The True Story of Gundagai’s Dog on the Tuckerbox

Tourists, Truth, and the Insouciance of Souvenirs

in Journeys
Author:
Richard White University of Sydney richard.white@sydney.edu.au

Search for other papers by Richard White in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/jys.2016.170207
Keywords:
authenticity and tourism; “circle of representation”; “dog on the tuckerbox”; folklore; Gundagai; pioneer monuments; souvenirs; tourist attractions
Restricted access
USD  $22.00
Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

Gundagai’s statue of the Dog on the Tuckerbox, about half way between Melbourne and Sydney, was arguably Australia’s most popular purpose-built tourist attraction for half a century from its unveiling in 1932. This article uses the monument as a case study to consider the ways in which the past is visualized as it is turned into tourism. In what has been called the “circle of representation,” tourists’ understandings of the places they visit are shaped by the preconceptions created by pre-existing media representations through art, postcards, photography, posters, tourist brochures, souvenirs, and so on. In the case of the Dog on the Tuckerbox, the expurgated language of souvenirs, as they multiplied through the twentieth century, came to displace oral dissemination of earlier more vulgar meanings attached to the original story that was the inspiration for the monument.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Journeys

The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing

Cover Journeys
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
22
Keywords:
authenticity and tourism; “circle of representation”; “dog on the tuckerbox”; folklore; Gundagai; pioneer monuments; souvenirs; tourist attractions
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2016
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2016
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2016

  • Allnutt, Denny. 2007. 75th Birthday of The Dog on the Tuckerbox, Gundagai, Sunday 18 November 2007. Albury: Speciality Press.

  • Anderson, Hugh. 2001. “That Bloody Dog at Gundagai: A Sketch of the Making of Traditions in Australia.” Australian Folklore 16: 164–179.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Back to Gundagai. 1932. Back to Gundagai: Official Souvenir and Programme, 23rd to 30th Nov., 1932. Sydney: Journey Graph Publicity Co.

  • Chisholm, Alec H., ed. 1958. The Australian Encyclopaedia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

  • Butcher, A.C. 1956. Gundagai, Its History Verse and Song. Gundagai: n.p.

  • Butcher, Cliff. 2002. Gundagai: A Track Winding Back. Gundagai: A.C. Butcher.

  • Bytes Daily Blog Spot. 2010. “Gundagai and a Dog Sitting on a Tuckerbox.” http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/gundagai-and-dog-sitting-on-tuckerbox.html (accessed 1 December 2015).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Carroll, Brian. 1983. The Hume: Australia’s Highway of History: A Heritage Field Guide. Kenthurst, NSW: Kangaroo Press.

  • Church, Fran, ed. [1980] 1991. Explore Australia: The Complete Touring Companion. Melbourne: Viking O’Neil.

  • Coleman, Peter. [1960] 2000. Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition: The Rise and Fall of Literary Censorship in Australia. Sydney: Duffy & Snellgrove.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Doyle, Helen. 1998. “The Dog on the Tuckerbox.” P. 192 in The Oxford Companion to Australian History in ed. Graeme Davison, John Hirst, and Stuart Macintyre. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Fahey, Warren. 2015. “Classic Bush Verse: Jack Moses.” http://warrenfahey.com/audio/bush_poetry-moses.htm (accessed 1 December 2015)

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gaunt, Albert. [1944] 1979. “A History of Gundagai.” MA thesis, Gundagai Historical Society.

  • Harper, Melissa. 2010. “Billy.” Pp. 82–89 in Symbols of Australia, ed. Melissa Harper and Richard White. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press and National Museum of Australia.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hirst, John. 1978. “The Pioneer Legend.” Australian Historical Studies 18, no. 71: 316–337.

  • Hutnyk, John. 1996. The Rumour of Calcutta: Tourism, Charity and the Poverty of Representation. London: Zed.

  • Irvine, Louise. 1988. Royal Doulton Series Ware. Vol. 4: Around the World, Flora and Fauna. London: R. Dennis.

  • Jenkins, Olivia. 2003. “Photography and Travel Brochures: The Circle of Representation.” Tourism Geographies 5, no. 3: 305–328.

  • Kean, Hilda. 2006. “Public History and Two Australian Dogs: Islay and the Dog on the Tuckerbox.” ACH: The Journal of the History of Culture in Australia no. 24–5: 1–25.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Loveridge, A.B. 2015. “The Dog on the Tuckerbox.” http://www.thedogonthetuckerbox.com/leather_stubby_holders_-_wraps (accessed 1 December 2015).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • MacCannell, Dean. [1976] 1989. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Schocken Books.

  • Martin, Toby. 2015. Yodelling Boundary Riders: Country Music in Australia since the 1920s. Melbourne: Lyrebird Press.

  • Meredith, John. 1967. “Along the Road to Gundagai—But How Many Miles?” Australian Tradition, January: 6–9.

  • Meredith, John. n.d. That Bloody Dog! Photograph and typed card, National Library of Australia, http//:nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an7497136–163 (accessed 1 December 2015).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Meredith, John, and Patricia Francis. 1956. “How Many Miles from Gundagai?” Bulletin, 18 April.

  • Mierendorff, Tess. 2011. “Going ‘Back to’: Celebrations of Past and Progress in 1920s Australia.” Paper presented at Australian Historical Association Conference, Launceston, Tas.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Moore, Nicole. 2012. The Censor’s Library. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

  • Moses, Jack. 1938. “Around the Tucker Box Nine Miles from Gundagai.” Application for Copyright, National Archives of Australia, A1336, 31652.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Moses, Jack, and Arthur Sterry. 1927. “Nine Miles from Gundagai or The Dog on the Tuckerbox.” Application for Copyright, National Archives of Australia, A1336, 16333.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Murphy, John. 2000. Imagining the Fifties: Private Sentiment and Political Culture in Menzies’ Australia. Sydney: Pluto.

  • Paine, Sandy. 2005. Hume Places: A Guide to their History and Attractions. Canberra: Ginninderra Press.

  • Prowse, Louise. 2015. “A Popular Past: Historical Identity and the Rural Ideal in Australian Country Towns, 1945–2000.” PhD diss., University of Sydney.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Reader’s Digest (Australia). 1993. Reader’s Digest Illustrated Guide to Australian Places. Sydney: Reader’s Digest.

  • Richmond, Mark. 1970. Hume Highway Melbourne to Sydney: Sun/BP Touring Guide. Melbourne: Sun.

  • Rivera, Larry. 2015. “The Dog on the Tuckerbox.” http://goaustralia.about.com/od/nswsightseeing/a/gundagai2.htm (accessed 1 December 2015).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Scarff, Lyn. 1994. The Dog on the Tuckerbox. Kenthurst, NSW: Kangaroo Press.

  • The True Story. ca. 1950. The True Story of Gundagai’s … (Dog on the Tuckerbox). Gundagai: Sullivan Brothers.

  • Urry, John. [1990] 2002. The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage.

  • Van Straten, F. 2012. “O’Hagan, John Francis (1898–1987).” Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ohagan-john-francis-15406/text26613, published first in hardcopy 2012 (accessed 1 December 2015).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ward, Russel 1958. The Australian Legend. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

  • White, Richard (with Sarah-Jane Ballard, Ingrid Bown, Meredith Lake, Patricia Leehy and Lila Oldmeadow). 2005. On Holidays: A History of Getting Away in Australia. Melbourne: Pluto Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • White, Richard. 2011. “Remembering Nostalgia: Touring Australia’s Past in the 1920s.” Paper presented at the Australian Historical Association Conference, Launceston, Tas.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • White, Richard. 2013a. “British Travellers and the Invisibility of Australia’s Past, 1868–1910.” Pp. 139–158 in The British Abroad since the Eighteenth Century: Travellers and Tourists, ed. Martin Farr and Xavier Guegan. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • White, Richard. 2013b. “Tourists, Students and Australian History: The Good, the Bad and the Boring.” Teaching History 47, no. 2: 4–7.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • White, Richard. 2016. “The Presence of the Past: The Uses of History in Tasmanian Travel Writing.” Studies in Travel Writing 20, no. 1: 49–66.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wikipedia. 2016. “The Dog on the Tuckerbox.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_on_the_Tuckerbox (accessed 29 May 2016).

  • Wilson, Robert. 1982. The Book of Australia. Sydney: Lansdowne Press.

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 535 0 0
Full Text Views 2224 2080 358
PDF Downloads 1194 1101 244