Gundagai’s iconic Dog on the Tuckerbox statue has been the subject of an attack by senseless vandals over the weekend. The statue was knocked from its pedestal into the wishing-well fountain that surrounds it.

   After handing himself into the Wagga Wagga police station, the 28-year-old man was charged with one count of destroy or damage property.

He will appear in Wagga Wagga Local Court on September 11.

   The iconic Dog lost an ear during the toppling, and the sandstone wishing well was seriously damaged, and is unlikely to be able to be repaired.

   “Whether it can be done locally or whether it’s got to go to a foundry in Sydney will be determined today and we’ll know from there,” Councillor McAlister said.

The Cootamundra-Gundagai Mayor, Abb McAlister, said the council would now consider installing CCTV cameras.

“You don’t like to see big security fences and things like that around him — I think cameras will be the way to go,” he said.

“It’s not just for the dog I suppose, it’s for the security of the area including the kiosk and other buildings there.”

   

   The sculpture’s base was was crafted by Frank Rusconi, the monuments mason born to Swiss parents in Arauluen near Braidwood, who would later live in Gundagai.

   He apprenticed in Italy and Switzerland before returning to Australia in 1901 and settling in Gundagai in 1905.

   Along with his brother Joseph, Rusconi owned and operated a marble quarry near Orange which he had discovered and developed.

   He would live his entire adult life in the region, dying at the age of 89 in Cootamundra, having been an active part of community life since settling in the area.

   Rusconi is known for his works at the Galong cemetery, particularly the white marble headstones and sculptures of the Ryan family. He would also craft the Tumut Catholic Church altar and two war memorials in Gundagai.

   His most famous work is known the ‘Marble Masterpiece’. This piece is a model building comprising of 20,948 different pieces of marble. It took 28 years for Rusconi to build it, and it is now on display at the Gundagai Tourist Information Centre.

   Rusconi also made a substantial contribution to Harden Murrumburrah in the from of the statue atop the War Memorial in Newson Park.