America is big and has appropriately big monuments — the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Gateway Arch, Mount Rushmore, the list goes on and on. But Australia’s a small country with a much shorter history so it makes sense that it has a much shorter list of smaller monuments.
But it’s hard to believe just how short the list is.
You have the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, and…uhhhhh…the Dog on the Tuckerbox in Gundagai.
No, seriously. The Dog on the Tuckerbox is a famous Australian monument. We drove miles out of our way just to see it.
In case you’re wondering why one of Australia’s most famous monuments features a dog sitting on a box of food, here’s the story: It was inspired by a poem titled Bullocky Bill that celebrates Australia’s settlers. It tells the story of a loyal dog that continued to guard his owner’s tuckerbox long after the pioneer had died.
It’s all part of the charm of the Land Down Under.
ONE ADDED NOTE: I’ve been reminded that Americans probablly have no idea what a tuckerbox is. Tucker means food, something to be tucked away in the stomach. So a tuckerbox is a place to store food, a lunchbox of sorts.
Tuckerbox can also be called a crib box. Crib is what you eat at lunch time. ?♀️”that bloody Aussie slang”!
another great photo of you both
I remember visiting the National War Memorial in Canberra a few years ago. People were placing paper poppies on all of the names. It’s a great tradition I wish we had in the U.S.