For 42 years Noel and Dawn Smith have been making sure the statues are looking their best on Australian country music’s night of nights.

They spend hours on each trophy – lacquering, checking and polishing each by hand.

When the awards started, Mr Smith helped John “Mr Hoedown” Minson to make them, shaping the wooden bases.

“I worked with 2TM and their network from day one,” he said.

The couple now do all the preparation work on the trophies from making the bases, including polishing and spraying them, mounting the guitars on them and polishing them, compiling the names of the winners and making sure everything is spelled correctly, organising the engraving of the plaques and mounting them and ensuring they’re ready for the winners.

“From the start, I’ve liked doing them,” Mr Smith said.

The woodworker isn’t sure how many he has made over the years, but it’s more than 500, with more than 25 to be presented this year. He’s even got one in his display cabinet. 

Mr Smith said it felt “really nice” when he saw his trophies presented to the artists.

Once they’re ready to go, Mrs Smith said they covered them up until they were taken away to be ready for the CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia and Mr Smith said they would never give the names of the winners away before the night.