Tough penalties for man who brought dog to Fraser Island

But Christine Royan, secretary of the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, believes the penalty should have been even tougher.

A staffordshire bull terrier. Picture: cynoclub

BRINGING his staffordshire bull terrier onto Fraser Island has cost one man $466.90.

But Christine Royan, secretary of the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, believes the penalty should have been much tougher.

She is advocating for a ban to be placed on people who do the wrong thing on the island, whether that is bringing animals to the island that shouldn't be there or antagonising dingoes.

Ms Royan said even a short ban of a few months would help make people realise how serious the issue was.

She said education alone was not getting through to people.

"It's ridiculous," she said.

"Domestic pets are banned from K'gari."

Ms Royan said there needed to be tighter checks in place at the barges that took people and vehicles over to the island.

The man was caught with the dog on August 20 on the eastern beach north of Happy Valley.

The man, who was on a camping holiday, was interviewed by rangers. He had the dog with him, and he also did not have a camping permit or vehicle permit.

The man was issued with three Penalty Infringement Notices and was told to leave the K'gari Recreation Area.

"The keeping of any dog or cat on K'gari is prohibited under Fraser Coast Regional Council local law," a spokesman from the Department of Environment and Science said.

"Visitors with a certified guide, hearing, assistance dog or trainee support dog are permitted to access all public areas of lands managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

"Rangers take reports of domestic dogs on the island very seriously as this is a threat to the conservation of dingoes on K'gari."

Anyone who sees a domestic pet on K'gari can call 4127 9150.

The news comes as it was revealed that parents were failing to keep their children safe in some instances on the island, with some even directing them into harms way.

One parent encouraged their child to pose with a dingo, with others allowed their child to try to pat a dingo.

Other incidents involved children not being appropriately supervised.

"During the past few weeks, dingo activity has increased as they come into whelping season, when pups are born and the mothers show a strong protective behaviour toward their young," the spokesman said.

"People are responsible for their own safety and should never approach or feed a dingo."

There had been 22 threatening interactions and one high-risk interaction on the island since the start of the month.

The high-risk incident involved a woman who was approached by a snarling, snapping dingo while on a tour at the Eli Creek Day Use area.

The tour leader scared the animal off.