Talk:Dog on the Tuckerbox

original poem - I recall differently
I remember learning about the poems inspiring the monument. However, the version I remember is that the original Bowyang Yorke poem (already a tale of woe and bad luck), did not have the dog protecting his masters lunch as everything else went wrong..."And the dog sat on the tuckerbox Nine miles from Gundagai". Instead, the dog decided to add to Bill the Bullocky's problems by adding a "h" to "sat" and 'relieving' himself on the tuckerbox. If I can ever find a published source to back this up, I'll add it it, but I thought I'd mention it here as a heads up... in case anyone else has seen this version of the story. -- saberwyn 03:11, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * A recent edit (reverted because lacking a reference) told a similar story:


 * "In Actuallity, The Dog On The Tuckerbox first emerged into Australian folklore through an anonymous teamster's song of uncertain date. A version of this song appeared in the Gundagai Times in the 1880s in the form of a poem called 'Bullocky Bill' which focuses on a hardy, stoic and unlucky teamster who gets bogged at Five Mile Creek (a teamsters' meeting place five miles from Gundagai). The yoke of his bullock team breaks and, to make matters worse, 'the dog shat on the tucker-box/ Five miles from Gundagai'. Salesman and balladeer Jack Moses wrote a cleaned-up version in the 1920s in which the dog sits on and guards the tuckerbox"


 * Cheers Nicolas1981 (talk) 12:36, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I have a 1950's Rose Series Postcard here, P.8953. The poem at rear is attributed to "By Unknown Bush Bard". repeated verbatim "Good morning mate, you are too late; The shearing is all over; Tie up your dog behind the log; Come in and have some dover.; For Nobby Jack has broke the yoke; Poked out the leader's eye; And the dog in the tuckerbox; Five miles from Gundagai". it goes on to say "That original doggerel was crude and vulgar, and verse after verse ran on depicting incidents along the track that leads to Gundagai." I am sure it is a well known fact that the original 1800's poems included "dog SHAT in/on the tuckerbox", it is to say that after everything else has gone wrong, the final straw is even your own dog does a shit on your food. Cleaned up for a 20th Century audience, now our dog is a faithful servant, valiantly protecting his Master's food to the death, not the turncoat mutt of yesteryear who added the final insult to his master after sensing that everything else had failed!

I have updated the leading paragraph because this bit of bush humour is the answer to the question "Why is the dog on the tuckerbox?" There is no mention of the dog loyally guarding the tuckerbox and none of the references mention the bullocky's death. haydn_likes_carpet (talk) 22:28, 11 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Just FYI, the Anthony B. Loveridge website can't be taken too literally. In particular there is emphasis given to a falsehood, with the entire opening paragraph on the fable elaborating a false etymology derived from the fictional acronym "S.H.I.T." (debunked by Snopes, and contrary to any reputable dictionary, including Wiktionary).
 * —DIV (49.199.98.166 (talk) 11:23, 19 December 2021 (UTC))
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Mythical dog
I checked the reference for "This legendary dog is seen in the shape of the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai and known as Mirriyolla by local Aboriginal people." , which does not mention Gundagai or the Murrumbidgee, but is about stories of Aboriginal Wommen from nearby Brungle, and uses the spelling 'Mirriyoola'. The citation makes no comment about the shape of the Murrumbidgee or other river being like a dog. Mirriyoola, (or Mirriola, Mirriuula, Mirrigana, Mirri, etc) is likely another term for bunyip and is widespread in Aboriginal lore. (Hosking and McNicol, record ‘mirriyoola’ as the Wiradjuri word for ghost dog).

Garyvines (talk) 23:39, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Wrong Perspective
Gary Vines, Aboriginal people have more than one name for landscape features. The common words are for everyday use, the others often 'shaded' words and meaning to do with high degree understanding. Mirriyola (mirri.juga), is the ghost dog so no wonder you cannot comprehend it. Try blinking. However, the river dog is online, put there by an Aboriginal Elder. It is nose to nose with the built dog. You need to get a more in tune perspective. In the Aboriginal world, relevant elements may not be immediately adjacent. Anyone who says that the river dog/built dog and the Coota Wiradjuri Windows dog are not the one and the same, is out of tune, badly. The mythical dog is very very real. He has a scientific persona too but western science was only invented in around the 1820s. Aboriginal people had science thousands of years pre western science though. Johneen Treanor Jones - Gundagai — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:3931:2D00:658E:623E:D090:8EF0 (talk) 23:22, 22 October 2017 (UTC)


 * File:Windows Explorer search puppy.png Wikipedia's article Talk pages are for discussing the article topic, not making guesses/assumptions about how much other people know/understand. If you are concerned that something is missing, then explain it clearly.  For instance, is the picture here what you meant about the Windows Dog?  If not, then you need to clarify your comments.
 * —DIV (49.199.98.166 (talk) 11:39, 19 December 2021 (UTC))

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Bullock team photo
Does anyone understand the Wikimedia Commons graphics file system? The "three shades of grey" photo of the bullock team at the unveiling of the monument in 1932 cleaned up quite nicely, and I was "apparently" successful in replacing the previous version (25kb to 38kb), but it looks identical to the earlier version and definitely not what I uploaded. I tried uploading the modified picture under a different name but it was rejected as being identical to an existing file, i.e. the one I had just added. Any ideas? Doug butler (talk) 23:35, 5 October 2019 (UTC)