Nine Miles From Gundagia - Jack Moses

[Paul]

NINE MILES FROM GUNDAGAI


I've done my share of shearing sheep,
Of droving and all that'
And bogged a bullock-team as well,
On the Murrumbidgee flat,
I've seen a bullock stretch and strain,
And blink his weary eye,
And the dog sits 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 from Gundagai.

~Jack Moses~

[Paul]

The Dog on the Tuckerbox is an Australian icon. Built as a monument to our pioneers in 1932, the dog has been visited by thousands of travellers on the Hume Highway.

It stands on the site of the old Five Mile Inn, built by Joseph Carberry in 1851. The ruins of that establishment can still be seen when you visit the Dog.

In 1932, the town was faced with the problem of raising much needed funds for the local hospital. A committee was formed and came up with the idea of a week of festivities aimed at bringing as many people as possible into the town.

There were already in existence a great many poems and songs about Gundagai. Jack Moses, a wine salesman, had written a poem called "Nine Miles from Gundagai" and his calling card was a caricature of a popular postcard featuring the Dog on the Tuckerbox from the poem "Bill the Bullocky" by Bowyang Yorke. These postcards were sold in their thousands as a souvenir of Gundagai, and so the committee decided that would be an eye-catching monument.

After much heated discussion, it was decided that the monument would be a memorial to the pioneers, and it was opened on the 103rd anniversary of Captain Sturt's crossing of the Murrumbidgee River on his journey of exploration in 1829.

Almost 5000 people turned up to see the then Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Lyons, unveil the monument built from a model by Mr. Frank Rusconi, the town's monumental mason (see Masterpiece in Marble). The inscription on the base of the monument says:

"Earths self upholds this monument to conquerors who won her when the wooing was dangerous, and are now gathered unto her again."

In modern times, we celebrate the Dog's birthday with a weekend of festivities in November each year.