Originally set up to assist Gundagai Hospital, today The Dog still helps the hospital’s vital work with the monies from its wishing well and royalties from some souvenirs. Over the decades it has been celebrated in song and story and faithfully commemorates the efforts of the European pioneers who settled the region.
The legend of The Dog began in the 1850’s with a poem Bullocky Bill by an otherwise unknown author ‘Bowyang Yorke’, about the partnership of the bullockies who opened up the land to settlers, and the dogs who accompanied them and guarded their possessions.
The legend was then immortalised in popular song by Jack O’Hagan, author of Along the Road to Gundagai, with Where the Dog Sits on the Tucker Box. The Dog and its many songs and poems have put Gundagai firmly on the world map.