Have made it to Tamworth and set up in the grounds of Paceway Tamworth, the old Tamworth Showgrounds. Some of the old showground infrastructure has been repurposed as storage and business areas. The camping grounds are well looked after and spacious.

We arrived late in the day and had to do a little shopping. The country music scene hits you pretty quickly in the nearby shops, a Tamvegas mural next to Woolies sets the vib for our three night stay.

Next morning we decided to have an intake of country music history and memorabilia. It is something like 25 years since we came here for the Tamworth Country Music Awards week, details of that visit are now a bit dim.

So, we started off at the Information Centre. This is the home of the Big Guitar, the wax museum and an extensive collection of guitars and photographs.

The wax museum is a roll call of icons starting from the early days of Australian Country music, like the 1920s thereabouts.

The displays though seem to freeze in the early 2000s with artists like John Williamson, Troy Cassar- Daley and Becky Cole. The last two still regularly perform. John Williamson has recently attempted to hang up his boots.

I remember seeing a younger Becky Cole perform when we here way back when.

The guitars are originals and replicas of numerous artists.

A number are also from overseas artists, including the Beatles. Very well done and the photographs a standout.

From the Information Centre we moved onto Tamworth’s main CBD street, Peel Street, and tracked down the brass (?) street sculptures of some of the country music icons.

The row of brass head sculptures, mostly of the same characters in the wax museum, in Bi Centennial Park was the next stop off. Very good setting for these works, complemented with a convenience block mural.

The small park containing a display of numerous artists hand prints in cement along with deteriorating name plates was less than exciting. Needs a little TLC.

It does strike you that the street art and the houses of memorabilia are frozen at about the year 2002! A generation ago, and many of the displays are of those from times well before then. Maybe an update of the last 25 years is needed to keep the vib going strong?

It was a very full morning of wandering around and we got back to the van for a late lunch and feet up in the sun. We have had great weather so far on this trip, clear sunny days. Chilly nights.