A Wagga man has handed himself in to police on Monday morning after allegedly vandalising Gundagai's iconic Dog on the Tuckerbox.
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The 28-year-old was taken into custody at Wagga Police Station and was charged with one count of destroy or damage property.
On Saturday, a motorist travelling along the side of the Hume Highway, Gundagai, noticed a man vandalising the statue about 4pm.
News of the senseless attack quickly spread across the country on Sunday.
The site's current leaseholder, Denny Allnutt, said residents woke to find the dog had been knocked into the well.
"I'm absolutely gutted and really devastated; it's so tragic to see the dog being the target of such a nasty [case] of vandalism," she said.
"Visitors are shocked and saddened and we would've had about 100 people come [Sunday] who are disappointed to find it like this, especially those who have travelled a long way."
Ms Allnutt's lease ends tomorrow and said this tragedy could impact the new leaseholder's future plans.
"This will hugely impact her as we don't know at this stage if the dog will be repaired by the time the site opens again on August 10," she said.
"The dog's ears have broken off and the historic old wishing well, made of fragile sandstone, has been damaged; the dog can be repaired, but the well can't be."
The dog was famously stolen in 1981 by a group of Canberra university students as part of a prank.
"The dog was well looked after and then handed into Collingullie Police Station, but this was nothing like that," Ms Allnutt said.
"I'm sure the dog will be back on his tuckerbox and will remain there for years to come."
The man has been granted conditional bail and is due to face Wagga Local Court on September 11.
For more than 80 years the bronze Dog on the Tuckerbox has been sitting obediently as tourists visit the Australian icon.
The statue, erected in 1932, was inspired by the poem Bullocky Bill which pays tribute to a fictional bullock driver's dog who loyally guarded his master's tuckerbox until death.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for CCTV to monitor the statue. "Help us install CCTV and keep this Aussie icon safe, stop the vandalism and protect this loyal dog from further harm so he's around for many years to come, for the locals and the travellers," organiser Shell Bell wrote on the fundraiser page.
By Monday afternoon $1255 had been raised towards the $5000 goal.
Local council workers drained the pond and recovered the statue on Monday afternoon.
