Born Kempsey, 13th June. Named David Gordon Kirkpatrick. Brought up nearby at a Nulla Nulla Creek dairy farm.

Aged 10, writes first song, The Way The Cowboy Dies.

Calls himself Slim Dusty.

Gate-crashes Radio 2KM Kempsey. Makes his first recording at own expense... Song For The Aussies and My Final Song.

Still living at Nulla Nulla Creek, writes his first country music classic When The Rain Tumbles Down In July.

Signs first recording contract with the Columbia Graphophone Co. for the Regal Zonophone label. Records six titles including When The Rain Tumbles Down In July.

Part-time show business career. Intermittent radio, hall show and tent show appearances.

Marries country singer-songwriter Joy McKean.

Daughter Anne Kirkpatrick born.

Commences full-time show business career. Launches first travelling Slim Dusty Show.

Establishes partnership with showman Frankie Foster, which established the Slim Dusty Show as a large tent show on the showground circuit.

Records A Pub With No Beer -- at that time the biggest selling record ever by an Australian.

Son David Kirkpatrick born. Received Australia's first Gold record, for A Pub With No Beer.

Releases first LP album Slim Dusty Sings.

Ends showground partnership with Frankie Foster.

Establishes annual round Australia Slim Dusty tour - a 30,000 mile, 10 month journey.

First tour outside Australia, in New Zealand, with New Zealand's Hamilton County Bluegrass Band. Also tours Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

Awarded an MBE for services to music.

Tamworth's first Australasian Country Music Awards. Awarded Best LP for Me And My Guitar, Best EP or single for Lights On The Hill. Joy wins Song of the Year, also for Lights On The Hill.

First Sydney Opera House performance (live recording of The Entertainer).

Daughter Anne wins Best Female Vocalist at Tamworth; Joy wins Song of the Year for Beat Of The Government Stroke with Tom Oliver. Slim elevated to the Roll of Renown.

Publishes best selling autobiography Walk a Country Mile. Identically titled album has achieved Platinum status in sales.

Records super hit Duncan, achieving Gold status.

Releases 50th album, The Golden Anniversary Album, reaching multi Platinum status in Australia.

Release of feature film, The Slim Dusty Movie. A video also released.

Trucks on the Track album achieves double award at Tamworth, Album of the Year and Top Selling Album.

In November, celebrates 40 years commercial recording with the one company, EMI Australia. Honoured at a 350 guest dinner attended by music industry figures and artists. EMI announces that Slim's latest album, Beer Drinking Songs Of Australia, had gone Gold in the first three weeks of release.

At Tamworth (Country Music Awards), truck album Neon City wins Album of the Year.

In Australia's Bicentennial Year, travels right round Australia at the head of the biggest country music show to tour the nation. Mt Bukaroo wins Heritage Award.

Heritage Award for We've Done Us Proud. Album G'day, G'day goes Gold. Records first duo album with daughter Anne.

Appears in Papua New Guinea as Australia's representative at the Southern Highlands Province's Independence Celebrations. Takes show right around Australia.

Releases double album Coming Home. Presented with special award acknowledging Slim as the "Artist of the Decade". Named an "Achiever of the Year" by the Australia Day Council.

Two Singers, One Song duo album awarded Top Selling at Tamworth; Coming Home takes out Album of the Year. November 19 marks the 45th anniversary of Slim's first commercial recording When The Rain Tumbles Down In July (1946).

Involved in the formation of the Country Music Association of Australia holding the position of Chairman since its inception. Recorded top selling video Live Into The Nineties.

Celebrates 50th anniversary of continuous recording in Australia. As guest of Aboriginal band, Yothu Yindi, Slim and his band tour the Northern Territory and Bathurst Island.

Marks 40 years since Slim Dusty and Joy McKean established their touring Slim Dusty Show. Wins Golden Guitar with Lee Kernaghan for Vocal Group or Duo of the Year with Leave Him In The Longyard. Tours New Zealand extensively for the first time in many years. Presented with a double Platinum award for sales in excess of 20,000 video cassettes for Slim Dusty - Live Into The Nineties and a Platinum award for sales in excess of 10,000 video cassettes for Slim Dusty - Across Australia.

On January 20, the Slim Dusty Exhibition opens at the Australian Country Music Foundation museum in Tamworth. A professionally designed display of memorabilia collected by Slim and Joy, a vivid history of country music performing and recording in Australia over a long span of time. (Exhibition continues as the centrepiece of the ACMF's Australian Country Music Hall of Fame.)

Completes his 91st album and an accompanying long-form Video recording, both aptly titled 91 Over 50, commemorating Slim's 50th Year with EMI Australia. Re-records his 1980 #1 Australian hit Duncan with Rolf Harris, the first time the two have recorded together.

Awarded Golden Guitars for Bush Ballad of the Year and Heritage Song of the Year. Released album A Time to Remember of war-time favourites, launched at the historic Rocks on Sydney's waterfront. Part royalties from this album went to Legacy. In May, crossed the Nullarbor Plain in two Kenworth roadtrains from Thompson's Transport collecting material for his next truck album. Opened the Kempsey exhibition "Made on the Macleay" (his home district). July saw the release of Slim's second autobiography Another Day, Another Town, and the recording of Makin' A Mile the truck album released in October this year. Appeared on the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville (15th August) by special invitation from the Country Music Association of America to mark his 50 years of commercial recording for the one company. On his return to Australia, received the Special Achievement Award from the Australasian Record Industry Association at the ARIA Awards.

Awarded another Golden Guitar, for Bush Ballad of the Year (Lady is a Truckie). At the Tamworth CM Festival, made over 50 appearances and interviews in 10 days, and unveiled the Stan Coster plaque at Manilla. In February, voted a National Living Treasure by the public, a very special honour. At the APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) Awards in May, awarded the Ted Albert Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Not So Dusty tribute album released in June... recordings of Slim's songs by his peers in the music industry (including a number of rock and folk artists and bands). Besides touring during the year, Slim visited his home town of Kempsey where the Country Music Heritage Festival committee awarded him the Living Legend Award and he recorded much video footage around his old home in Nulla Nulla Creek. In September, Slim, Joy and the Travelling Country Band travelled to the Solomon Islands to participate in the opening celebrations of the Gold Ridge gold mine outside Honiara. The closing open air concert was attended by as many as 30,000 islanders. Altogether, a varied and satisfying year for Slim.

For only the second time in the history of the Australasian Country Music Awards, Slim missed being in Tamworth due to sudden and urgent cardiac surgery early in January. He made a very good recovery and was filming in March for the BBC from Wales, working on two albums and sitting for portrait painter Judy Cassab. Big surprise to discover that he was working on his 99th album, which was finally called '99 and released late this year. Named "Father of the Year" by the NSW Council, and in September, named the inaugural "Senior Australian of the Year" by the Commonwealth Government.

At the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January, Slim was awarded the Australian Bush Laureate Awards Golden Gumleaf Heritage Award for his contribution to upholding the heritage of bush balladry and poetry over the years and saw the launch of personalised postage stamps with his image on a special issue.

After 54 years with EMI Music and with absolutely no sign of slowing down, Slim heads back into his home studio to record his 100th album ’Äì Looking Forward, Looking Back. The album is released in July and shoots straight to the top of the ARIA charts debuting at #5 and surpassing Gold status in five weeks.

The album was released just four weeks after a giant tribute concert to Slim (Hats Off To Slim) in Tamworth, Country Music Capital, on the Saturday of the June long weekend organised and staged by the CMAA.

Two weeks after that, "the country music industry" paid tribute to Slim at a special function in Sydney's Theatre Royal organised by EMI, following which Channel 9 rolled in the production crew for a special one hour Slim Dusty - "This Is Your Life" - the second time Slim has starred in the show (the first was in 1974).

In September, Looking Forward, Looking Back surpassed the 100,000 sales mark and on Sunday, October 1, Slim was the final act at the Closing Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Preceded by a star-studded programme of entertainers, Slim walked on to stage just prior to the official announcement of the closure leading a jam-packed audience of 100,000 plus spectators in a rousing rendition of Waltzing Matilda! A fitting end to the Games, a fitting tribute to Australia, a fitting statement for Australian country music!

In October, Slim attends the ARIA Awards and, in front of a standing ovation, is presented with an ARIA Special Achievement Award.

In November Slim also wraps up a national 65 date sold out tour.    

 

At the first Country Music Awards of the 21st Century, Slim wins three Golden Guitars from his milestone 100th album Looking Forward Looking Back, taking his tally to 34. The album is certified Platinum.

The Australian country music industry pays a unique tribute voting unanimously to make Slim Honorary President For Life of the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA).

Australia Post pays national tribute by naming Slim among its Legends stamp series. In February, work begins on album 101 (and beyond). In August, Slim performs with fellow "national treasures" Richard Tognetti and Roger Woodward at a National Trust dinner in the Sydney Town Hall to honour Australia's living national treasures and to raise funds for the work of the Trust.

Looking Forward Looking Back wins the 2001 ARIA Award for Best Country Album.

Fund-raising commences in earnest in Kempsey for a Slim Dusty Heritage Centre. Two new albums released... West Of Winton and The Men From Nulla Nulla with his mate Shorty Ranger. Towards the end of the year, Slim undergoes successful surgery to remove a kidney.

In early January, Slim heads back into the studio with daughter Anne Kirkpatrick and starts what will become Travellin' Still... Always Will.

He kicks off his performance year with a sold out family concert in Tamworth's famous Town Hall and his 35th Golden Guitar for West Of Winton (Bush Ballad of the Year) at the 30th Anniversary Toyota Golden Guitar Awards. The song, written by Ray Rose, is the title track to the album which was recorded some years ago but put on hold while 99 and the 100th album Looking Forward Looking Back were released. Slim performed Lights On The Hill as part of the finale to the Awards presentation which went to air the same night Australia-wide on the Seven and Prime television networks. Lights On The Hill, written by Joy McKean, won the very first Golden Guitar ever presented, for Song of the Year, in 1973.

In September, Slim is awarded an Honorary Degree in Music from the Perth University.

In November, The Very Best Of is released on DVD (this is Slim's first DVD release).

Travellin' Still... Always Will is certified Gold.