Clevo & the Dog on the Tuckerbox

Howard · #1 21-01-10, 21:40

The story of the dog on the tucker box has been lost to time, however there are a few poems written about the subject that I will dig out & post, when I find my trusty Banjo Patterson book.
The story goes that a bullock team had been passing through Gundagai, and after setting up camp, went into town (or another camp). The dog stayed at camp, keeping guard of his tuckerbox. The driver never came back, they say he was killed, but the dog stayed, faithfully keeping guard, never letting anyone near the box, until its own death many years later.
True or not, I don't know, but that is the story to the best of my recollection.
Some say that this story sprung up after the famous poem, and the actual dog is a work of fiction. Whatever, It's not a bad yarn.

Howard · #2 21-01-10, 21:49

Sorry, it wasn't the Banjo! It was Jack Moses

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 tuckerbox, 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 tuckerbox 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 tuckerbox 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 tuckerbox, Nine miles from Gundagai.