NSW Police are on the hunt for the vandals who ripped Gundagai’s fabled Dog on the Tuckerbox statue from its base, an act which might be the stupidest, least rewarding crime committed in Australian history.
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ABC reports authorities are chasing a man and a woman who allegedly pushed the bronze statue from its base and sent it crashing into a wishing well below, seriously damaging the longstanding landmark.
https://twitter.com/nswpolice/status/1155541401062428673
Speaking to theSydney Morning Herald, the site’s current leaseholder Denny Allnutt said “The dog’s ears have broken off and the historic old wishing well, made of fragile sandstone, has been damaged; the dog can be repaired, but the well can’t be.”
The community is in shock regarding the incident, Allnutt added.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Av6gUgYRF/
The Dog on the Tuckerbox was erected in 1932 in honour of an old folk poem which described the hardships of a bullock team leader transporting supplies to Gundagai.
Iterations of the poem, first from Bowyang Yorke in the 1850s and then by Jack Moses in the 1920s, describe ‘Bullocky Bill‘ slogging through rough terrain before his dog sat on the tuckerbox, presumably ruining his food.
As if those poems about a bastard mongrel weren’t enough, a later rendition made the inference even clearer. Per the tourist landmark’s own documents:
Some blokes I know have stacks of luck, no matter where they fall,
But there was I, Lord love a duck, no bloody luck at all.
I couldn’t heat a pot of tea or keep me trousers dry,
And me dog shat in me tucker-box five miles from Gundagai.
To recap: some gronks allegedly decided to ruin a monument to a shitty dog to get their kicks. It wasn’t even a ‘Big’ thing, like the Big Banana or the Big Prawn. Just a bronze statue.
Anyway, the statue’s ears have been recovered, and work will soon be underway to restore the thing to its original glory.
