Country music radio, TV and film. Slim Dusty (1927–2003) was known as the "King of Australian Country Music" and helped to popularise the Australian bush ballad. His successful career spanned almost six decades, and his 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, and with over seven million record sales in Australia he is the most successful artist in Australian musical history. Dusty recorded and released his one-hundredth album in the year 2000 and was given the honour of singing "Waltzing Matilda" in the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Dusty's
Australian country music Love You and Tenterfield Saddler by Australian singer-songwriter Peter Allen as well as country classics such as "Banks of the Ohio" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads". In 1992, The Country Music Association of Australia was launched in Tamworth, New South Wales to encourage, develop and promote Australian Country Music. Slim Dusty was its first Chairman, John Williamson its Vice Chairman, Joy McKean was Treasurer, Max Ellis Secretary and Phil Matthews Public Officer. After negotiations, Tamworth's Radio 2TM agreed to hand over responsibility for the Golden Guitar Awards to the new body. In recent years, country music has consolidated its