Toddler pulled from campertrailer by a dingo on Fraser Island
A 14-month-old boy is recovering in hospital in Brisbane after he was snatched from his bed at a campsite on Fraser Island in an eerily similar attack to the one that claimed the life of Azaria Chamberlain 39 years ago.
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A DINGO was able to unclip the canvas flap of a camper trailer on Fraser Island before it snatched a sleeping 14-month-old boy and dragged him into the night.
The toddler was taken from the trailer – which was parked outside of the designated camping area – on Eurong Rd, at Eurong, about 12.40am on Good Friday.
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He was only rescued when his screams woke his mother and father, both aged in their late 20s.
The father chased the dingo about 15m and wrestled with it to save his son’s life.
The litte boy’s five-year-old sister was sleeping near him when he was snatched.
The baby boy suffered a fractured skull, puncture wounds to his neck and head and a bite-mark bruise on his shoulder.
He underwent surgery on his skull yesterday after being flown to Brisbane from Hervey Bay Hospital.
The Courier-Mail understands the family is from Brisbane.
In a statement, they thanked well-wishers for their support and the care they had received.
“We would like to thank everyone who has helped and cared for our son, including the emergency services and the hospital teams,” the statement read. “He has suffered multiple puncture wounds to his neck and skull.
“He is also being treated for a fracture to his skull and will undergo further surgery. Our son is doing well and in a stable condition.”
Fraser Island paramedic Ben Du Loit said the dingo popped a clip on the side of the camper trailer and snuck in through a small gap in the canvas access flap.
“The camper trailer has fold-down flappable holes for the beds, so the parents were sleeping in the front and the baby and his little sister were sleeping in the back,” he said.
“By the looks of it, the dingo has just popped those little clips … and pushed their way in that way.”
Asked how many animals could have been involved, Mr Du Toit said “nobody can be sure of that”.
“No one actually saw the dingoes inside the actual camper trailer,” he said.
“The parents woke with the toddler crying and heard the crying getting further away from the camper trailer. All the injuries were limited to the neck and head. There was one injury to the shoulder, one bite mark, but that was more just a bruising.”
It is the third dingo attack on the island in three months.
Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch on Friday said a “widespread” dingo cull was not being considered.
“Our first concern of course is for the wellbeing of the child and his family, and the continued safety of visitors to the Island,” she said.
“Rangers continue to do all they can to ensure visitors are educated to be dingo aware. Rangers regularly patrol the area and step up their presence during holiday periods, such as the Easter long weekend.”
Ms Enoch said Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, in consultation with traditional owners, would consider measures to ensure visitor safety when they knew more about the attack.
A Department of Environment spokesman said rangers were trying to identify the dingoes involved.
“Once further details about the attack are known, QPWS will consider any other measures necessary to ensure visitor safety,” the spokesman said.
QPWS principal ranger Daniel Clifton said the family had been camping outside of the fenced area. Extra rangers and special dingo rangers were assessing the situation and briefing campers, he said.
“I don’t want to speculate at this stage what’s going to happen to the particular dingoes that are involved,” Mr Clifton said.
Save the Fraser Island Dingoes publicity officer Cheryl Bryant said she was devastated to hear that a toddler had been attacked.
“This is terrible. It’s our worst nightmare,” she said.
Ms Bryant said that, after two previous incidents involving attacks on children on the island, the group had written to the State Government providing some recommendations in an effort to prevent future dingo attacks on Fraser Island tourists.
She said a meeting in Hervey Bay was still pending.
“We need to find solutions,” Mr Bryant said.
“It’s devastated everyone – it needs to stop.”
After a nine-year-old boy was injured in a serious attack earlier this year, two dingoes in the Eurong pack were euthanised.
Ms Bryant said two dingoes were left in that pack and she feared it may have been those animals involved in the latest attack.
She said research needed to be done into the impact the destruction of the animals had on the remaining family structure.
PREVIOUS DINGO ATTACKS
28 February 2019: Two French tourists — a boy, 9, and a woman, 24, bitten at Eurong on Fraser Island. Both suffered minor injuries.
20 January 2019: Michael Schipanski, 6, bitten several times on the leg at Govi camping site, south of Eurong.
August 2015: Dingo euthanized after biting a 19-year-old male tourist on the thigh at Eurong and a woman on the leg at Dilli Village, south of Eurong.
October 2014: Two mothers, Bay McGovern and Tess Kemp, attacked near Yidney Rocks, north of Eurong. Ms Kemp required surgery on a gash on her knee.
August 2014: Dane Allan, 25, suffered head and leg injuries after nearby tourists reportedly offered a pack of the animals food while they were taking selfies at Happy Valley, north of Eurong.
April 2007: Four-year-old girl bitten on buttocks, thigh and lower back near Eurong.
January 2002: Dingo attacks 26-year-old British woman at Eurong. She suffered minor injuries to her leg and buttock.
April 2001: Nine-year-old Clinton Gage killed when he was bitten by a dingo at Waddy Point, on northeast Fraser Island.
April 2001: Three tourists bitten at Indian Head on the island’s northeast.
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