And the dog shat in the tuckerbox

'Twas gettin' dark, the team got bogged,
The axle snapped in two
I lost me matches and me pipe,
Now what was I to do?
The rains come down, 'twas bitter cold,
And hungry too was I
And the dog shat in the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai ...

1932 Australian Prime Minister Joseph Lyons unveiled the statue of the Dog on the Tuckerbox, near Gundagai, New South Wales, at the point where O'Brien's Creek crosses the main Gundagai Road, the site of an old time bullockies' camping-ground. And thereby hangs a tale ...

The “dog that shat in the tuckerbox" is a famous Australian tale and immortalised in an old folk song, possibly penned by someone who called himself 'Bowyang Yorke', but amended ("the dog sat on the tuckerbox") and brought to wider attention by Jack Moses, one of Henry Lawson's close mates, fellow pranksters and bards. Lawson and Moses probably would have been drinking mates, too, if Moses, although a wine salesman, were not a teetotaller – something no one could accuse Henry of being.

Jack O'Hagan wrote a hit 'Dog on Tuckerbox' song based on the bowderlised lyrics. 'Tucker', by the way, is an obsolescent Australianism for food ...

Tagged: australia, folklore, folk+music, australian, henry+lawson, gundagai