The Dog on the Tucker Box — Attraction in Gundagai

It's exactly what the name suggests. A statue of a dog on the tuckerbox. I couldn't see a reference to explain the significance of a dog sitting on a food box, an 1857 poem called Bullocky Bill by an anonymous writer. Apparently his dog kept sitting on the food box, ruining the contents. Next door is a souvenir and take away food place. On the other side is a cash only, freshly picked apples sales at a farm gate and across the little track is an antique seller.

This is the poem, Bullocky Bill.

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 tucker box Nine miles from Gundagai. I've been jilted, jarred and crossed 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 tucker box, 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 tucker box 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 tucker box, Nine miles...

Now there's a lot of confusion surrounding this particular monument. People sometimes think it's called "a bird on a pencil case", or even sometimes a "cat in a shoebox." But the primary features are a Dog which is on a tuckerbox, and a tuckerbox in which the dog is on. Now the dog is not "under" the tuckerbox, nor is it "in" the tuckerbox, it is in fact "on" the tuckerbox. The box itself is where one might put their tucker, but the problem here is that there's a dog on it. So if one wishes to retrieve the tucker from the tuckerbox, the dog must not be on the tucker box. Hence why this particular case can cause distress as the dog is on the tuckerbox, thus preventing an individual from retriviving the tucker from the tuckerbox. Over the years there have been a lot of theories that the dog may be "in" the tuckerbag, but this is categorically false, as the "jumbuck" is in the tuckerbag not the dog. This is because it can be proven without a doubt that the dog is actually on the tuckerbox. Now people believe that at certain times of the day the dog can be seen "by" the tuckerbox, but this is an old superstion derived from older times in which it was notes that the swagman was "by" the billabong.

Pretty convenient rest stop. Antique store has awesome...

Dog on a Tucker Box Gundagai area is an interesting place with a couple of historical Homestead ruins and a couple of old horse draw wagons also so here!

As you turn off the Hume highway near the petrol station, the small road heading to the Tuckerbox, there's road works being done at the moment being (February 2024)...

Unfortunately for us the souvenir / gift store was closed and also I will add there is some tables seating area if you need a rest from driving...

This part below is a copy from the sign in front of the dog statue of most part:

Dog on the Tuckerbox memorial is supposedly based on an incident that occurred to a teamster named Bill the Bullock on the road to Gundagai in the 1850s. While leading his bullocks 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 and 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 supposeally wrote a...