‘Dog on the Tucker Box’

‘Dog on the Tucker Box’ is a quick wc I submitted in a wc group to complement and extend the range of the better known and more obvious representations being highlighted to a ‘Monumental Challenge’. It is an iconic Aussie monument dedicated to the pioneers and bullockies whose original tracks through the bush opened up this fledgling country and led to the future highways and byways. It is located at Snake Gully, approximately 5 miles from Gundagai in New South Wales. The inspiration for this statue is traced back to a doggerel poem ‘Bullocky Bill’ anonymously published by ‘Bowyang York’ in 1857. The poem humorously describes a series of misfortunes faced by a bullock driver, culminating in being bogged to the axles on the wet black soil plains with his usually willing assistant bullock encourager retreating to the safest spot in the outfit (on the Tucker box strapped to the underside of the bed of the wagon’s tray) to escape the chaos and mayhem of the driver trying to encourage the team to pull harder to extradite the wagon and its’ load from the boggy mire. Cheers