A poem that condemns the way in which so much of Australia has been bought up by foreign interests.
The dog sits on the tuckerbox
He’s getting pretty mad!
“The country’s gone to other dogs,
It’s getting flaming bad!
They’re sellin’ out Australia!
It makes you wonder why,
The tuckerbox is foreign-owned!”
Said the dog from Gundagai.
“They’re sellin’ farms and factories,
A million out of work,
From Sydney-town to Adelaide,
And way out back o’ Bourke!
It’s time that true-blue Aussies —
And that means you and I —
Stand up and guard the tuckerbox!”
Says the dog from Gundagai.
“In ten years time, what happens,
If we don’t make a stand?
Who’ll own those jolly jumbucks
Across our native land?
Who’ll run our mines and factories?
Who’ll pay our kids the dole?
Which bank will own your mortgage?
Who’ll own you — heart and soul?
Who’ll pay your flaming’ wages?
Who’ll make you pay the rent?
Who’ll tell your kids what happened?
And where your freedom went?
Or can that Digger Spirit,
A bit of do-or-die
Get back that flaming’ tuckerbox?”
Asks the dog from Gundagai.
Written by an anonymous poet, possibly in the mid-1990s, this piece is based upon the well-known poem by Jack Moses called “’Nine Miles from Gundagai”, which in turn was based upon an earlier verse about the dog on the tuckerbox, penned by the anonymous author “Bowyang Yorke”.
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