The first white settlement in the Gundagai area was in the 1820’s, with the town being gazetted in 1838.

As I was coming down Conroy's Gap,

I heard a maiden cry;

'There goes Bill the Bullocky,

He's bound for Gundagai.

A better poor old beggar

Never earnt an honest crust,

A better poor old beggar

Never drug a whip through dust.'

His team got bogged at the nine mile creek,

Bill lashed and swore and cried;

'If Nobby don't get me out of this,

I'll tattoo his bloody hide.'

But Nobby strained and broke the yoke,

And poked out the leader's eye;

Then the dog sat on the Tucker Box

Nine miles from Gundagai.

I've done my share of shearing sheep,

Of droving and all that;

And bogged a bullock team as well,

On a Murrumbidgee flat.

I've seen the bullock stretch and strain

And blink his bleary eye,

And the dog sit on the tuckerbox

Nine miles from Gundagai.

I've been jilted, jarred and crossed in love,

And sand-bagged in the dark,

Till if a mountain fell on me,

I'd treat it as a lark.

It's when you've got your bullocks bogged,

That's the time you flog and cry,

And the dog sits on the tuckerbox

Nine miles from Gundagai.

We've all got our little troubles,

In life's hard, thorny way.

Some strike them in a motor car

And others in a dray.

But when your dog and bullocks strike,

It ain't no apple pie,

And the dog sat on the tuckerbox

Nine miles from Gundagai.

I'm used to punchin' bullock teams across the hills and plains.

I've teamed outback for forty years through bleedin' hail and rain.

I've lived a lot of troubles down, without a bloomin' lie,

But I can't forget what happened just five miles from Gundagai.

'Twas getting dark, the team got bogged, the axle snapped in two.

I lost me matches and me pipe, so what was I to do?

The rain it was a-coming on, and hungry too was I,

And me dog shat in me tucker-box five miles from Gundagai.

Some blokes I know have stacks of luck, no matter where they fall,

But there was I, Lord love a duck, no bloody luck at all.

I couldn't heat a pot of tea or keep me trousers dry,

And me dog shat in me tucker-box five miles from Gundagai.

Now, I can forgive the bleedin' team, I can forgive the rain.

I can forgive the damp and cold and go through it again.

I can forgive the rotten luck, but hang me till I die,

I can't forgive that bloody dog, five miles from Gundagai.