Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
considered good for the dingoes: it obliged them to locate their own food
sources and it ensured that their social habits were not altered by contact
with humans. It was also considered good for people: by encountering din-
goes at a distance, Fraser Island visitors would be spared any unwanted
experiences, such as the animals coming into the camp sites to steal their
food. As Peace shows in his analysis of the QPWS approach to nature man-
agement in the 1990s, this separation between people and dingoes mirrored
the wider separation between visitors and Fraser Island's natural environ-
ment (Peace, 2001). A battery of maps, signs, pamphlets and leaflets, in
addition to physical barriers (like wood fences and marked trails), were (and
still are) used to demarcate those physical spaces where people can eat, drink,
sleep, walk, fish, drive, etc. from those where 'nature' prevails and requires
protection from unregulated uses. Fraser Island's nature was (is), therefore,
to be encountered selectively up close or else seen at a distance.
However, in the late 1990s a number of dingoes departed from their 'natu-
ral behaviour' and started to see humans as potential prey - thus crossing the
'divide' maintained between visitors and environment. First, in early 1998
a family camping on the island had their 14-month-old daughter, Kasey
Rowles, snatched by a dingo from near their tent. She sustained shoulder
injuries. Second, in the next three years a number of adults were attacked in
broad daylight while walking or sunbathing near the ocean. Third, and most
shocking of all, in 2001 a 9-year-old Brisbane boy, Clinton Gage, was killed
by dingoes while playing on a beach with his younger brother. Realising they
were being followed by two of the animals, the siblings started to run back
to their resort but both were set upon before they could reach safety (with
the younger brother suffering numerous bites and bruises, though surviv-
ing). Clinton Gage's death was the first confirmed human fatality caused by
packers were also attacked by two dingoes. The QPWS response was swift
and decisive: 31 dingoes were culled; visitor information guidelines were
altered to stress the real threat posed by the animals; and information on
how people could scare dingoes off was disseminated. Also, existing infor-
mation about the fines imposed if people fed dingoes was re-emphasised
and 'hard measures' relating to storing food and disposing of food waste
were ramped up.
As one prominent Fraser Island visitor website explained in 2004,
You are not allowed to feed the dingoes as this upsets the natural balance of the
ecosystem where they should forage for their own food and the animals then
tend to hang around campsites waiting for handouts. There have been several
attacks reported over the years, and recently a tragic attack, but we have always
respected the fact that though they may look friendly, they are still wild and
you should keep your distance.
(
http://www.boxatrix.com/fraser/dingo.htm,
accessed 5 July 2011)
