The tale of the Dog on the Tuckerbox
By Charlene Smith
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An unscheduled visit to the UC campus in 1981 was the now Heritage Listed Dog on the Tuckerbox from Gundagai, NSW. Local and national news stories from the time reported that residents of Gundagai had woken on the morning of 28 October to find their iconic tourist attraction had strayed. A search ensued, eventually leading to the campus of the CCAE, specifically the Consourse where the dog could be seen wearing a Stone Day t-shirt and sharing meat pies with revelling students. The weight of the dog was substantial, so there must have been a prankster or two involved in the relocation but a torch and a thong left at the scene was the only evidence available. Students’ Association representatives at the time denied any involvement by CCAE students in the removal of the dog, speculating that another educational institution might have done the deed. Gundagai and ACT police combined forces to ensure the safe return of the dog to its place by the highway, with no charges being laid as the identity of the abductors was unknown. To this day no one has owned up publicly to this high profile case of dog-napping, but we can now reveal that we have found them. |
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Tracking down the perpetrators has been a real detective story. The tale has grown over the years to appoint where if everyone who claims to have been part of it actually had been, there would’ve been a busload of people on the night. The irony is that the real people have kept their identities well hidden over the years and haven’t said a word publicly.
In reality there were only seven involved and two of those didn’t make it to Gundagai, preferring the comforts of the Union Bar to a night in the bush.
The first real clues to those involved came from former Union and Students Association head, Dave Ritchie, and the two who didn’t make it on the night, Jim Travers and Andrew ‘Ro’ Buttriss. Dave says he was first aware of the event when he turned up at his office the day after the napping and was confronted on the Concourse by the dog and “at least 10 media outlets” all looking for the story. Jim’s mum rang to tell him he was on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and he’s linked with the story ever since. Jim and Roo had kept their secret well until Jim admitted some early involvement until UC’s 40th anniversary celebrations when Jim admitted some early involvement and Roo also after being “outed” by Dave.
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These three and all other clue lines we followed kept throwing up one name, Paul ‘Obes’ O’Brien but no-one knew where he’d gone apart from perhaps returning to his home town of Finley in the Riverina.
The trail went cold for some time until a chance overhearing in a Braidwood antique store, where a customer happened to mention to the shop owner that he came from Finley. When questioned, the customer admitted to knowing Paul and his brother and said he’d ring in a day or so with Paul’s number. And yes, Paul was known as a man involved with the dog-napping. The friend duly rang and we spoke to Paul from where he’s worked underground in a silver, lead zinc and copper mine at Rosebury in Tasmania for the past 15 years or so. He freely admitted to being involved saying the perpetrators were from “Animal House” (another name for Reid House or XYZ blocks), a set of former government hostel buildings set up as temporary residences. It was an apt name for according to our information, some of the dog-nappers were named after various animals. |
He confirmed that the ringleader of the dog-napping was a certain Mr P (whose name’s been changed to protect his professional reputation). After taking such a long time to identify one dog-napper it looked like an impossible task to find Mr P. However, a quick check of the local phone book and one phone call and we had him.
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Mr P is now a well-established professional living in Queanbeyan. This was the first time he’s spoken about the incident to people outside the circle and he confirmed some of the stories we’d heard but also gave us the real story- straight from the dog-nappers mouth, so the speak. The story is that five men in a Kingswood station wagon left late at night to finish a job others had started the previous year when the nuts holding the dog down were loosened but the dog couldn’t be lifted. The times the five carried sufficient muscle including a large rugby player we’ll call Mr A. When they arrived at the site they realised the dog was still loose and they merely had to lift it up and place it in the wagon. A trip back to Canberra and the dog was unloaded on the Concourse about dawn, an RSVP sign was placed around its neck and the perpetrators disappeared into the mists of history. Mr P says there was a security guard about at the time but he didn’t seem very interested. Justly fearing some legal reaction the dog-nappers did not front for the media circus the next morning and have not spoken publicly about the events until now. |
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Initially Dave Ritchie claimed CCAE had been framed by the Riverina CAE because we’d beaten them at football but this didn’t get far.
The fallout from the dog-napping included a furious Gundagai Shire Council writing to the College demanding compensation for having to send two staff and a ute to Canberra to retrieve the dog. Dave Ritchie says he wrote to the Council as President of the Students’ Association saying the Scavenger Hunt was a Union event and it was their responsibility. Gundagai subsequently wrote to the Union and Dave wrote back as Chair of the Union Board and then heard nothing more. ‘Roo’ Buttriss says one of the letters should have included a bill for advertising given Gundagai’s international and national exposure over the event, but Dave says even he wasn’t that cheeky.
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The success of the dog-napping was such that the group looked at topping the event the next year. Mr P says one potential plan was to fashion a rude effigy of the Prime Minister of the time to weld it into the Parliament House fountain but the logistics were too great to overcome. A similar decision was made about kidnapping the Big Trout from Adaminaby. Bronze dogs are not the only unusual items and animals to have made cameo appearances as part of Stone Day Scavenger hunts. Mr Bewdy 1980, Fred Mitchell said a list of hunt items was released the day before Stone Day and each item was worth a certain amount of points. “Each team was also allowed a mystery prize- one of ours was the Principal’s door”, he said. “That year I remember we got everything on the list, including a croquet hoop from the lawns of Parliament House, but we didn’t win Some other group got everything as well and they brought a goat as their mystery item, I guess the judges gave more points for the goat than the door”. |
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