It has been a long road home for Gundagai's much-loved Dog on the Tuckerbox after the 87-year-old bronze statue was vandalised last month.

Key points:

• The Dog on the Tuckerbox has been returned to pride of place in Gundagai
• The statue has been repaired, recoloured and waxed after being vandalised 
• CCTV has been installed at the site, and a man will appear in court next month on property damage charges

 

During the attack the pooch was knocked from its sandstone plinth, lost an ear and sustained a number of scuffs and scratches.

The incident sparked outrage and disbelief across the country but today — after the work of more than a dozen people — the dog received a hero's welcome as it was returned to its pedestal at Snake Gully.

"Our old mate looks fantastic. She's come back in great order after her time at the health farm, shall we say," said Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council Mayor Abb McAlister.

"I reckon she would've barked and wagged her tail the whole way home."

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-17/dog-on-the-tuckerbox-returns-to-g...

 

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The story of the faithful dog is quite possibly a romanticized version. The refrain from the supposedly original verse about the dog was:

 

Then the dog sat on the Tucker Box
Nine miles from Gundagai

 

 

But it's been said that in the "actual" original, it wasn't "sat" that the dog did. (Think of a one-syllable word starting with "s" that rhymes with "sat" - consider the misfortunes that befall the bullocky - and think what other misfortune occurs to, in a manner of speaking, top it off.)

 

Verse and Song 

These lines of verse are part of the story penned by an unknown poet writing under the name of Bowyang Yorke and published in the Gundagai Times in the 1880s. A later version was written by Gundagai journalist and poet Jack Moses.

Both versions speak of a bullock team being bogged at a river crossing nine miles from Gundagai with the dog tenaciously "sitting" on the tuckerbox.

The story of the dog and the tuckerbox was enshrined in the song Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox (Five Miles from Gundagai) by Australian songwriter Jack O'Hagan who also wrote Along the Road to Gundagai and When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl from Gundagai. (O'Hagan had never been to Gundagai.)

1932 Unveiling 

The monument of the Dog on the Tuckerbox was unveiled in 1932 by the then Prime Minister of Australia, Joe Lyons, on the 103rd anniversary of Australian explorer Charles Sturt's 1829 crossing of the Riverina's Murrumbidgee River.

The monument was the creation of Gundagai stonemason Frank Rusconi, another of whose works, the Marble Masterpiece, is on display in town.

Gundagai, 386 kilometers from Sydney, lies along the Hume Highway which runs inland from Sydney to Melbourne.

Yorke's Lines 

Here is part of Bowyang Yorke's poem about Bullocky Bill:

 

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 nine 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 Tucker Box
Nine miles from Gundagai

 

Read more:

https://www.tripsavvy.com/the-dog-on-the-tuckerbox-1464302

 

But it's been said that in the "actual" original, it wasn't "sat" that the dog did. (Think of a one-syllable word starting with "s" that rhymes with "sat" - consider the misfortunes that befall the bullocky - and think what other misfortune occurs to, in a manner of speaking, top it off.)???

 

Gus: yes, our politicians have shat on our tuckerbox for a long time... Picture at top by Gus Leonisky...