLE
Graeme CONNORS
Smoky DAWSON
Slim DUSTY
The HAWKING Bros
Frank IFIELD
Pixie JENKINS
Reg LINDSAY
Jimmy LITTLE
The McKEAN Sisters
Melinda SCHNEIDER
Tim McNAMARA
John MINSON
Lee KERNAGHAN
Chad MORGAN
Tex MORTON
Gordon PARSONS
Jean STAFFORD
Shirley THOMS
Buddy WILLIAMS
John WILLIAMSON
Tex BANES’ Hootenanny
Troy CASSAR-DALEY

OPEN.....9AM – 5PM, 7 days
ADMISSION IN 2012.....
Adult: $10....Under 12 yrs: $4.......Concession: $8.......Family 4: $25

Plenty of FREE off road car parking, FREE Toilets, Cafe, Souvenirs, Music cd's and much more.

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Another big icon in Australia, is the "Big Golden Guitar," located in Tamworth.

The Big Golden Guitar is a replica of the famous golden guitar trophies given at Australia’s Annual Country Music Awards. It stands 12 metres high, weighs half a ton and has no strings as the Trophies don't have any strings. The 'real' Golden Guitars are cast in solid bronze and set on a base of polished Tasmanian Blackwood.
The big Golden Guitar has featured in many film and TV documentaries about Tamworth and country music and TV commercials.

The Big Golden Guitar was officially opened by Slim Dusty and Mr Paul Crombie, General Manager of Tourism NSW, on January 25th 1988

It is located at the Golden Guitar Tourist Centre on the southern outskirts of Tamworth

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It was a good year, more people came than for some years, perhaps because it was the 40th anniversary year, perhaps because it wasn't stinking hot and it wasn't flooded, problems that have been around in recent years.
As always, it was a hoot and I loved it, from the buskers to the paid acts to the general atmosphere. Denititely something to put on your "must-do" list.

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Tamworth NSW, Australia.

The French restaurant, Le Pruneau, where we enjoyed a very appetising dinner, hosts a small organic market once a week on its premises. Some of the herbs are grown on site and others sourced from local growers.

Apparently it is very popular with the locals so come along....look around ....have a chat...you can always stop for a coffee or lunch.

Every Saturday

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Of course, there’s so much happening on the streets of Tamworth during Country Music Week it beggars description: from police towing junior down the street behind a golf cart, to an indian doing hair jobs, to scantily clad girls in a duo, to all manner of small children strutting all levels of talent on all types of instruments, to my favourite buskers the Graveyard Train (one of their instruments was a hammer and chain), to snake handlers and, well, I’ll just type etc. here!

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I know how it feels to see your motorhome go up in smoke, literally; all your dreams evaporating before you in a pall of black, vibrant spiralling fumes. A holocaust of rippling flames beneath, throwing the inky mess skywards, taking your memories and worldly goods and turning them into a charred remnant.
Rosemarie noticed it first. We were several blocks away and the ebony spume clearly indicated there was a problem. My instant thoughts were of the motorhome. I recalled how, decades ago, I had been taking my then wife to work and, from a position of 10 kilometres away, we had joked that it might be the factory going up in smoke. 15 minutes later we were in awe of just that happening as the multi-storey building disappeared forever in a ferocious fire that gutted the premises.
Now I was running. In hindsight I don’t know why. There’s a vain hope that you might be able to save something; anything, from that inferno; but you also know, deep down, that it’s a waste of time and that you’re really racing to see a hopefully once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I was making good time, past the roundabout and onwards. The flashing lights of the police cars were dancing through the leaves of the lower branches of the trees. Sirens of more approaching vehicles pierced my ears. Fear gripped my stomach.
I’d had more than my share of disasters with the motorhome; this would make them all pale into insignificance.
I reached another intersection and skipped between cars in my dash. The next vision gave me a vestige of hope. Was that the top of my motorhome I could see in front of the pall?
Indeed it was and, as I got closer, I could make out the bikes on the back. Perhaps it wasn’t my vehicle after all. Perhaps my prized possession was still intact. Perhaps became reality as I could now see beyond and ascertain that the problem lay some way beyond my Winnebago.
Relief flooded my every pore but I raced on; driven now not by fear but by curiosity. A small crowd had gathered; people lined the grassy knoll and police guided the traffic away from the disaster.
I remember being amazed at how they didn’t get the people further back because it was, in fact, a motorhome going up in smoke and my first thought was gas cylinder explosions.
Talking later, no-one could ever recall a motorhome going up in smoke in Tamworth yet only the previous night two elderly people had been dragged out of their campervan as a dog alerted everyone to their predicament and they were saved before three gas bottles blew up and their transport disintegrated before their eyes.
Luckily, this was daytime and no-one was on board but the heat from the flames could be keenly felt from where I was now raising my camera, along with several other people armed with happy snappers and mobile phones.
Within one minute the fire trucks arrived and had their hoses out. The water literally blasted through what was left of the frame and within half a minute it was only steam that drifted skywards from the melted remnants.
One couldn’t help but reflect just what it is that makes it such an inferno. That a combination of plastics, wood and materials could create such a scene almost beggared belief.
The crowd, sensing it was over, drifted quickly away, eager to tell their friends or whoever would listen about their recent unique experience. A nameless owner’s grief would be lost in the telling of the story of the fire but I knew that I, for one, had known, however briefly, just how it felt.
A couple were about to have dinner when it caught fire and the male had his back flash burnt while the lady was only shocked.
Pic 2 was used by the local press

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Entering from the south on Goonoo Goonoo (pronounced gunny ganoo) Road, it's hard not to notice the big thing on your left.
Fairly obviously it's a monument to the country music festival though it arrived many years after the festival began.
Most tourists get their picture taken beside it, so don't feel embarrassed, the locals are used to it.
Next year will be the 39th Country Music Festival. It's come such a long way.

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The John Oxley Lookout is always worth a visit. Over the years I have come here and witnesed the huge changes in Tamworth.

Located just a few minutes from Tamworth’s CBD, it has spectacular views of the city and the Peel River plain extending to the Liverpool Ranges.

There are picnic tables, barbecue areas and toilets at the lookout.

You could walk up to the lookout but it will be a long walk - take your water, especially if it's summer!