Big Golden Guitar
Monument in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia

The Big Golden Guitar is a 12 metres (39 ft) tall sculpture located in Tamworth, New South Wales. One of the many "big" attractions that can be found around Australia, the monument is one of the best-known points of interest in New England.
It is also a major attraction during the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
History
The Golden Guitar was erected in front of the Longyard Hotel on Sydney Road in 1988. It was unveiled by the country music artist, Slim Dusty. Its location in Tamworth is symbolic of the city's recognition and celebration of Australian country music, and its artists.
An annual award ceremony takes place where miniature Golden Guitars are given as awards to artists and musicians in recognition of their achievements and contributions in the genre of country music. An estimated 3.6 million photographs have been taken of the site since its opening.
In 2018, the Tamworth Visitor Information Centre at the Big Golden Guitar Tourist Centre had 117,000 visitors, and the Council intends to increase visitor numbers. Recent additions to the site include the National Guitar Museum (hosting a wide collection af authentic and replica guitars of famous artists), along with a cafe for the tourists.
“Big Golden Guitar” enters the record as monument in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Golden, Guitar and Monument can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Big Golden Guitar” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Golden, Guitar and Monument provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5579532. The first chronological checks are 1988 and 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Big Golden Guitar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.