History of dingo attacks on K’gari (Fraser Island) over the years
Questions are again being asked about the safety of dingoes on K’gari – this is the history of attacks on the popular island.
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K’gari is known for its beautiful beaches and even better weather – but we’ve always endured a darker relationship with the holiday hotspot.
Dingoes are synonymous with the location once known as Fraser Island.
With that has come a string of attacks on humans, bringing endless questions about how everyone can enjoy K’gari.
See the list of dingo attacks and join the conversation below or on Facebook >>>
Dingoes try to drag boy, 5, into bush
Two dingoes attacked and tried to drag away a five-year-old boy playing hide and seek with his sister in the dark in March 1997.
Andrew Bartram from Victoria was playing about 7.50pm when the wild dogs pounced on him, biting him on the legs and groin and trying to drag him into the bush.
His father Peter said they were alerted to Andrew’s plight after hearing his screams.
“My wife heard the screams and managed to find him in the dark,” Mr Bartram told ABC radio.
Mr Bartram said Andrew had tried to run away.
“He stood up and tried to run but he ran into a low branch and was knocked to the ground,” he said.
“We were able to scare the dingoes away. They were trying to drag him away.
“He was very badly shaken and has many wounds to both legs and some of the more private parts of his body.”
Mother of survivor lives in fears
Sharyn Rowles said in 2001 she was still living in fear of dingoes three years after her infant daughter was snatched by a dingo.
``We were very lucky with Kasey. While farming, my family has seen dingoes kill sheep and other animals so I know they are capable of something like this,’’ she said.
The Rowles had just made camp at Waddy Point on the evening of April 4, 1998, when Kasey, then 13 months, was attacked by a single, male dingo while toddling about quite close to her parents.
They heard her scream as the dingo grabbed her shoulder in its jaws and began shaking her and dragging her into darkness.
The dingo carried the sobbing little girl about 2m before dropping her and moving away only when her father raced to her rescue.
Mr Rowles said at the time he remembered hearing ``a crunching sound’’ as the wild dog bit into his daughter’s shoulder.
Tragedy as dingo kills young boy
The father of a boy killed by a dingo in April 2001 was forced to save his second son from attack before freeing the dead boy’s body from a mauling wild dog.
Ross Gage stumbled across the body of nine-year-old Clinton after setting off with his seven-year-old son Dylan to search for him and a friend.
Ross Gage’s father, John, said Dylan was attacked as his father took in the shocking discovery.
“He got to the body and it was his son Clinton, mauled and dead,’’ John Gage told the John Laws radio program.
“At that he heard screams from his seven-year-old and turned around and saw the dingo on him so he left the dead boy, Clinton, and raced back and kicked the dingo from the seven-year-old, who was bleeding. And the dingo even had a go at him (Ross). So he carried the seven-year-old back to the dead boy and the dingo was back on the dead boy.’’
The death led to the culling of about 31 dingoes.
’I’d go back despite bite’
Despite suffering extensive injuries to his arms, legs and head, a German tourist bitten by dingoes in August 2012 said he would go back to K’gari.
The tourist, who wanted to be know just as Justin, a 23-year-old laboratory worker from Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, had been in Australia for nine months on a working holiday.
He and his friends arrived on a tour from Rainbow Beach, and the group was shown a video warning them about the island‘s dangers, including dingoes.
‘We stood tall and shoulder to shoulder’
The victim of a dingo attack in October 2014 told of her terror as she and her sister were lunged at and bitten by two dingoes.
Bay McGovern, a business analyst, and Tessa Kemp, a pharmacist, both from Brisbane, were on their regular morning run when they came across the two dingoes about 6.30am.
The sisters, both mothers-of-two, were about 1km from their holiday unit at Yidney Rocks when they slowed to a walk after the dingoes began watching them and growling.
“We knew it was bad. We stood tall and shoulder to shoulder and stayed still and stared them in the eye, which they say is the best thing to do,” Ms McGovern said.
“We were both scared so I think they could sense that.
“After 30 seconds or a minute they started circling around us so we went back-to-back so we were both facing outwards so we could see what they were doing.”
One of the dingoes then launched at both sisters, managing to land three bites.
“We don’t swim in the ocean because of the sharks, but we never thought we would be attacked by dingoes on land. We are both mums and so glad it was us and not one of the kids. We won’t be jogging here any more.”
Airlift for pair after dingo bite
A boy, 9, and woman, 24, were airlifted to hospital in February 2019 after they were bitten by a dingo.
A QAS spokesman said they received reports of the pair being bitten by a dingo at Eurong.
The boy suffered serious bites to his arms, legs and face, while the woman had lacerations to her legs and bite wounds on her arms.
They were airlifted to Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.
The attack came just a month after a six-year-old boy was badly injured when he was mauled by four dingoes during a camping trip.
In July 2018 a dingo was euthanised after two separate attacks on a woman and child in the same area.
Action on wild dingoes
Dingo safety on K’gari was under review in April 2019 after a horror attack on a sleeping toddler.
Hunter Allister, 14 months, was stable after he was taken from inside his family’s camper trailer, which was outside of a fenced camping area at Eurong.
A dingo is believed to have popped a clip on the trailer and snuck through a small gap in the canvas access flap before dragging the boy away.
The boy’s father heard his screams and woke before he chased the dingo and wrestled it to save his son’s life.
The toddler had surgery for a fracture to his skull and had multiple puncture wounds to his neck and head and a bite-mark bruise on his shoulder.
Dingo alert as fourth child bitten
A boy was bitten by a dingo in December 2019, the fourth attack of the year.
Paramedics were called to Eastern Beach about 6pm and treated a school-aged boy for minor injuries to his hand. The boy did not require transport to hospital.
The attack came after an urgent safety warning heading into the busy school holiday season.
The Department of Environment and Science the previous month recorded three occasions during which dingoes displayed aggressive behaviour, including growling near a person.
“This is a timely reminder for tourists to be extra careful as we approach the holiday season,” a department spokesman said.
Toddler mauled while family slept
A toddler was lucky to be alive in April 2021 after he wandered away from a holiday house and was attacked by a lone dingo.
The two-year-old boy reportedly let himself out of an Orchid Beach holiday house while his family were sleeping about 7am.
Neighbours in the small township had to chase the animal off and tend to the young boy’s injuries after hearing the attack.
Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic Kevin Charteris said the boy suffered multiple bite marks across his body, including to the face, neck, shoulder, arm and leg, as well as puncture wounds to the back of his head.
However, the situation could have been a lot worse, according to the paramedic who responded to the attack.
“The boy was attacked by a single dingo after wandering outside the house in the early hours. Typically the animal hunts in a pack so the boy is very fortunate in that regard,” he said.
Dingo bites boy on leg at K’gari
A four-year-old boy was in May 2021 bitten by a dingo at Orchid Beach.
The latest incident occurred when two boys, aged four and five, were approached by a dingo near a car parked outside a home at Orchid Beach.
According to a Department of Environment and Science spokesman, the dingo sniffed the five-year-old boy and the children ran towards the house.
At this point, the four-year-old boy was bitten on the thigh.
The boy received two small red marks and a slight graze, but didn’t require medical treatment.
The parents chased the dingo into the bush, and it snarled at them.
Dingo attacks young boy
A young boy was in December 2022 flown to hospital after being bitten by a dingo on K’gari (Fraser Island).
An ambulance spokeswoman said the call about the attack at Ocean Lake Campground came in about 4.10pm. She said the boy, around age five, had five bite marks. He was flown to Sunshine Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.
A resident said just weeks ago Orchid Beach was fenced off to lock dingoes out of the township.
Dingo attacks girl on K’gari
A rescue helicopter was sent to K’gari in April 2023 after a young girl was attacked by a dingo.
It is understood the girl, who is about six years old, suffered minor bite wounds to the back of her head and hands.
An ambulance was also sent to the scene, with the attack happening about 4pm.
The incident is understood to have happened at Waddy Point.
A boy was playing on the beach near his parents on December 18 when a dingo jumped on him and started biting him, with the boy’s father racing to separate the pair, a statement from LifeFlight said.
The boy suffered five bite marks to his body.
Later that month a woman was being treated for injuries after being bitten by a dingo.
Pack of dingoes mauled runner
A 23-year-old woman was severely mauled in July 2023 and left with 30 bite marks.
Brave bystanders punched the pack of three to four dingoes to help rescue the victim, identified as north Brisbane woman Sarah Peet, after the wild animals attacked her as she jogged along a beach, forcing her into the water, where they continued the mauling.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s advice after hearing of the ferocious attack was for people to take heed of the “strong messages” about not walking or running alone.
The shocking attack comes after a high-risk dingo was euthanised the previous month, the first to be destroyed on the island since 2019.
There are 100 to 200 dingoes on the island, of which 10-15 per cent are tracked – all with ear tags, except the three collared animals.
It’s understood Ms Peet had as many as 30 bite marks, as well as a deep laceration to her upper arm, and her mother, believed to be a nurse who was also on the island, is understood to have administered first-aid on the beach.
Dad chases dingo after toddler bitten
Rangers were investigating after a two-year-old child was bitten by a dingo on K’gari in June 2024.
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service was advised about 2.45pm about the incident, which occurred in the carpark at Lake McKenzie and involved an untagged female dingo.
A family was about to leave Lake McKenzie when the father saw the dingo near the right-hand side of their car.
He told his family to get into the left-hand side of the car, and the dingo walked to the other side of the road before running to the front of the car.
The dingo bit the boy on his right thigh before being chased away by the father.
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