Gundagai issues nationwide call to name Dog on the Tuckerbox's pups

The Dog on the Tuckerbox – known locally around Gundagai as ‘Lucy’ – has delivered a litter of three pups and the call has gone out across Australia to name the trio.

Some would say that at age 89, Lucy is a bit long in the tooth for motherhood, but this litter is just the start of something quite new for Gundagai.

Hatched by the extremely innovative and hardworking Gundagai Main Street Art & Stories Committee, the hand-forged bronze sculptures establish a connection between the town and Lucy, who sits five miles (or 8km) north of Gundagai at Snake Gully.

Miriam Crane is the town’s tourism and economic development officer and she tells Region Media the Dog on the Tuckerbox always attracts interest and questions from visitors to Gundagai, rousing some locals to campaign for it to be relocated into the town.

“We get asked a lot about the dog in town and there’s been lots of talk about moving it, so the idea was we’d have the puppies in town and there would be a connection to the Dog on the Tuckerbox,” says Miriam.

The pups will adorn the town’s streetscape in a variety of poses reflective of the unique and small rural community.

One dog is sitting waiting for his master outside Lotts Family Hotel; another is chewing on a newspaper outside FoodWorks and Local Liquor Gundagai; and the third is enjoying a string of sausages on the path outside Smarts-Gundagai Butchery.

They have been created by sculptor Darien Pullen, who also completed the town’s central monument ‘The Great Rescue of 1852’ which recognises the heroic actions of a number of Wiradjuri men – including Yarri and Jacky Jacky – in saving many of the Gundagai townsfolk during the great flood of 1853.

“He [Darien] did a fabulous job with that, so we commissioned him again,” says Miriam.

The project has been funded by the NSW Government as part of Gundagai’s main street upgrade and beautification projects.

The plan is for more dogs to join their mates in years to come.

“If anyone has any ideas for poses, please let us know,” adds Miriam.

But for now, it’s puppy names Gundagai is seeking and Miriam says this is a nationwide call, with the competition already having been promoted into Canberra and Sydney, and as far north as Darwin.

“We think The Dog on the Tuckerbox is more of a national icon rather than a local icon, and certainly that’s been our experience with other things that have happened with the dog,” says Miriam.

“There’s a lot of interest from everyone in Australia.”

The pup-naming competition closes on Friday, 12 November 2021, with the winning names to be announced by Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council Mayor Abb McAllister at the Hair of the Dog Day, held at Gundagai Showground on 13 November.

The Hair of the Dog Day is a recovery event that follows the legendary annual Snake Gully Cup day on 12 November, both of which offer a full TAB race day program.

Submissions are already flowing in for pup names, says Miriam.

People wishing to submit names for consideration can do so by clicking here. You can also see more of Darien Pullen’s work here.

If you’re headed to Gundagai, go visit Lucy and use the new ‘selfie tuckerbox’ that was installed nearby last year so your dog can be immortalised, too.