The Dog on the Tuckerbox is an Australian monument dedicated to the pioneers of Gundagai.
 |
| Dog on the Tuckerbox monument |
According to the Commemorative Plaque, "The Dog on the Tuckerbox memorial is supposedly based on an incident that occurred to a teamster named Bill the Bullocky on the road to Gundagai in the 1850s. While leading his bullock team and wagon across a creek five or nine miles from Gundagai, Bill's wagon became hopelessly bogged in the creek. Trying to drag the wagon out of the bog, one of his bullocks then broke the wagon's yoke. Thereupon, Bill gave up the job and went to have his lunch. But here, to top off his run of bad luck, he found his dog sitting - or worse - on his tuckerbox. The other bullockies thought the incident a great joke and one of them supposedly wrote a poem about it. In several versions, the poem spread the story of Bill's bad luck far and wide."
The original poem was considered inappropriate (the dog spoiling the food inside the tuckerbox).
Good morning mate, you are too late,
The shearing is all over,
Tie up your dog behind the log
Come in and have some dover.
For Nobby Jack has broke the yoke,
Poked out the leader’s eye
and the dog shat in the tuckerbox,
Five miles from Gundagai.
The complete poem was not found till years later when someone was able to piece it together. According to Internet Archive, the 'original' (below) "was printed at the Gundagai Times and would have been little different to that which was penned more than seventy five years before. - the author was Anonymous, but another reference I found accredited these words to a 'Bowyang Yorke' in 1850. - [the words beggar and bloody] were omitted from the booklet."
As I was coming down Conroy's Gap
I heard a maiden cry,
"There goes Bill the Bullocky,
He's bound for Gundagai.
A better poor old beggar
Never earnt an honest crust,
A better poor old beggar
Never drug a whip through dust."
His team got bogged at the Five Mile Creek,
Bill lashed and swore and cried,
"If Nobby don't get me out of this,
I'll tattoo his bloody hide."
But Nobby strained and broke the yoke,
And poked out the leader's eye,
Then the dog sat on the Tuckerbox
Five miles from Gundagai.
In the 1920s, a cleaned-up version of the poem titled Nine Miles from Gundagai (it is unsure why it was named this) was written by Jack Moses, a salesman and balladeer. This poem became very popular and was the inspiration of the monument.
I've done my share of shearing sheep,
Of droving and all that,
And bogged a bullock-team as well,
On a Murrumbidgee flat.
I've seen the bullock stretch and strain,
And blink his bleary eye,
And the dog sit on the tuckerbox,
Nine miles from Gundagai.
I've been jilted, jarred, and cross in love,
And sand-bagged in the dark,
Till if a mountain fell on me
I'd treat it as a lark.
It's when you've got your bullocks bogged
That's the time you flog and cry,
And the dog sits on the tuckerbox,
Nine miles from Gundagai.
We've all got our little troubles,
In life's hard, thorny way.
Some strike them in a motor car
And others in a dray.
But when your dog and bullocks strike,
It ain't no apple pie,
And the dog sat on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.
But that's all past and dead and gone,
And I've sold the team for meat,
And perhaps, some day where I was bogged,
There'll be an asphalt street,
The dog, ah! well he got a bait,
And thought he'd like to die,
So I buried him in the tuckerbox,
Nine miles from Gundagai.
 |
| 1926 statue |
The first monument was erected in 1926, nine miles from Gundagai. This was replaced in 1932 by the present statue that stands today, five miles north of Gundagai.
 |
| Dog on the Tuckerbox unveiling by the then Australian Prime Minister J.A. Lyons. |
A nationwide competition was held to obtain the inscription for the monument, and the winner was Brian Fitzpatrick of Sydney. The inscription says:
Earth's self upholds this monument
To conquerors who won her when
Wooing was dangerous, and now
Are gathered unto her again.
An annual Dog on the Tuckerbox festival has been celebrated each year since 1992, the 60th anniversary of the monument.
