G'day again Charlie Noble

I had a think about why we hear so much about Gundagai … and bullockies (bullock-team drivers - and I suspect that it is because Gundagai was a natural camping spot for bullock teams plying north to Sydney or south to Albury on the Murray River .. and even on to Melbourne. Gundagai was built where the main southern road from Sydney, what is now laughingly called the Hume Highway, crossed the Murrumbidgee River, the second largest river in the state (and the largest is only just in the state - as it forms the border with Victoria ... but is totally claimed by New South Wales!).

Until 1867, there was no bridge and crossing was by ferry p- a daunting job for a bullock team … probably involving unloading the highest part of the load to lower the centre of gravity … and not upset the ferry. Bullock teams must have spent a long time camped in close proximity and the area became a centre of 'bullocky folklore' - a pretty robust animal! Here are a few items that cover the field, more or less:

Nine Miles From Gundagai

I'm used to punching bullock teams
Across the hills and plains.
I've teamed outback these forty years
In blazing droughts and rains.
I've lived a heap of trouble down
Without a blooming lie,
But I can't forget what happened me
Nine miles from Gundagai.

'Twas getting dark, the team got bogged,
The axle snapped in two,
I lost my matches and my pipe -
Oh, what was I to do?
The rain came on, 'twas bitter cold
And hungry too was I -
And the dog sat in the tucker box
Nine miles from Gundagai.

Some blokes I know have stacks of luck
No matter how they fall,
But there was I - lor, luvva duck,
No blessed luck at all:
I couldn't make a pot of tea
Nor get my trousers dry,
And the dog sat in the tucker box
Nine miles from Gundagai.

I can forgive the blinking team,
I can forgive the rain:
I can forgive the dark and cold
And go through it again:
I can forgive my rotten luck,
But hang me till I die -
I can't forgive that blooming dog
Nine miles from Gundagai.

This is the text published in Singabout, volume 2, number 4, 1958, p. 15. The page appears to be based on a Bushwhacker Broadside, one of the Bush Music Club's series of songs, with music and illustrations. It may have been trimmed and rearranged to fit the page. There is no supporting text and I presume the editor, John Meredith, expected this to be taken as a "standard", needing no explanation.

I am interested to note that the verses 2 and 3 have it that " … the dog sat in the tucker box …", not on it. This suggests to me shorthand for the fact that singers often slipped in the missing 'h' and made it that " … the dog shat in the tucker box …". After all, the last verse is a litany of the things this bullocky can forgive … but not the blooming (bloody!) dog.

It should be noted that the name and address of the Assistant Editor appears on the back of this magazine as the publisher; that is, the person authorised to publish. Back in 1958, this was granted after applying, not to the State or Federal Government, but to the British Government - in the person of the Australian representative of the Colonial Secretary's Department - and paying a fee of £5. The right was not absolute and the licence could be revoked if the Government - or the British Government - didn't like something that you had printed.

This is probably a fragment from a genuine bullock-drivers' version … and it has certainly been bowdlerised in the collection, collation and publication. Bullockies were never noted for their gentle language!

Bullocky Bill
Anon.

As I came down Talbingo Hill
I heard a maiden cry.
"There's goes old Bill the Bullocky
He's bound for Gundagai!'

A better poor old beggar
Never cracked an honest crust,
A tougher poor old beggar
Never drug a whip through dust.

His team got bogged on the Five-mile Creek,
Bill lashed and swore and cried,
If Nobbie don't get me out of this
I'll tattoo his bloody hide."

But Nobbie strained and broke the yoke
And poked out the leader's eye,
Then the dog sat on the tucker-box
Five miles from Gundagai.

"The history of this song is discussed in a pamphlet printed by the Gundagai Independent (Gundagai, New South Wales), in which it is said to be fragments of a lost original pieced together by Tom Kinnane, an Independent reporter. Later versions and variations exist, but the full original has not yet been recovered." (Note from the bookOld Bush Songs)
"
From Old Bush Songs, edited by Douglas Stewart and Nancy Keesing, Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1957 et seq, p128. This is an expanded version of the collection of popular songs collected and edited by 'Banjo' Paterson and published by Angus & Robertson in 1905. Unfortunately, the text does not indicate which items come from the older book and which are from Stewart & Keesing's researches. I need to get hold of a copy of the original book.



This is just for the interest - rather more "learned" kind of bullocky … resorts to lawyers, not fists and boots! However, it gives some idea of the territory and the travelling times before the bridge (and the great flood of 1852).

The Way to Gundagai

Charles MacAlister

Oh, boys, you've heard of Gundagai - to see that town I meant;
And so, upon the southern road towards Gundagai I went.
At Sydney town with merchandise I loaded up my dray,
And signed to get to Gundagai in three weeks to a day:
But keep to that agreement it was in vain to try,
When in the rains of forty-nine I left for Gundagai.

To view the Murrumbidgee banks I had made up my mind,
So bid good-bye to all my friends, and left them far behind;
And by and by I camped a night at Jugiong so green:
"A pretty place - but Gundagai's a far more pretty scene"-
That was what the people said as they came passing by,
When we camped at "Sugar" O'Brien's Creek, two miles from Gundagai.

But when I got to Gundagai, so far, and far away,
My Mr Henry Turnbull he just refused to pay
He said. "I've missed the races here, and all because of you,
I will not pay a halfpenny, you're three days overdue."
"Well, then, Mr Turnbull, you're a paltry rogue," said I,
As homeward bound I started from the town of Gundagai.

When next the spires of Goulburn town most joyfully I hailed,
To Mr Walsh, the lawyer there, the man who never failed,
I took my tale of injury, and Mr Walsh full soon
Made Mr Henry Turnbull sing quite another tune;
For Mr Walsh "adduced the Law", and thus the foe at bay,
Alias Henry Turnbull, made haste his debt to pay.
And now a moral I would add - let Trader never try
To "sharp" an honest teamster on the road to Gundagai.

From MacAlister's Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South. MacAlister says the song was based on fact and that "it had a slight 'vogue' among the carriers on the main southern road for some years".


This is the only one many people have seen. Jack Moses was a lovely old bloke, keen on Australia … but he wrote very tame things for children … and they must have appealed to politicians! This is the justification for the kitschy statue of the faithful dog, guarding his master's tucker box (food supply) - but note that not even Jack Moses came up with that story … probably the Gundagai kindergarten teacher!

This comes from Jack Moses' poetry collection of the same name.

Nine Miles from Gundagai
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 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.

Enjoy!

Regards
Bob Bolton